Phuket Sandbox nears approval as Thailand prepares for mass vaccination
Island Wrap #42: Health & Tourism edition for May 22 to June 4, 2021
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It’s been a busy two weeks in Thailand. The mass vaccination rollout is expected to launch on Monday, and officials from various agencies are clarifying their suggestions for a plan to drop quarantine for vaccinated inbound travelers who enter Thailand in Phuket from July 1st. This wrap covers both topics to go with a breakdown of the Covid-19 situation over the past fortnight.
Phuket Sandbox update
Earlier this week I wrote about proposed rules and risks related to a Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) plan to drop quarantine for vaccinated travelers who arrive in Phuket from certain countries starting next month. Quite a bit has happened in the few days since those articles were published.
Public Health officials suggested increasing the mandatory time spent on Phuket to 14 days, or perhaps determining the duration based on the risk of Covid-19 from a traveler’s country of origin. More testing might also be required, including upon arrival in Thailand. Some officials want to keep the inbound travelers in “area quarantines” and “sealed routes” during the initial period on Phuket.
Based on Richard Barrow’s takeaways from a TAT-led meeting that he attended yesterday, the most restrictive rules appear unlikely to be enacted. He reported that a mandatory stay of 14 days rather than seven as earlier proposed is likely, but inbound travelers will probably be able to go anywhere on Phuket during the first two weeks and then travel freely around Thailand once cleared after day 14. It also appears that transiting from an international flight to a Phuket-bound flight at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok will be possible, most likely from July 1st.
Testing requirements and a list of the countries from where travelers will be eligible for the Sandbox program have not yet been released. Firm decisions are expected from the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) early this coming week, followed by a final stamp of approval in the Royal Gazette. If all goes as planned, the first travelers to enter Thailand from abroad without quarantining since March 2020 should touch down on Phuket in less than a month.
Covid-19 by the numbers
Thailand reported 48,913 cases, or 3,494 per day on average, since my last Covid-19 update two weeks ago. This nationwide case count was higher than any two-week stretch since Thailand’s third wave started back in late March. On May 31st, 5,485 cases set a new single-day record for Thailand if not counting the day last month when weeks worth of cases found in prisons were reported all at once.
Thailand sadly reported 442 deaths related to Covid-19 over the fortnight, including a grim single-day record of 47 dead on May 27th. As of yesterday, the country’s Covid-19 death toll stood at 1,083 for the entire pandemic.
Correctional Dept. officials reported 14,303 cases in prisons over the last two weeks. During the third wave, more than 28,000 prison cases have sadly led to at least 13 inmate deaths as of yesterday. This disgraceful situation “has thrown the spotlight on the kingdom’s overcrowded penal system, where some inmates have less space to sleep than the inside of a coffin,” according to an AFP report.
With a two-week case total of 13,366, Bangkok again reported far more cases than any other Thai province. Add nearby areas and the case number for metro Bangkok jumps to more than 21,400 over the last two weeks, falling just shy of the total cases found in and around the megacity over the previous two-week stretch.
A decreasing case trend continued in many provinces, especially in the North and Northeast. Chiang Mai reported only 64 cases while Khon Kaen found just 34 over the last two weeks, not including cases discovered in prisons.
Case numbers also fell in several coastal provinces. Trat (including Ko Chang) found a single case over the entire two-week stretch. Phang Nga (including Khao Lak) reported only two cases while Satun (including Ko Lipe) had three and Chumphon found 10. With two-week case totals of 21 and 29, respectively, Phatthalung and Krabi both reported zero new cases over the past several days.
Atop the list of coastal provinces facing more difficult situations is Phetchaburi, which reported a whopping two-week total of 6,017 cases following a major outbreak at a factory in Khao Yoi district (more on that below).
Beyond metro Bangkok, the next highest two-week count among coastal provinces was Chonburi with 891 cases (steady), followed by Trang with 650 (trending down), Songkhla with 448 (steady), Narathiwat with 339 ( trending down), Surat Thani with 220 (trending down), Ranong with 192 (steady), Prachuap Khiri Khan with 173 (steady), Chanthaburi with 147 (steady), and Rayong with 117 (steady). Nakhon Si Thammarat found 98 cases, a solid improvement compared to the previous fortnight.
