Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Thailand looking to speed up Covid-19 vaccination timeline
Amid a new surge in Covid-19 cases, Thai officials are planning to increase the number of vaccines available and speed up the timeline for administration. Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin from the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has confirmed the plan, following complaints from the country’s tourism industry when an initial statement said vaccination might not begin until as late as June.
Things have changed since then, as the Kingdom finds itself in the grip of a resurgence of Covid-19, having gone several months with only a few local transmissions reported.
The earlier date for the start of vaccination in Thailand would have meant no relaxation of entry requirements until at least the third or last quarter of 2021. Furthermore, with no confirmation yet that being vaccinated prevents someone from transmitting the virus, the Thai government has said even vaccinated tourists will be required to undergo mandatory 14 day quarantine for now.
Public Health Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, who is currently self-isolating after coming into contact with the infected governor of Samut Sakhon province, says Thailand now expects to take delivery of 2 million doses of a Covid vaccine potentially as early as February.
Anutin has not confirmed which vaccine it is. Thailand has also signed a deal with AstraZeneca to buy another 26 million doses of its vaccine, produced in partnership with Oxford University in the UK. This means Thailand has now committed to purchasing 52 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab.
Anutin says medical workers and village health volunteers will be first in line for the first 2 million doses, and the country hopes to have vaccinated at least half the population this year. Priority will be given to high-risk individuals. Taweesin says Thailand will also produce its own version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, having signed a technology-transfer agreement with the pharmaceutical giant. Private hospitals in the Kingdom will also be given permission to buy their own vaccine supplies, provided the vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration of Thailand.
SOURCE: The Pattaya News
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A new, state-backed film marking the anniversary of the Covid-19 Wuhan lockdown, is using propaganda to praise the central Chinese city. The documentary “Days and Nights in Wuhan” chronicles the suffering that the city’s 11 million residents endured during the 76 day lockdown. 30 filmmakers contributed to the film which included footage of medical staff and front-line workers.
The film joins other documentaries centered on the Wuhan lockdown, including one that was produced by an activist artist that led to him fleeing the country after being harrassed by China’s Communist Party. “Coronation” was rejected by festivals, theatres, and streaming services in which the creator attributes to fears over the offending government which tightly controls what films can be shown inside the nation and abroad.
The new film was directed by Cao Jinling and has already debuted in Wuhan but the audience was thin. The film is set to be released to other cities today. But it is not clear if the government will allow it to be shown overseas.
“We wanted to record the journey of battling against the COVID-19 epidemic via motion picture. Some of the details, including the intense care, anxious waiting, heartbreaking farewells and hopeful rebirths, might strike a chord with viewers.”
The lockdown imposed on January 23 of last year, was eventually extended to surrounding areas in Hubei province, seeing some 56 million people unable to leave their homes. Hospitals and morgues became overwhelmed at the height of the crisis as Wuhan accounted for most of China’s 4,635 death toll.
Meanwhile, China has finally gave permission for the World Health Organisation to send a team of international experts to begin investigating the virus’ origins. Experts mostly agree that the coronavirus emerged from a Wuhan food market where live wild animals that carry the virus were sold. But China’s government has all but refuted the claim by insinuating that the virus was possibly brought into the country by US soldiers.
Other conspiracy theories are abound, but the notion that the virus was not from Wuhan has done well with many residents, who maintain the virus came from somewhere else. Such beliefs by those residents have also propelled them to view themselves as victims.
SOURCE: Khaosod English
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Chon Buri province is reporting 0 new cases of Covid-19, marking 3 out of 4 days with no new infections. Despite the good news, The Chonburi Department of Public Health is warning residents to “stay vigilant”.
A migrant worker tested positive for the virus yesterday but all close contacts, 93 people, to the person have tested negative and went into quarantine. The Provincial Employment Office in Mueang Chon Buri also closed, out of precaution.
The Chon Buri Department of Public Health says they will test 35 more who live around the same camp as the migrant worker, but those people are not considered close contacts. Banglamung and Pattaya has not had any cases of Covid for the past 7 days. Officials have said many times that the closure measures and provincial travel restrictions, that have left thousands out of work, will be lifted as soon as it is safe to do so, but it looks like any reviews of the measures will take place at the end of this month.
Currently, Chon Buri province is categorised as a “highly controlled” area which essentially deems all travel to be stopped. Those who do wish to travel, to or from the area, must have written permission by a district official in order to enter or leave.
