Coronavirus (Covid-19)
50,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to arrive in Thailand in early February, more ahead
The first 50,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines are scheduled to arrive in Thailand in the first week of February. The upcoming shipment is part of the first lot of 26 million doses on the agreed purchase in October last year. Still, Thailand needs another 35 million doses as the procured vaccines are enough for only 30 million people. The price negotiation for more AstraZeneca doses is currently underway.
According to the Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, the vaccine price agreed on the purchase made in October last year is 150 baht per dose. More vaccines are expected to arrive in March and April. He also confirms he would be the first person in the country to receive an inoculation of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Apart from AstraZeneca, Thailand has also ordered the Chinese made Sinovac vaccines, but the delivery might be delayed because the vaccine’s final registration is still pending in China.
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
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The mandatory quarantine period for those who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus will be reduced from 14 days to 7 days, Thailand’s Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirankul said in a press conference. Those who have not been vaccinated, but have a medical certificate declaring that they are Covid-free, will be required to quarantine to 10 days, Anutin said, according to Reuters.
The health minister says vaccinations must be administered within 3 months of travelling to Thailand. Travellers must still show negative Covid-19 test results issued within 72 hours of their departure to Thailand. Those travelling from Africa must still quarantine for 14 days due to concerns about new variants of the coronavirus.
SOURCE: Reuters
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71 new Covid-19 cases were reported today in the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration’s daily briefing. There are currently 579 active cases. Since the start of the pandemic last year, the CCSA has reported a total of 26,441 coronavirus cases in Thailand and 85 deaths.
“The numbers are getting better,” according to deputy spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Natapanu Nopakun, who gives the CCSA report in English. The daily active case count has remained between 500 to 600 cases for the past week, a much lower average than last month when mass testing campaigns were actively rolled out in high risk areas to help trace and contain the virus.
Out of the 71 cases, 41 were detected in hospitals, primarily in Samut Sakhon. 7 cases were detected in active case finding, including 6 in Samut Sakhon and 1 in Pathum Thani. The other 23 cases were detected in quarantine for those travelling to Thailand from overseas.
Recently, 2 beauty pageant contestants tested positive for Covid-19 while in quarantine after arriving in Thailand from overseas. Women from 63 countries travelled to Thailand to participate in a beauty pageant scheduled for later this month. Natapanu praised the health care workers for their effectiveness at detecting the virus at an early stage.
Over the weekend, the CCSA reported 65 new cases yesterday and 64 new cases on Saturday.
Daily active Covid-19 cases in Thailand as of 7 March 2021, according to Worldometers.
SOURCE: CCSA
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Hotels in the northern province of Chiang Mai have been forced to cut their rates by up to 90%, in a desperate bid to attract more domestic tourists. According to a Bangkok Post report, La-Iad Bungsrithong, from the northern chapter of the Thai Hotels Association, says with tourists mainly favouring the southern beach destinations this month, hotel operators in the north of the country are preparing for the forthcoming low season.
The resurgence of Covid-19 late last year meant that in December, only 1,000 Chiang Mai hotels, offering between 20,000 and 30,000 rooms, stayed open. This month, occupancy rates have plummeted to less than 3% and are not expected to rise beyond 5% during the Songkran holiday next month.
La-Iad says traditional target markets such as China are currently off-limits due to the Chinese government placing restrictions on citizens travelling out of the country.
“Even though vaccine distribution has started globally, the target markets for Chiang Mai such as China still cannot take outbound trips. Operators have to rely on the domestic market for the whole year.”
She adds that the Rati Lanna Riverside Spa Resort, of which she is general manager, has cut room rates to 1,500 baht a night, compared to the normal rate of 13,000 baht prior to the pandemic.
Hotels are also being forced to explore new ways of making money, with around 30 hotels – all 4 and 5 star properties – now offering a “drive-thru” food service. La-Iad says hotel operators are also calling on the Chiang Mai office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand to provide visitors to the province with a 500 baht coupon to be redeemed in hotel eateries. She says the authority also needs to do more to promote inter-provincial travel, in particular from the south and north-east of the country.
In 2019, Chiang Mai welcomed 11 million tourists, with 70% of them being Thai. By contrast, there were only 1 million in 2020. This year’s number is expected to be around 25% of the 2019 figure.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
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Bill
Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 8:38 pm
Will be interesting to see what the powers that be/oligarchs do once they get their vaccinations. Tourism 4th quarter 2021?!?!?!
Peter
Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 9:29 pm
This is for the AZ vaccine produced abroad.
The inbreed fu1kwits aren’t even trusted to make their own correctly.
Possibly coming from the serum institute in India. They had the intelligence to premake 50 million doses and no doubt will have production going 24/7.
