Pattaya on Aug. 30-31 will administer its first 30,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses it purchased in hopes of reopening the city to foreign tourism Oct. 1.
Those who preregistered for the coronavirus vaccine from state-run China National Pharmaceutical Group will be notified on the place and time for their inoculation.
Pattaya purchased 100,000 doses of BBIBP-CorV – commonly referred to as Sinopharm – from importer Chulabhorn Royal Academy when the central government failed to supply the city with the 950,000 vaccine doses it needed to reopen by Sept. 1.
That reopening date has now been postponed indefinitely due to the area’s raging Covid-19 outbreak, but business leaders hope it will be possible by October.
The city certainly received good news Tuesday when the Chonburi reported 816 new coronavirus cases, with 148 of them found in Banglamung District, which includes Pattaya. It was first the time daily cases have totaled less than 1,000 in weeks.
Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome said the goal is to reopen the city in time for the Russian tourism season. Last week, Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration added Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to its list of vaccines approved for international tourists with an eye toward attracting Russians to Phuket’s “sandbox” now and later to Pattaya.
In 2019, Pattaya drew 9.4 million domestic and international tourists, with 1.1 million coming from Russia, second only to the 2.7 million Chinese.
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