Does it feel like Groundhog day to anyone out there?
It should. Once again major events have been postponed/canceled by authorities in Pattaya due to Covid-19 concerns. Once again more events, including the biggest of the year, Songkran, the Thai new year/water festival is at risk for strict rules.
Now, to be fair, the postponing of the music festival in Pattaya was apparently a decision based on national “advice” from the Thai government around the current Covid19 alert being “Level 4”. Amongst other things, this discourages inter provincial travel which is the main reason the event was postponed, as authorities were concerned about people traveling from rural provinces or areas and bringing covid back home.
Chonburi is, by the way, the highest vaccinated province in Thailand and the booster program is moving along nicely, according to the Chonburi Public Health Department.
Pattaya individually as a tourism “Blue” zone is well over 90 percent double vaccinated according to the Mayor, Sonthaya Khunpluem, and the booster program has been taking place on a regular basis.
Despite high numbers of Covid-19 cases, Chonburi deaths and serious cases (pneumonia and on a ventilator) remain very low. This is likely driven by high vaccination rates in the area. Yet, restrictions remain, events are postponed or canceled, and the nightlife and bar industry, a huge part of the local economy in Pattaya whether people like it or not, continues to be stifled by rules and restrictions like no dancing, no singing from customers, no pool, early closing times, required antigen tests to enter, and other rules.
Granted, as we have covered previously, large parts of Thailand still have fairly low vaccination rates, especially in rural areas. These areas also have nowhere near the hospital or medical capacity Chonburi does, or Phuket, or Bangkok. So I certainly understand officials being overly cautious as cases rise. I get it.
That being said, what is the exit strategy here? The current neverending closure of bars and nightlife (legally closed since April of 2021, but allowed to be converted restaurants in the interim), major events either canceled, postponed, or given so many rules and restrictions as to be near useless, continued barriers for foreign tourists to visit (although thankfully, the day five tests were removed this week), outdoor mask mandates even for people alone, and other rules and restrictions need an offramp.
If that offramp is a threshold of cases or vaccination levels in Thailand as a whole, especially rural areas, let’s announce and aim for that goal and go for it. Many major tourism markets have now dropped most of their restrictions (or all in some cases like the UK) and although I’m not saying Thailand should immediately do the same they should have an offramp here and a set plan.
I’ve written in other editorials how we currently have two Thailands and that’s going to be a major issue moving forward. What I mean is tourism heavy areas like Pattaya, Bangkok, and Phuket have become used to high numbers of Covid-19 cases. Many locals, especially in the tourism industry, already had covid. These areas have incredibly high vaccination rates. As a result on a near daily basis tourism associations and business leaders and based in these areas are pushing for easing of restrictions.
On the other hand, you have rural areas or provinces that up till recently had few to almost no cases of Covid-19, like Buriram, Khon Kaen, and Korat. They have been busy banning alcohol at restaurants, shutting down in person schools, locking down small villages, mandating the number of people gathering, and other measures that would have been at home in 2020, let alone 2022.
Again, I understand it. I get it..these areas have never had to deal with high cases of Covid and as mentioned their hospital capacity is nowhere near the tourism zones. Same with vaccination rates.
However, the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration, or CCSA, needs to continue to call for calm, focus on vaccination and boosters, and aim for an overall plan to emerge from the current restrictions and mandates. Again, not immediately…and they need to handle the current Omicron surge.
But there needs to be a plan, and one that doesn’t lead to two very different Thailand’s.
Here’s just hoping it doesn’t take until 2023 to come up with it.
Adam Judd, TPN media co-owner
February 25th, 2022
