FILE PHOTO: Empty chairs are seen on a beach which is usually full of tourists, amid fear of coronavirus in Phuket, Thailand March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Tourism-reliant Thailand expects about three million foreign tourist arrivals this year, tied to a phased reopening to vaccinated visitors later this year, the state tourism agency said on Wednesday.
The target is lower than the four million tourists projected by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in April, when the country's biggest coronavirus outbreak so far emerged.
The Southeast Asian country, which launched its mass vaccination campaign on Monday, will allow inoculated foreign tourists to visit Phuket island without a quarantine next month in a pilot scheme before reopening nine other provinces in October, after a year of tight entry restrictions.
Most of the three million arrivals are expected in the final quarter, with spending estimated at between 240 billion baht to 300 billion baht ($7.7 billion to $9.6 billion), Siripakorn Cheawsamoot, deputy governor of the TAT, told Reuters.
Thailand usually attracts three million to four million foreign tourists per month in the fourth quarter, and "we want only a third of that," he said.
About 129,000 visitors are expected in the third quarter, he said. Thailand had just 28,701 arrivals in January-April.
For 2022, the TAT expects 20 million foreign arrivals to spend 1.3 trillion baht, Siripakorn said.
That compares with 40 million in 2019, when tourists spent 1.91 trillion baht.
The Chonburi Department of Public Health announced 40 new and confirmed cases of Covid-19 today, June 9th.
This makes a total of 5,119 cases of Covid-19 in the current round of infections, with 850 still in medical care, and with a total of 30 recorded deaths in Chonburi since the start of this recent round of infections in early April.
Additionally, 4,239 people in total have now been released from medical care and fully recovered since this current wave began.70 people were released yesterday.
The district-level new cases were as follows today:
Mueang Chonburi with 11, Si Racha 11, Banglamung (including Pattaya) 9, Sattahip 2, Ban Bueng 1, Pan Thong 3, and three patients were transferred from another province to Chonburi for medical care.
The details on the cases are as follows:
Risk occupation contacted many people, 1 case
Contact from previous confirmed cases from Bangkok, 1 case
Contact from previous confirmed cases
In families, 11 cases
In workplaces, 12 cases
Close contact from previous confirmed cases being investigated, 4 cases
In the last day, a total 164 close contacts were tested from contact tracing, and 555 people were tested in proactive testing when medical staff goes out into the community. All are pending results.
Public health officials continue to urge people to not socialize outside of their direct household until the situation improves. Most cases have come from small social gatherings, including between family and co workers, according to authorities.
As many people have seen their vaccination appointments cancelled or postponed, due to insufficient allocation of doses to several parts of the country, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha apologised at a press conference today (Tuesday), saying more vaccines are being procured.
"I would like to apologise if there are people who have not received the service or if there have been changes to your appointments. I am stressing the principles I have outlined, will fix the issue and will compensate those who have been affected as soon as possible," said the prime minister after this week's cabinet meeting.
According to the prime minister:
Every province will receive the vaccines, so that inoculations can begin at the same time. "No province will be left behind," he said.
The vaccine allocation is based on size of the population, age, infection numbers, risk groups, occupations and whether the provinces are tourist destinations or economically significant areas. Each province is responsible for allocating vaccines to its hospitals.
Everyone who has booked their vaccination appointments will be inoculated and as many original appointments as possible will be kept.
Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul denied any postponement of vaccine allocations by the ministry. He added that the ministry has clear guidelines for vaccine distribution and that each hospital needs to manage its vaccination administration in accordance with the doses provided each week.
"There's no postponement by the Public Health Ministry but, if people seek inoculations with private companies, which hire hospitals to do it and then postpone the appointment, this is out of our control, because we're only responsible for administering vaccines to target groups," Mr. Anutin said today.
More than 400,000 people across the country were inoculated yesterday (Monday), the first day of mass inoculations campaign. Over 4.6 million doses have been administered to date.
In Bangkok, 13,052 were vaccinated yesterday, at 25 designated sites outside hospitals in the capital. According to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, each site is able to accommodate up to 590 people per day during the first week. From June 15thonwards, however, their capacities are expected to increase, in accordance with vaccine dose allocation from the Public Health Ministry.
Hospitals in Thailand have been instructed to keep vaccination appointments, even though they may have received fewer doses of vaccine than expected, especially for people over 60 and those suffering from any of seven non-communicable underlying diseases, Deputy Public Health Minister Satit Pitutacha told Thai PBS during the "Tob Jot" TV programme on Monday night.
He said that, while most hospitals have received sufficient doses for the launch of mass inoculations on Monday, about 20% received fewer doses than the demand since Monday.
He made clear that it was not a mistake by some hospitals, saying that the Public Health Ministry does not want appointments to be postponed, especially for the two groups at high risk, because some of them live far from the hospitals.
The deputy public health minister said that the ministry has been trying to address this disruption and hopes that the situation will improve, as 800,000 more doses of AstraZeneca are expected to be delivered next week, followed by two million more the following week. The company is expected to deliver 6.3 million doses in total this month.
He admitted that there might be a problem if the deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine are delayed, but he assured that the government will try its best to solve the problem and ensure that the vaccines are distributed widely and quickly for people across the country.
Mr. Satit maintained that the problem with the distribution of vaccines is not politically motivated, as claimed by some critics, but a matter of prioritization for areas which need them most due to high infections rates.
