The Public Health Ministry is urging Thais working in the tourism industry to get yet another Covid-19 booster shot before Chinese tourists return.
China is facing an unprecedent wave of coronavirus cases, with 9,000 deaths a day and 37 million new infections. Tests performed on passengers on the first flights out of China show more than half the seats were filled with the infected.
Nonetheless, Thailand is welcoming the risk of infections with open arms, delighted over the prospect of the country’s tourist “golden goose” returning, wary of health consequences.
While the ministry has talked about reimposing 2021-style Covid-19 restrictions on those coming from China, nothing has been agreed on with only days to go.
Thailand, meanwhile, still does not have updated “bivalent” vaccines produced by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. that have been available in the west for months. That means, until Thailand’s government gets around to procuring the 2022 vaccine versions, the country has only the outdated vaccine that protects only against the original 2020 virus.
Nonetheless, Dr. Narong Apikulwanitch, the public health permanent secretary, is urging people working in tourism related businesses to get yet another jab of the 2020 vaccine, which has minimal protection against the omicron variant and all its mutations.
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