Phuket’s 58 cases were spread fairly evenly over the last 14 days. It’s the only Thai island where infections surfaced recently, as far as I’m aware. No cases have been discovered for more than three weeks on Ko Samui, where medical staff celebrated the release of the island’s last Covid-19 patient on May 25th.
More than 50,000 patients are currently being treated for Covid-19 nationwide. Nearly 1,200 are in serious condition, including 376 on ventilators. Proactive testing teams continue to track down cases and locate clusters, though more than half of yesterday’s cases were “walk-in” patients who turned up at medical facilities.
Outbreaks and variants
Yesterday the CCSA released a list of 50 Covid-19 clusters in Bangkok including malls, markets, neighborhoods, senior care homes, factories and “an undisclosed embassy.” Much of the focus remains on low-income worker housing after the B.1.617 variant, first found in India, was discovered in laborer dorms near an Italian-Thai construction site in north Bangkok late last month. At least 66 cases of this variant have since appeared in Thailand, including four up in Udon Thani.
Down in Tak Bai in the deep South, nine villages are under hard lockdown until June 9th at the earliest after 11 cases of the B.1351 variant, which first appeared in South Africa, were discovered among more than 220 total cases in the area. Health officials have been testing elsewhere in search of this variant, which is of particular concern due to its capability to infect and sicken fully vaccinated people. The variant is spreading in Malaysia, prompting tight security along the border.
More than 4,900 cases in 11 provinces have been linked to an outbreak at the Cal-Comp Electronics factory in Khao Yoi district of Phetchaburi, around 100 km southwest of Bangkok. The roughly 1,300 workers, most of them migrants, were reportedly sealed inside the plant with electricity shortages and a lack of healthcare for several nights. Infected workers have since been moved to a field hospital, and six surrounding subdistricts were placed under hard lockdown.
Several other outbreaks have been linked to factories and construction sites over the last two weeks, including:
at least 800 cases at a residential complex in Samut Prakan that houses thousands who work at the Bang Pu Industrial Estate;
at least 500 cases at dorms housing laborers working at a Sino Thai Construction site in Nonthaburi’s Suan Yai subdistrict;
at least 480 cases at a chicken processing plant operated by the Charoen Pokphand (CP) corporation in Saraburi;
at least 460 cases at the Sri Trang rubber glove factory in Trang;
and at least 98 cases at the Okamura Metal factory in Chonburi.
Not all outbreaks came from low-income workplaces and residential areas. Others include 26 cases linked to a party thrown by a municipal council member in Songkhla; and 23 cases found among Thais who had recently returned to Thailand from casino jobs in Poi Pet, Cambodia. In Bangkok, mass testing revealed a 7.35% positive rate among a random group of 734 people in the ritzy Siam Square area.
Economic pain worsens
The economic distress wrought by the third wave is hard to fathom. Formerly successful restaurants are closing permanently as drivers who once carted tourists around picket for vehicle loan forbearance and nightlife operators plead for containment measures to be lifted so they can reopen. Many view the planned government aid of 200 to 3,000 baht per month as too little, too late.
Market vendors have been hit especially hard after outbreaks forced dozens of markets to close in several provinces. While many are in Bangkok, markets were also closed in Hat Yai and Phuket town, where a Covid-19 infection that sadly killed an 86-year-old woman was traced back to Talad Kaset. Public fear is keeping some markets that remain open extremely quiet. Some vendors who test positive for the virus — or have families members who catch it — are shunned by shoppers afterwards.
Effects from the closures of major markets like Bangkok’s Talad Khlong Toei and Talad Bang Kapi are rippling through communities that rely on both the jobs and cheap produce that markets provide. Unable to shop in expensive grocery stores, people in some parts of Bangkok are being forced to travel across the city to find open fresh markets. Wholesalers are also affected.
Thankfully, good samaritans like those behind Bangkok Community Help are performing vital charity work to keep mouths fed.
Mass vaccination set to begin
More than 2.7 million people have received one vaccine dose and 1.2 million more are now fully inoculated in Thailand. As slow and rocky as the country’s vaccine rollout has been so far, it appears that help is finally on the way.
