Covid-19 outbreak in Klong Toey slum in Bangkok
Klong Toey
The Thai government has accelerated the vaccination and testing of residents of the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok. It is feared that the harbor quarter of the capital will become a super spreader hub and that the hospitals cannot cope with the number of infections.
Another problem is that the residents could cause the virus to spread quickly as thousands of people live in the densely packed residential area, many of them commuting through Bangkok and to nearby provinces.
The first vaccination will begin at 13.00pm today at the Rama IV branch of Tesco Lotus hypermarket and Klong Toey Withaya school, Governor Aswin said. About 1.000 people are expected to be vaccinated by the end of the day and another 2.000-3.000 in the coming days. In addition, there will be massive testing. About 19 of the community's 20.000-85.000 residents are expected to have been tested by May 90.000.
Today, 1.763 new infections and 21 new deaths of people aged 25 to 92 were recorded in Thailand. This brings the total number of infections to 72.788 and the number of deaths to 303. Bangkok today had the most deaths (8) and infections (562).
Source: Bangkok Post
They should have started vaccinating months ago in Bangkok – especially in the slums.
Those slums where people live close together are a hotbed for the virus.
However, vaccinating 1000 people per day does not help and testing is pointless if someone can be infected the next day.
They better spend that money on vaccines and vaccinate everyone at lightning speed.
yes, but there are not enough vaccines.
Covid was not a problem in Thailand, we are THE example for the WHO for a successful Covid approach so why should you buy vaccines as a government?
Well that was the government's ostrich policy. Thailand is not the example, Thailand is a country that shows low figures because there is almost no testing and as an example you can also think of Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam (much better than Thailand), Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and some other countries. And as you/namesake and various others within and outside Thailand indicate, there are many more corona cases than may be announced, as well as more deaths due to most likely corona.
Many Western countries bought generously last year from vaccine manufacturers because they did not yet know which one would ultimately be effective; Thailand could also have done this because everyone knows that you cannot keep such a pandemic out permanently. And Thailand in particular is highly dependent on foreign countries because a lot of tourism, exports and imports depend for three quarters on foreign countries, millions of foreign employees who travel back and forth as well as many Thais who live or work abroad. With a little foresight, people had also bought in plenty and, just like in Europe and the US, they were already vaccinating on a large scale. After all, the costs of the vaccines are dwarfed by the lost income/revenues in the various sectors of the economy, as well as by not vaccinating you bump from lockdown in 2020 to lockdown in 2021 and you also limit citizens, with millions of tens of millions are not economically affected; then the price of 1 or 2 vaccinations is only modest or minimal compared to the loss of purchasing power of many.
Can everyone in Thailand get vaccinated and how much do they have to pay for it?
Can people there apply for it themselves or does the government determine the order?
Thanks for your comment.
Dear Hellebrand,
In recent months, Thailand Blog has published an explanation / post about this almost weekly.
Scroll back and you will see everything on Thailand Blog about this.
I am currently in quarantine in Khlong Toei… Hopefully it won't bother me when I have to leave.