Such strict measures have left many formal workers desperate as hotels have asked many times for the government to issue a forced lockdown which would help these workers collect social security to aid their lost salaries. But those requests have so far been denied as the government says they are mulling other ways in which to help.
In the meantime, hotels have taken their restaurants to the streets by offering food stalls and delivery with most of the owners saying they are trying to support their remaining staff. Chinese businessmen handed out food packages last night in a goodwill gesture to help those in need.
SOURCE: The Pattaya News
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The CCSA’s daily briefing today started with an update about a NBT news presenter who has attended the daily briefings at the CCSA studio and testing positive for Covid-19. The CCSA spokesman then announced that all people working in the CCSA studio, including himself, are defined as a “low risk” group for infections.
The CCSA spokesman says he, together with all those involved with any risk, will take a swab test this afternoon and will report the test results to the public later on. The infected NBT newscaster has been sent to the hospital already.
Today, 309 new Covid-19 cases were announced from the last 24 hours. The majority of the infections were detected from active case testing, accounting for 217 cases. Most of them were migrant workers. 80 were local transmission, while 12 cases were detected in state quarantine.
According to the CCSA spokesman, key measures to be rolled out next week will be the acceleration on proactive testing in Samut Sakhon and the outer western areas of Bangkok where the infection rate is still high. Numbers and reports from the active findings are expected to be complete by the end of next week will serve as key factors for a review of the current restrictions in place.
SOURCE: CCSA Daily Briefing
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Education minister’s wife plans to run for governor of Bangkok
Chinese state-backed film released praising Wuhan
1.5 million Thais approaching poverty line
Chon Buri province reports 0 cases of Covid today
CCSA Update: 309 new Covid-19 infections in Thailand
Smog across Bangkok can be blamed on a ‘Dust Dome’ of pollutants
Son lights himself on fire after asking mom for lottery money
Thai tourism operators want to offer vaccination-inclusive packages
US President Biden jump starting Covid-19 strategy
Chinese businessmen hand out food in Pattaya
Thailand’s broadband internet speed ranks #1
50,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to arrive in Thailand in early February, more ahead
Famous Thai actor tests positive for Covid-19
13 Bangkok businesses allowed to reopen tomorrow
800+ people found in close contact with an infected food vendor in Nakhon Phanom
Australian man wanted for allegedly sexually abusing children in Thailand
Thailand’s PM says he won’t let Thais become vaccine “guinea pigs”
Thailand threw a tourism party. No one arrived.
Norway adjusts advice after 28 possible vaccine-related deaths of elderly people
Police raid Bangkok restaurant, more than 80 people face charges for violating Emergency Decree
BTS skytrain maximum fare rate increasing to 158 baht despite backlash
Thailand on fire – NASA satellite website tracks the country’s farm fires
Thailand News Today | Covid testing for visas, Business impact, Vaccine approval | January 19
UPDATE: Confusion over Covid-19 tests for visa extensions
Police say at least 2 people to be arrested in Bangkok bomb attack – UPDATE
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Thailand News Today | Stray car on runway, Indonesian quake, 300 baht tourist fee | January 15
Thailand News Today | Governor off respirator, sex-trafficking arrest, condo prices falling | January 14
Thailand News Today | Chinese vaccine, Thailand ‘drug hub’, Covid update | January 13
Thailand News Today | Bangkok may ease restrictions, Phuket bar curfew, Vaccine roll out | January 12
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TV
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 10:00 am
That’s some good news!
EdwardV
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 10:54 am
Agreed that is good news. The quicker they vaccinated the Thai population they sooner they open the country back up and the sooner people can get back to work. Still don’t really expect the welcome mat to be thrown out until the 3rd quarter at the earliest. Wonder if that first batch is from China since they seem to not want to say. Oh well hopefully it goes well for them.
Issan John
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 1:38 pm
Good news indeed, but I’m far from sure it’s so “good” for those in line for the first batch if it’s from China.
If I were one of the “medical workers and village health volunteers … first in line for the first 2 million doses” I’d be desperately trying to get lower down the queue to get in line for an Astra Zeneca / Siam Bio Science jab instead. 🙂
Buttaxe
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 10:26 am
I wonder what form the discrimination against ‘farang’ residents will take this time… No vaccine for farang? Available but only after every last Thai has had it? Available but dependent on multiple conditions? Available but at considerable cost…
Issan John
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 1:25 pm
“Private hospitals in the Kingdom will also be given permission to buy their own vaccine supplies, provided the vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration of Thailand.”
