Bangkok is facing its worst wave, and more Thai provinces are under lockdown.
According to the Thailand Foreign Ministry of Affairs. On Aug 1, about 17,000 expats have registered to get their vaccine in the country, about 14,000 are under 60 yrs old, and only 3,000 are 60 and over.
Of those registered, 64 are pregnant, and 946 are in 7-health conditions groups. Many more are being processed and pending required documents.
This is not a national wide mandate. If you are an expat residing in Thailand, it is up to you to get a vaccine or not. However, if you are travelling here through the Phuket Sandbox or whatever Sandbox they are coming up with in the future. You are required to have the shots.
If you’re an expat residing in the country and you want to get vaccinated. You can also now ask for the Pfizer jabs. There is a webpage where you can register here.
You know, I’m quite impressed with the work done by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The website they put up is working fine, and they should get the same web developer and web designers to update the 90-day report webpage because that doesn’t always work.
Bangkok Lockdown
Since early July, Bangkok and nine other provinces were in the Dark Red areas. Later extended to three more provinces, and were supposed to end on Aug 2.
On July 20th, more provinces were added to the lockdown measures, this time Chun Buri province, which includes Pattaya City, totalling 13 provinces.
As covid cases surge, lockdown measures in Bangkok and other high-risk areas will be extended two more weeks, adding 16 more provinces to come under the new stricter restrictions. At the time of this recording, a total of 29 Thai provinces are under the Dard Red areas with strict lockdown measures.
Thai provinces in the dark red are under maximum virus measures, including night-time curfew, closure of shopping malls.
Rules in Different Areas/Zones
Violators of The Lockdown Measures
If you don’t follow the rules here, let’s say you are not inside during the curfew hours and stop by the police. Violators of the Communicable Diseases Act face up to one year in prison and/or a maximum fine of 100,000 Baht on conviction, while those found to be in violation of the Emergency Decree face up to two years in prison and/or a maximum fine of 40,000 Baht.
Phuket and Phang Nga Halted Domestic Travel
As a result of increasing infections nationwide, Phuket and Phang Nga, which had opened their doors to vaccinated international tourists, will not allow domestic travellers to enter from Aug 3 to 16. I haven’t heard anything about Samui yet. I think Samui still allows domestic travellers.
Healthcare services are also stretched, and earlier this week, authorities said that hospitals in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces were running out of capacity due to the surge in infections.
In Bangkok, anti-government protesters drove around the city, sounding their horns to signal their objection to the government’s handling of the pandemic and calling for the resignation of the Thai Minister.
The restrictions have hit economic activity, and the finance ministry slashed its 2021 economic growth forecast to 1.3% from 2.3% seen earlier. Thailand started its mass vaccination drive in June and aimed to inoculate 50 million people or about 70% of the population by the end of the year. But so far, only 5.6% of more than 66 million population are fully vaccinated, while about 20% have received at least one dose.
