Pattaya –
The Pattaya city mayor is suggesting a total amount of 1,500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines for Pattaya residents with the hope to restore the economy and tourism.
The Pattaya City Mayor Sonthaya Khunplume discussed the matter with the president of the Chonburi Tourism Industry Council, the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association, representatives of multiple other major tourism and hotel groups, and the manager of the Grand Bella Hotel who was Pattaya’s first Alternative State Quarantine and has been providing vaccinations and testing for a year now in conjunction with local hospitals.
Mayor Sonthaya told The Pattaya News, “We are also planning to do more events in open areas and after the current Covid – 19 situation resolves. These events will be social distancing friendly and not major crowd gathering events like we did recently with Kite on the Beach and the food and culture business exhibition, Connext, on Pattaya beach, both of which were successful and yet easily able to follow Covid-19 rules. These events are models for other events in the future as until enough of the population is vaccinated we will unfortunately not be able to do major music festivals, fireworks festivals, concerts, or other events that draw densely packed crowds in the thousands. The faster we can get everyone vaccinated the faster we can resume these popular economic boosting events.”
“We are requesting 1,500,000 doses of Covid -19 vaccines for the Pattaya and Chonburi people, based on house registration, census, and permanent residents in the area.” The Mayor added.
The Mayor did not get into depth on foreign ex-pat residents with long-term visas such as marriage, family, or work visas in terms of them being eligible for public vaccination programs and said these matters were still under discussion.
“The plan for the next vaccine injections for all 11 districts in Chonburi will be 100,000 doses per day once we are able to secure the vaccines we need, either through the government or with the assistance of private organizations who want to see tourism returned to Pattaya. We hope to be able to start this as soon as possible if the vaccines can be properly secured.” The Mayor added.
The Thai Government has previously stated they will allow private hospitals and organizations, including provinces like Phuket and Chonburi, to purchase vaccines independently to attempt to speed up the vaccination process, although the timeframe for this remains a big question mark.
“We are looking at boosting tourism at the same time and we have to make sure that many people get the vaccine. We plan to use the Eastern Sports Stadium in the Pattaya area as a primary public vaccine site as well as quarantine hotels to be able to successfully put shots into arms as quickly as possible once the vaccines are secured. The Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration has assured us that both because of the volume of the recent breakout of Covid-19 and the importance of Pattaya to tourism, which had close to ten million foreign visitors in 2019 alone and about seven million domestic visitors, that Pattaya remains a top priority for vaccines along with Phuket, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai, and other tourism important locations.” The Mayor concluded.
The Pattaya News notes that the recent outbreak of Covid-19 in Thailand, which saw over 2,800 cases today alone, has caused much concern with many in the tourism industry that it may delay plans to re-open parts of the country such as Phuket and Pattaya to foreign tourists by October. The country has been essentially closed to tourism, without a mandatory quarantine, since March of last year, devastating the tourism sector of the economy.
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