BANGKOK, June 8 (TNA) – The government expressed concern about the progressive increase of COVID-19 clusters in Bangkok.
Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration, quoted the Department of Health of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) as reporting that there were 74 COVID-19 clusters in 35 districts in the capital.
According to the spokesman, a cluster at Samor Thong Garment Co in Bang Khae district had 20 cases, two construction workers' camps in Yannawa district had altogether 69 cases and another construction workers' camp in Huai Khwang district had 349 cases.
The Thai Cabinet met this afternoon and among other issues, like the hiring of special government employees and financial aid measures for small businesses affected by Covid-19, the Cabinet briefly discussed the Phuket Sandbox program.
The Phuket Sandbox is a program that is proposed to allow vaccinated foreign tourists to enter without quarantine from July first and had already been approved in principle by the Center for Economic Situation Administration, or CESA.
According to Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan O'Cha, who posted on his social media accounts around 7:00 P.M., the Thai Cabinet will inform relevant agencies, like the Tourism Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to make "improvements" that guarantee a good balance of economic recovery and safety. The program is not canceled or officially postponed at this point, only that the Cabinet will return to the matter in the very near future and is not officially "rubber-stamped" yet to go to the Royal Gazette.
The Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration, or CCSA, is planning to discuss suggested improvements later this week, noted the Secretary-General of the Thai National Security Council General Natthaphon Narkphanit who has a prominent role with the CCSA. According to the Secretary-General, one of the biggest concerns was tourists potentially entering areas of Phuket that were not tourism-related or potentially exposing people not involved in the tourism industry to the virus.
It was previously reported by those present at the CESA meeting over the past weekend that another big change, moving the required days on the island from seven to fourteen before tourists could leave to other parts of Thailand, had also been moving forward but like the overall plan was not yet finalized.
Additionally, 4,169 people in total have now been released from medical care and fully recovered since this current wave began.110 people were released yesterday.
The district-level new cases were as follows today:
Mueang Chonburi with 26, Si Racha 31, Banglamung (including Pattaya) 3, Pan Thong 4, and five patients were transferred from another province to Chonburi for medical care.
306,580 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered on first day of mass vaccination
June 7, 2021
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306,580 people across Thailand were inoculated against COVID-19 today (Monday) as the country kicked off the mass vaccination operation, to contain the spread of the pandemic, which has infected a total of 151,023 people during the third wave, which started on April 1st this year.
While the prime minister had said, earlier today, that a contract had been signed for the purchase of 25 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said that the Ministry of Public Health is "expected to sign term sheets" for the procurement of 20 million doses of Pfizer and just five million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines later this week.
The minister also said he had not been informed about some hospitals having to postpone vaccination appointments today adding, however, that they must provide an explanation if there are such delays.
Today marks the first day that locally-produced AstraZeneca vaccines were injected into people over 60 and those who suffer any of from seven non-communicable underlying diseases. Today's vaccination tally has brought the total of doses administered to date to more than 4.5 million.
Pre-registered vaccine recipients' appointments cancelled before inoculations began today
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A number of pre-registered vaccine recipients received phone calls late this morning (Monday), notifying them of the cancellation of their vaccination appointments, with no new appointment being made.
All those called had registered days in advance, and the lists of recipients on given days were sent to inoculation sites around Bangkok prior to the first day of the mass vaccination of its residents.
The number of doses provided was reportedly fewer than expected. One of the vaccination sites, which had planned to inoculate 800-1,000 people on its first day, will only be able to vaccinate 500.
This morning, prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told the reporters, during his visit to the inoculation site at Bang Sue central station, that there will be enough vaccines for everyone in Thailand, but that the timeframe has not been specified, while admitting that, for the time being, the demand for inoculations exceeds the doses available.
Thailand kicked off its inoculation campaign on February 28th, with the Public Health Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, being the first person in the country to be vaccinated with SinoVac's CoronaVac. Several days later, the prime minister became the first Thai to be inoculated with the AstraZeneca version.
Over the past 3 months, Thailand has inoculated less than 10% of its population, while news about the vaccine supply shortages and delays keep emerging.
Notably, the page on the department of disease control's website, which usually shows the number of people inoculated in Thailand, has been taken down.
Last week, the first lots of the Thai-made AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered to the Public Health Ministry. The supplies are supposed to meet the amount of vaccine Thailand requires to cover 70% of the population.
Thailand's headline consumer price index (CPI) in May was up 2.44 per cent year-on-year to 99.55 points, led by prices in energy and fresh food categories, the Ministry of Commerce said Friday.
"The headline CPI rose for a second month in a row but slower than the previous month," said Wichanun Niwatjinda, a deputy director at the Trade Policy and Strategy Office. The CPI in April recorded an eight-year-high by rising 3.41 per cent from last year.
The main factors were energy prices, which jumped by 24.8 percent year-on-year, coupled with increasing prices for pork, seafood, and fruit, Wichanun said.
Excluding energy and food categories, the core CPI index rose 0.23 per cent year-on-year.
Of the 430 product and service items used to calculate inflation, the prices of 121 items rose in May. A total of 112 items saw a decline, while the prices of the remaining 197 items were unchanged.
The trade office predicts an average CPI in the second quarter to rise by 2.3 per cent from last year, before slowly declining in the second half of the year.
"The Thai inflation trend continues to move in line with global inflation," Wichanun noted. – Thai Enquirer