Meanwhile Thailand runs round like a headless chicken begging for other nations scraps to save face.
It’s finally dawned on the government that vaccination is the only way out of this mess.
Problem is their at the back of the queue.
Better concentrate on buying subs and going to the moon.
Pity they wouldn’t take Destitute John with them.
Issan John
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 3:03 pm
Complete nonsense, as usual.
Astra Zeneca signed a technology sharing agreement with Thailand and Siam BioScience several months ago, “trusting” and licensing Thailand to produce the vaccine for SE Asia.
Whether they should have done so is a very different debate, but those are the facts and they’ve been widely publicised across the media, although apparently not in Ireland.
The Serum Institute of India is the world’s largest vaccine producer, also producing Novavax in competition with Astra Zeneca, and they also funded and conducted the Phase 2 and 3 trials for Astra Zeneca in India, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’re producing the vaccine.
Kevin
Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 9:46 pm
This is good news
Ben
Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 10:40 pm
Peter is correct the vaccine is the key component for getting out of this mess. Better (fast, accurate and inexpensive) testing is the other necessary component. Look for a general reopening, without quarantine, of Thailand in 2021 for the vaccinated.
Many in The Thaiger comment sections doubt the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. They say it’s not effective and very few of us really understand what’s behind the numbers that have come out in the media. Many say it impacts your DNA (I’ve read it doesn’t). Many doubters warn of long-term negative effects and say some (29 people over 75 in Norway) are dying after taking the vaccine. Lots of varied opinion and conjecture. But ultimately it’s just our opinions.
I look to the stock markets around the world and they’re roaring at the moment and have been for 9 months. Markets are a forward looking indicator of economic activity and what this tells me is people are putting their hard earned money down on an economic recovery and that means one where the vaccines are largely successful without a lot of people negatively impaired or dying from them. This includes a lot of professional money managers that can afford to hire experts to assess these vaccines and their likelihood of success. People who actually know what they’re doing and advise money managers what to bet on. If there was any credible evidence of vaccine problems so far the markets would begin crashing immediately.
The Thai stock market is up about 50% from the lows in late March and close to recovering all of its losses in late February and early March similar to stock markets around the world.
Many have reaped the gains from the market the past 9 months and are flush. There is a lot of pent up demand for travel and Thailand will get its share of that demand if it implements the tools necessary to reopen as quickly as possible. This demand will be similar to a nuclear explosion – it’ll be huge.
So I’m drawing my confidence from the money guys and not from some anti-vaxxer that has no proof and just an opinion. This is a different way to look at everything that I haven’t seen in these comment sections I wanted to bring to your attention.
EdwardV
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 5:29 am
People have been talking about pent up demand for a long time, yet when anything opens it usually disappears quickly. Is there a lot of interest in travel, certainly. However so far that interest has not translated into huge numbers anywhere (except Mexico, but that’s not a similar situation). People are scared and they will be for a long time. They are not going to risking a plane ride of 12-18 hours only land and find tourist areas that have been hollowed out. At least not in large numbers. Thailand talked about all this pent up demand before the STV, crickets afterward. Pent up demand prior to visas for everyone, crickets. Pent up demand for visa free travel, crickets. I saw it in Hawaii. They dropped the quarantine in October and the first week it was 10K per day. Week later it was half of that. It’s pretty much been in that range 3-5K ever since. They have hotels and restaurants reclosing because the numbers are not there. Hawaii is no Thailand but pre covid they were getting 30K per day. Thailand isn’t going to open soon, they will be one of the later ones and happily at that. Yes there will be a nice fat opening, and then it will drop off and stay flat just like Hawaii. It’s going to take several months to rebuilt the industry and 1.5-2 years to get within sight of old numbers (which I don’t think they will ever get again but for other reasons). My guess is 2023 to get to 75-80% of 2019 numbers. JMO
Issan John
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 3:10 pm
Exactly, Ed V. The TAT and TCT are selling something no-one wants, even Thailand.
The best thing they can do, instead of coming up with ideas that do nothing other than clutch at straws to make them relevant when tourism is clearly NOT relevant, is follow the exaamples from Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia and admit that tourism has had to be put into hibernation and just STFU.
murika
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 10:57 am
guess again, the new Brazilian and south african variant can infect people who already get covid or the vaccine, with 1200 variation in a year, good luck to stop the pandemic… tourism is dead, quarantine will stay for expats and businessmen’s forever….
Issan John
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 3:07 pm
There’s zero evidence for that, at least so far – none.
murika
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 7:44 pm
there is lots of evidence, that’s why eminent virologist are starting to talk about it ! there is no official statement, because the studies are still going at this time, the new is one week old ! But i forgot that issan john you don’t need to inform yourself, you already know everything about anything, proven by you multiple posts on any subject in the thaiger
Issan John
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:48 pm
“eminent virologists starting to talk about it” isn’t “lots of evidence”.
