Chonburi’s governor claimed that 60 percent of adults in the eastern province have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, inspiring hope for the planned Oct. 1 reopening to foreign tourists.
Gov. Pakarathorn Thienchai said the “Pattaya Move On” project to welcome back fully vaccinated foreigner visitors is on track, with hopes the province can reach the 70 percent level for at least one vaccine dose by the end of September.
The percentages cited are drastically higher than just a week ago when Pattaya supposedly was at the 40-percent mark for one dose and 70 percent wouldn’t be hit until the end of October.
The discrepancy adds even more fuel to the growing fire that the government is playing fast and loose with vaccination figures in order to justify a “reopening” that would bolster the sagging popularity of the Prayut Chan-o-cha administration.
Kajondej Apicharttrakul, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Pattaya office, said the Pattaya Move On program will be available to fully vaccinated foreign tourists from “low-risk” coronavirus countries. Arrivals also will have to pay in advance for three expensive and invasive RT-PCR coronavirus tests, even though only 0.3 percent of foreigners arriving for the past two months into Phuket’s “sandbox” tested positive.
Worse, and contrary to frequent assertions, the Pattaya Move On project is not a quarantine-free entry for foreign tourists, as they’d be confined to a pricey alternative local quarantine hotel for the first three days and have their movements limited to sealed routes taking them only to prepaid, predefined tourist destinations.
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