Rick
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 1:31 pm
I say count your blessings and be happy that you may not have access to these experimental vaccines. I would not take it if they paid ME.
Steve
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 9:25 pm
Yes and the real slap in the face is the drug was developed in dirty farrang country and Thailand has just jumped on the back of the Uk Who kindly gave them the goahead to make the vaccine there No reserch costs or anything. Lucky Thailand.
Ben
Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 4:09 am
The vaccine shouldn’t be distributed to any person that:
1) Called it a hoax
2) Minimized it as the flu
3) Advocated letting the body’s immune system do the job
4) Suggested opening up Thailand to all comers and take that risk
5) Forward conspiracy theories that the vaccine is a government/pharma plot
6) Declared they would never take the vaccine
Did I leave anyone out?
If you fall into any of these categories then either get to the back of the line or get out of the way. Expats are guests of Thailand and are not Thai citizens and will not have a right to free vaccine same as not having the right to free health care. This is part of living in a foreign country. You’re lucky if private hospitals offer it to you and should stop wining about the cost if you want it. It’s cheaper than flying back to the UK or America.
Toby Andrews
Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 11:15 am
No, you included me. open Thailand and take the risk.
However you write expats have no right to a free vaccine. The vaccine is coming from the West. It was developed in the West. so why should westerners not have it free or the same price at Thais.
This is like charging expats three times the price to see Riply’s Believe it Or Not.
This came from the West. Plus Madam Tussards.
Of course the Thais will not give the vaccine to the expats. What do they ever give to the expats? They are just greedy grubbing peasants who the foreigners gave a better life. However being grateful and giving something back is not in a Thai’s nature.
Maverick
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 10:29 am
Can’t come soon enough along with confirmation that once vaccinated one cannot transmit which will only become clear once mass vaccinations in place, if we don’t get borders open my mid year next high season will be in trouble
Rick
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 1:27 pm
I would like to see some confirmation, besides the very unreliable PCR test, that there is transmission happening right now. Of course I’m sure my good friend Isaan John will come to the rescue and set me straight with another mainstream news article from Reuters or some other dishonest propaganda outlet.
Issan John
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 1:48 pm
Done, at length, under the “COVID-19 UPDATE: 279 new Covid infections, 2 new deaths” article.
Feel free to check things out for yourself in the field hospitals at Samut Sakhon; I’m sure they’ll make you welcome.
Rick
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 2:27 pm
Thanks john, you never fail to provide amusement. Providing another mainstream piece as proof – from a site that has been pushing the virus narrative since day 1 and which would not dare to print anything but the official line – is hardly convincing. I might suggest though that you improve your reading comprehension skills, as I said I would like to see proof of confirmation besides the results of the unreliable PCR test, which that report is based on.
Issan John
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 5:20 pm
What “mainstream piece”???
It’s all too evidently your own “reading comprehension skills” that need working on, as I said I’d done so “UNDER the article, explaining why your repeated claim that the PCR tests are “unreliable” as they may be subject to too many cycles is beyond absurd – not implausible but impossible.
… and FWIW, I’ve also suggested where you can go “to see proof of confirmation” at first hand.
Issan John
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 6:17 pm
… and what “proof”, exactly, would you accept?
You insisted there were no photographs of the isolated virus so it couldn’t exist, then when I gave you two from the CDC that came up with a simple search for “coronavirus photograph” you rejected them because the CDC were an “interested party” and they’d labelled them “an isolate” instead of “isolated”.
I then gave you around fifty more photos, all from the first page of the same search for “coronavirus photograph”, from the on-line journal Nature, from News 18, and from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and apparently they weren’t acceptable either.
First-hand “proof” appears to be all you’re willing to accept, whatever you’re given.
Stephen Westrip
Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 12:02 pm
Rick – the ‘virus narrative’!! You COVID denial fools are truly the lowest of the low. If you truly think that all Governments around the world conspired to have this happen, ruin their economies and use most of the capacity of their national health services then you all need serious help and a lot more medication!
B.T.
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 10:53 am
“Private hospitals in the Kingdom will also be given permission to buy their own vaccine supplies.”.Lucky for now and maybe in the near future this will not happen as all Covid -19 business is strictly between Big Pharma and governments.And no pandemic last more than 2 years.
Issan John
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 1:32 pm
If Siam Bioscience are to produce the Astra Zeneca vaccine, as they are, and the Thai government gives permission, as you’ve just quoted them saying they will, then it very clearly WILL happen.
