Pattaya, along with several other areas, in the running for “Area Quarantine” later this year-more details

Pattaya, Thailand-

The Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) covered, in detail, plans for vaccines in Thailand today at their daily press conference, including future proposals and plans for making Pattaya, along with three other areas, economic priority zones and likely making them “Area Quarantines” later in the year.

Mayor Sonthaya Khunplume also spoke and confirmed with the local press about the plan this morning, which includes Phuket, parts of Surat Thani (Koh Samui), and Chiang Mai.

According to the CCSA, the four economic priority areas listed above will get high priority for vaccines after the vulnerable and medical workers. The first batch of vaccines, from Sinovac in China, is due to arrive this week in Thailand. This batch will be distributed in multiple provinces, including Chonburi, but will primarily be for at-risk groups. When wider vaccines arrive, set for the next several months, the economic priority zones are planned to be a top priority along with the at-risk groups.

The tentative plan, according to the CCSA, is to make “Area Quarantine” zones for vaccinated foreign tourists to arrive in by Quarter 4 of this year, and, currently, Pattaya is set to be one. The exact details on how an Area Quarantine would work are, of course, still being ironed out but the rough idea is to vaccinate the local population of Pattaya, especially the tourism industry, and allow vaccinated tourists to stay within Pattaya for their quarantine period and enjoy local tourist attractions. Other provinces could require certain precautionary measures for people traveling from Pattaya to there during the area quarantine designation as well.

Registration for vaccines will be starting shortly, the following chart shows the rough process to do so, which foreigners will be eligible for. (Editor’s note: There are still a lot of questions around if the vaccine will be free for foreign residents, which is still not crystal clear.) There will be a lot more information on this program coming out over the next several months and The Pattaya News will continue to keep you informed.

Although these are “proposals” they are coming from the CCSA and not just third party agencies, who have agreed with the tourism industry that tourism is a high priority and like villa quarantine, yacht quarantine, and golf quarantine which have all come to pass, Area Quarantine is likely to do so as well and is a major plan for the end of the year.