How is Thailand handling the Thailand pandemic?
Thailand has implemented a series of innovative measures to help the Thai people get through the pandemic. How is this possible?
First of all, Thailand does not have a huge governmental sector that distributes state assets. In western countries, a system with strict distribution is called the “black hole”, where a huge amount of staff is necessary to handle the wealth (paperwork) in a very costly manner (salaries, office space, and more). Not very effective.
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The progression of Thailand Pandemic
It all started around March 2020 just as it did in many other countries. By then Thailand was ranked in place 150 among the most infected countries and with around 65 total deaths. Many measures were put in place to hinder the spread to accelerate. A couple of months went by and not much more happened. The spread was very slow and kept on with low numbers for many months to come. Life very soon became the “new normal”.
Why did Thailand manage to keep it that low? There could be many reasons and some of them might have been: Lots of sunshine (D-vitamin have been found to help), Thai people are very good at wearing masks (95%). No winter season. Thai people do not shake hands, they do the Thai “wai” and thereby never touch other people. Restrictions were put in place like banning big gatherings, stay home incentives, and more.
Beginning of 2021 wave 2 arrived. This one passed by almost unnoticeable.
May month 2021 wave 3 arrived. It started slow then things start to happen. An illegal gambling den in Bangkok proved to become a superspreader. The Myanmar military coup forced many people to flee the country under the midst of a rapidly spreading infection rate. They illegally passed the border into Thailand in droves. More border guards were put in place but it was impossible to guard all of the 2,416 km borders. This proved to become a superspreader and the numbers of infected started to rice, but not in an alarming way.
In June the Delta variant reached Thailand and numbers started to rise. Infections were first rampant in prisons, densely populated areas, and foreign labor camps. It started up with 1-2.000 infections per day. Today, August 1st, the number was more than 18.000 and the Thai health system became overwhelmed. Lockdown in red zones, some 25 provinces out of 71 with Bangkok being the worst hit.
The innovative measures to help people in the Thailand pandemic.
To help the suffering people in Thailand the government put several measures in place. The first one was a 3-month handout of 5.000 THB each month to 5 M people that had been hit the most, primarily in the tourist industry. Two more handouts have been rolled out since.
An ongoing very popular measure is the 50/50 THB rollout. Any vendor, not big companies, could sell their goods where the customer paid 50% and the government the other 50. This was a measure to help small businesses, and it works well.
On several occasions, a 5.000 THB handout was given to vulnerable people with a restriction. It could only be used in smaller shops and during a limited time period. This also worked well.
Domestic travel relief was introduced together with extra holidays. Hotel and resort fees were reduced by 50% where the government paid the rest. This was introduced to help the tourist industry. Very popular and helped many smaller cities, hotels, and resorts to earn some extra well-needed income.
Pandemic hit small companies’ were offered bank loans with unusually good terms for the lender. Property owners with bank loans have been offered a lowered interest fee.
Many organizations and private “samaritans” have continuously been handing out food for free to anyone in need.
What is the possible future of the Thailand pandemic?
The situation is not going to get solved any time soon. It is difficult for a country like Thailand to get hold of any vaccine and the rollout is very slow. As of today, only some 10M people have been inoculated. That is NOT enough to reduce the spread but it helps people like hospital staff and other people working in the public area. People over 60 are being inoculated as of now.
Good news has been published recently. The government has proclaimed that 10M new doses every month will be available. Up to now, only Sinovac has been available, but this vaccine is not popular at all. Now Astra Zeneca is coming and will be the dominant vaccine very soon. Moderna will arrive at the end of the month.
Foreigners living in Thailand can get free inoculation but the waiting list is long so far. Hospitals that want to buy and then sell the vaccine are waiting for CDD approval. When that vaccine arrives, foreigners can get inoculated earlier, but at a cost of around 3.000 THB for 2 shots. Most foreigners will likely choose that alternative.
Thailand is still dedicated to the idea that Thailand can open up in October. This will depend heavily on the vaccine rollout and how the situation improves, if at all. It will also depend on how other countries evaluate the risk of their citizens traveling to Thailand. Read more about Pattaya
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