Phuket pushes for proactive vaccination to reach 70% goal
A push is underway to get people registered for mass vaccination in Phuket in an effort to still reach the 70% threshold to reopen to international tourists on July 1. In a meeting on the Phuket Tourism Sandbox plan at the provincial hall on Thursday, a new proactive scheme was hatched to get people registered and vaccinated.
Phuket has set a target of 310,000 vaccinations by the end of June, with 400,000 vaccines plan to be administered within the next month and a half. As of now, 132,070 people have been vaccinated in the province, about 28% of the population. An additional 212,500 people have completed the online registration for vaccination appointment.
In order to increase registration numbers and get everyone vaccinated ahead of the goal, the Deputy Governor of Phuket is promoting a much more proactive approach. Taking a cue from the massive success in Lampang province, which signed up its residents for vaccines in huge numbers, the Deputy Governor urged local leaders to interact personally with people in their villages.
Lampang showed that personal interaction and education was an extremely effective driving force in getting people registered. The Deputy Governor is asking village heads and Tambon chiefs to make door-to-door visits in order to educate and encourage their neighbourhood residents to register and get vaccinated.
The director of Vachira Phuket Hospital believes that it is possible to achieve the goal of 70% of people in Phuket being vaccinated 56,000 registered migrant workers have been added to the list of people to receive a vaccine. He also sought to calm nervousness over jabs in Phuket by confirming that no one had died from the vaccines administered and the number of local people experiencing any serious side effects was under 10.
The motivation for vaccination is to reach that 70% threshold to develop herd immunity in Phuket, allowing a full international border reopening on July 1. Foreign travellers would be allowed to fly directly into Phuket and bypass the standard 14-day quarantine. Phuket began its vaccine roll out on April 22nd, and has 2 mass vaccination events planned for May and June in hopes of reaching this goal.
SOURCE: National News Bureau Thailand