The first 1.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured domestically by Siam Bioscience arrived at the Ministry of Public Health on Friday, and further shipments are expected to push the AstraZeneca total to 6 million doses this month. Though setbacks at the facility delayed a shipment to the Philippines, Thai authorities insist that the 61 million AstraZeneca doses expected this year are on track.
The initial plan is to focus vaccine supplies on Bangkok and 10 other provinces which are being prioritized due to high case numbers or tourism popularity, including Krabi, Phang Nga, Surat Thani and Chonburi. 70% of residents in these provinces could receive their first jab by the end of August if all goes well, though forcing people to wait 16 weeks between AstraZeneca doses will make a full inoculation rate of 70% impossible in any province except Phuket until later this year.
The focus on certain provinces is sowing frustration and forcing the postponement of vaccination appointments that were made weeks ago in provinces deemed to be at less of a risk or lower down the tourism pecking order. Meanwhile, advocates are working to convince Public Health officials to prioritize groups like prisoners, the homeless, professional tour guides and taxi drivers for vaccinations.
The foreign community is also awaiting answers on inoculation after some encountered denials despite multiple assurances from the government. The persistent uncertainty led to an otherwise unheard of alliance between leaders of the Thailand chapters of Democrats Abroad and Republicans Overseas, as both groups advocate for US authorities to provide vaccines to citizens living abroad.
Logistical stumbles appear imminent after the Mor Prom registration platform was walked back and responsibility for registration and distribution allocated to officials in the 77 provinces. To get a sense of how messy and convoluted the program appears, read this revealing thread by Phacha Phanomvan, a social scientist who is “tasked with database and algorithm design” as part of the vaccine rollout.
In better news, Thailand is strengthening its resources with 11 million more Sinovac doses and an expected purchase of 25 million doses divided up between the vaccines produced by Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer/BioNTech. For paying customers at private hospitals, an unknown number of Moderna vaccines are anticipated at some point later this year. A scientific institute chaired by Princess Chulabhorn also chipped in by unexpectedly buying a million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.
Human trials of Thailand’s “homegrown” mRNA vaccine are now underway with a goal to start mass production in early 2022. The science journal Nature interviewed Kiat Ruxrungtham, founder of the Chulalongkorn University research center behind the only mRNA vaccine currently under development in Southeast Asia.
Spotlighting Thailand’s increasing vaccine hesitancy, 59% of respondents to a recent Suan Dusit poll said they “worried about side effects.” Many are concerned about the Sinovac vaccine specifically, and not against vaccination as a steadfast position. Coupons worth 200 baht in Hua Hin and a chance to win a gold necklace in Phuket are two ways that health officials are tempting people to get inoculated.
Elsewhere in the islands, leaders of the Ko Si Chang community are targeting a 100% inoculation rate among residents. Down on Ko Lipe, tourism workers are already being prioritized for vaccines ahead of a plan to attract tourists down the road. And on Ko Samui, a door-knocking campaign resulted in the vaccination of 100-year-old Mr. Amnuay Klai-udom along with many other elderly residents.
Meanwhile in Bangkok, some taxi drivers have taken to promoting their vaccination status in an attempt to attract coronavirus-weary passengers.
Travel restrictions and containment measures
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) publicly announced the reopening of parks and four types of businesses late last month. A few hours later, the national government disappointed millions of urbanites by reversing the order in a breathtaking display of communication breakdown among officials.
Some containment measures were successfully relaxed on Phuket as well as Ko Samui, while rules for using the beaches in Bang Saen, Pattaya and other parts of Chonburi were eased as well. Cops are still on the hunt for people gathering to drink, however, with groups arrested recently on Ko Samui and Bang Saen Beach.
Residents of Ko Larn recently voted to keep themselves sealed off for another two weeks. Daily speedboats are again linking Ko Phayam to the mainland. Mu Ko Chang Marine Park closed all of its islands, waterfalls and facilities until September 1st. Ko Thalu and the other islands east of Ko Samet that I recently wrote about also joined hundreds of other national park attractions on the closure list.
Otherwise, nearly all restrictions on domestic travel that were enacted at the provincial level back in April are still in effect, as far as I know. If you’re unvaccinated and needing to travel from a province with high case numbers, I suggest contacting lodgings and/or provincial officials to see if you’ll need to be tested before entering a given province without quarantining. I’ll be staying home. 🌴
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