Interested to know the source for your claim that “no pandemic last more than 2 years”.
Rick
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 10:15 pm
Thanks John – you continue to amuse. Can you please explain how the PCR being unreliable by running too many cycles is implausible and impossible? Do you know how many cycles are being run in Thailand? Are you aware that it has been reported that in England and other places that the number of cycles being run was as high as 45? And how would you explain Dr. Anthony Fauci stating in a video interview that running the PCR at anything over 35 cycles would give an invalid result? I would provide the link if I was allowed but I am sure someone of your expertise will be able to find it.
Siso
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 11:16 am
I would urge people to take a closer look at the live vaccinating broadcast that have been going up from the BBC and the UMC event.. Clearly empty syringes and retracting needles live on broadcast on multiple stations while the Dr’s and nurses clapping and cheering in the background but have been caught by viewers and even the KTSM reporter couldn’t denie it was a mistake haha.
I’m all for good vaccines but this is very shady and ridiculous
Gio Traveller
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 2:34 pm
Lol sure and they didn’t land on the moon either. Conspiracy much?
Siso
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 11:48 am
you already start to silence people thaiger? 2 messages related to real live broadcast by the mainstream media is what I referred to in my previous post. KTMC event and BBC broadcast were they clearly use a empty syringe and a detractable needle, so clearly and bluntly that an investigation has been opened and the news station couldn’t ignore it and had to be honest about it.. If you start selective sensoring real stories like shame on you big time
Peter
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 1:44 pm
The actual date of delivery was apparently Feb to April. Quite a difference.
2 million doses won’t even scratch the surface after key workers get the vaccine.
The West has had a really slow start and they had ordered and paid for different vaccines months ago.
The new highly contagious strains have now reached the Far East, so sooner or later Thailand is going to get hit.
Talk of opening Thailand in Q3 is nonsense, 2021 will be no different than 2020.
Issan John
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 2:07 pm
Agreed 100%, apart from the last line, Peter.
The big difference is both the vaccine and the roll out system. In the West, so far, they’ve only been using the two mRNA vaccines which were always going to be slow and difficult to distribute – the US has so far barely vaccinated a tenth of the numbers it planned on (2 mill by year end rather than 20 mill), and at that rate it would take well over five years to vaccinate everyone, and the UK has had similar problems despite offering GPs a ten pound per jab bonus.
Thailand, though, will be using a “traditional” vaccine which can be easily transported and distributed, and administered through the well established system of sub-district clinics and district hospitals in the same way they administer other vaccines such as tetanus – a system ideally suited for the purpose, rather than the more “modern” centralised systems the West has changed to.
I also doubt there’ll be the same anti-vax sentiment as in the West, where in a number of countries only 40% of the population have indicated a willingness to be vaccinated – that level of stupidity doesn’t exist here.
Toby Andrews
Saturday, January 2, 2021 at 10:48 pm
If it was up to me I would give Thailand no vaccine. After the way they have treated the Brits they deserve nothing but contempt and no vaccine.
Let them get the vaccine for their big fiends the Chinese.
James R
Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 3:11 am
Our Oxford vaccine has been released and is being used already, production will ramp up day by day and by the middle of January two million people every week will be vaccinated.
So farangs, check which of your age groups will be vaccinated next and then hop on a plane and come to England to get your vaccination for free as I would not trust the ‘muck’ dished out in Thailand, it might not be the real thing.
Yet another reason for me to be proud of my university.
Ian
Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 5:50 am
Issan john you so contradictng yourself you say that UK USA will take 5 yrs at this rate and we have 100 million doses you say Thailand has 2 million that will supposedly come in February I believe that not so the 2 million doses will sort out the whole country of 60 to 70 million can you tell me how many years it will take to vaccinate Thailand in thier first class small clinics as they still need at least another 58 million doses I’m so ashamed that you are British please don’t say your a yorkshire man that would break me as we could never spout the crap you do.
Ian
Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 6:01 am
Message for Ben do you not realise it’s the farang that have found the cure so a farang should be given the vaccine along with his Thai brothers and sisters but it is Thailand land of scam so i believe you will be charged gotta get every last penny outa the foriegner so a couple of choices wait in line upto 5 yrs lol or go back to your country to get the jab if your old maybe you’ll never see the jab you’ll have passed away with covid or old age before they get to you if foriegners are the last to get it