Pattaya City has the budget and is ready to independently purchase enough Covid-19 vaccines for the entire area, but needs government approval

Pattaya, Thailand-

The Pattaya City Mayor spoke to the associated Thai press yesterday, June 1st, 2021, about the vaccination plan for Banglamung/Pattaya and frustration from residents (and foreigners) on what many perceive as a slow rollout of the vaccine program.

Sonthaya Khunplume, Pattaya Mayor, stated the Thai Government has recently adjusted the upcoming Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan with three main points, which follow:

  1. Areas with high levels of infection or a history of outbreaks will have priority

  2. Areas critical to the economy and tourism will have priority.

  3. Specific groups of people that are at high risk for the spread of infection, such as taxi drivers, teachers, hospitality workers, and other “customer-facing” roles that interact with many people will also have priority.

The Thai Government has already been focusing on medical staff, the elderly, and the vulnerable during their previous vaccination campaigns but as they move towards a wider mass vaccination campaign the points above apply.

According to the Mayor of Pattaya, Chonburi and Pattaya specifically meet all three points and should therefore be allocated a significant amount of vaccines in order to vaccinate the majority of the area. Currently, Chonburi plans to vaccinate at least 70% of the local population in order to be able to open up the province, specifically Pattaya, to vaccinated foreign tourism by October, the lifeline of Pattaya City which is responsible for an estimated 80% of Pattaya’s GDP.

However, as of today, June 2nd, 2021, the city has still not been informed of the exact number of vaccines Banglamung is expected to get during this month and the official rollout of the nationwide mass vaccination campaign. The city is currently preparing with existing stock to give second doses of vaccines to those who had already received the first shot earlier this year.

The Pattaya News notes that foreigners have been told they can register for a vaccine at their hospital that has their medical records on file as of June 7th, 2021, by the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration, however, this doesn’t mean they will have a timetable as to when they will get the shot.  Additionally, there have already been numerous reports from commenters and readers online stating many hospitals and municipalities are stating that they will not be accepting foreign registration on the 7th until further notice, primarily due to lack of knowing how many vaccines they will have available or when and not wanting reserved lists running into the thousands of names and numbers.

Mayor Khunplume stated he understands everyone’s frustration and the city (and Chonburi) is prepared and ready to independently purchase from their own budget, distribute, and rollout the vaccines in the area, which according to him will make the job easier for the central government.

Unfortunately, this plan needs a green light from the central government (as well as the vaccine supply, paid for or not) and many other provinces have also raised funds and want to purchase the vaccines for their residents. There have been no signs, one way or the other, about this plan being greenlit, although the Thai Government has stated numerous times they are not opposed to private organizations securing vaccines and are not blocking anyone from doing so, but the supply must be available beforehand and priority groups must be met.

The Mayor did, however, state that since Chonburi meets all three major new criteria for the new distribution of vaccine guidelines that they are expecting enough to meet their needs in the very near future. We will continue to update this subject as we get more information.