It’s pure speculation that you’ve plucked out of thin air and claimed as fact when it’s very clearly not.
If that’s wrong then instead of being childish name any “eminent viroligists” who’ve said that “the new Brazilian and south african variant can infect people who already get covid or the vaccine, with 1200 variation in a year”.
Any at all ….
James R
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 1:45 am
Nigel
Well it looks as I expected, it is not or will not happen.
James R
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 1:50 am
In the UK we plan to vaccinate 2,000,000 a week and we are ramping up to that.
I think at the moment the rate is 1,500,000 per week but there is some talk of not being able to produce enough to get to two million a week.
So I can imaging the order made by Thailand will be even further delayed as the government here will not be able to get away with shipping the vaccine overseas yet until it has met its targets here.
Michael
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:24 am
It’s not a government shipping vaccines.It is a company, with legal obligations and contracts.In Europe they expect AstraZeneca vaccines in Febuary.
Issan John
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 3:18 pm
The Astra Zeneca vaccines for the UK so far are made in the Netherlands and Germany, NOT in the UK. The two A Z factories in the UK, in Oxford and Keele, are only just starting production so even if it was up to the UK government, which it isn’t, the UK’s supply problems are nothing to do with Thailand.
James R
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 9:07 pm
Issan John
Your facts are total nonsense as usual.
The Wrexham plant in Wales will be able to produce around 300 million doses of the vaccine each year once production is ramped up, it has been producing 150,000 phials a day for months which have being used all across the UK.
The production has been going on for months, they were produced before the vaccine was authorised.
Don’t forget British, Swedish and other international groups financed the drug which was developed via Oxford University which does also happen to be in the UK.
We will soon see who gets what, lets see what you have to say in six months time.
You might have to stick with some dodgy Chinese vaccine.
Issan John
Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 2:34 pm
Hardly “nonsense”!
Your “Wrexham plant in Wales” is a sub-contracted fill-finish plant that bottles the vaccine.
It produces and fills the phials, so while you’re correct that “it has been producing 150,000 phials a day for months” that’s exactly what it’s been doing – producing phials – no more and no less.
It produces phials and fills them with vaccine that’s delivered to the plant – it doesn’t produce the vaccine.
Google has not been your friend. 🙁
James R
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 9:44 pm
Nonsense as usual.
Oxford BioMedica, based in Oxford and Cobra Biologics, based at Keele Science Park, Staffs are making the vaccines.
Another company, Wockhardt, based in Wrexham, fills the vials and packages them for use.
Google is not at all your friend.
Alan
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 8:08 am
50,000 doses BIG DEAL.
Terry
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 9:15 am
50,000 doses is just a small drop in the ocean
Rasputin
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 6:44 pm
50,000 doses, 2 doses per person required equates to enough vaccine to inoculate around 1 person in every 2000 people in Thailand, Far from impressive.
Issan John
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:52 pm
Which part of “The upcoming shipment is part of the first lot of 26 million doses on the agreed purchase in October last year” did you, Terry and Alan not understand?
James R
Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 1:06 am
Issan John
Which part of not getting your order for months and months do you not understand?
Stardust
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:13 am
Thailand managed by Clowns
Issan John
Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:58 pm
Quite possibly, but with 71 dead from Covid and less than 3,000 needing treatment in Thailand, what does that make those managing the US, the UK, and Europe?
James R
Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 1:09 am
Issan John
What it means is we are testing in the UK, we can get a test within two hours of asking for one, Thailand on the other hand is not testing and therefore there are very few cases detected.
You seem to be falling for the unelected governments nonsense. (Oh sorry, yes they were elected I forgot, on stolen votes).
You might be not so anti-West once you eventually get our vaccines.
Issan John
Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 3:07 pm
You’re sadly misinformed, as usual.
Thailand is “testing” but in a completely different way to the UK.
The UK is trying to use mass testing to identify cases – something the experts all agree only works if you can test the entire population at least every two weeks. Since the UK isn’t manageing to do even 5% of that it’s a complete waste of time and money.
If you can’t see that, despite it being one of the few things all the experts agree on, including the UK’s, then you’re evidently “falling for the government’s nonsense” (regardless of whether the clowns were elected or not).
On the other hand, Thailand is carrying out targeted, tiered testing which all the experts agree is the best and most efficient use of resources to identify / detect cases.
As far as testing’s concerned, whether it’s the government’s view or not and whether the government was elected or not are completely irrelevant to me.
I don’t really care one way or the other if it’s the government’s view or not, since what matters to me is if it’s the experts’ view – which it is.
… and they’re not “your” vaccines, BTW.