Disorganized Pattaya officials battling chaos to organize June Covid-19 vaccinations

No registry lists, no waiting areas, duplication queue systems and too many walk-ins are among the many problems Pattaya officials must solve before the next round of coronavirus vaccinations begin.

Banglamung District Chief Wutisak Singhadecho hosted a May 27 review of the area’s May 20-21 vaccination drive with Pattaya Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome and administrators from seven Banglamung subdistricts. What they heard wasn’t good.



Wutisak listed a half-dozen organizational problems at the Eastern National Indoor Sports Stadium, the main site when hundreds of thousands of inoculations are planned during June, with the first round scheduled for June 3-4.

A shortage of needed vaccines topped the list of issues, followed by scheduling people so they can be vaccinated before the drugs expire, as they can only be kept at room temperature for so long.

More worrisome was the lack of coordination getting people registered, with staff at registration desks uncertain who was responsible for what.

Also forgotten was creation of a waiting area for those waiting to register.

The most serious problem, however, was the lack of a centralized list of people eligible to receive jabs. Pre-bookings were accepted both manually and electronically, and government agencies sent their own lists of people eligible for shots. But all those lists weren’t sent to the stadium and were delivered to municipal offices or public health departments, leaving stadium staff without complete rosters.

Then there was the issue of people just turning up for shots without having registered at all.

The picture painted at the meeting stood in stark contrast to earlier assertions by local officials that everything went smoothly, there were only minor problems and all those were resolved before next month. That’s clearly not the case.

Wutisak said all the cooks need to stir in the same direction and suggested that the QueQ mobile app not be used to issue queue tickets. After debate, however, the administrators decided to stick with both manual and online systems.