Vaccine tours in the US lure wealthy Thais and expats to obtain COVID jab
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Due to limited supply and lack of option for COVID vaccine coupled with the Thai Ministry of Public Health’s declaration that locals will be prioritised on the distribution, some Thais and expats are turning to vaccine tours to the United States to get protected.
Expats living in Thailand received some bad news. “The vaccines right now are only reserved for Thai people who are now at a high-risk level or living in the severe outbreak areas. Expats should wait for a clear policy from the government,” ministry spokesperson Rungrueng Kitphati said. The minister added that expats may they may have the chance to get the vaccine when there is a surplus in the future.
Thai companies offer trips to US to receive Covid-19 vaccine 1 minute read
Bangkok, May 6 (EFE).- Given the slow Covid-19 vaccination rate in Thailand, several agencies in this country are offering organized trips to the United States and other countries such as Russia and Serbia to receive the shots from about $ 2,400.
Thai authorities, a popular medical tourism destination before the pandemic, said Wednesday that such travel is allowed, but urged users to check the rules and regulations of destination countries.
The first medical tourists are scheduled to leave May 12 on a trip organized by the Unithai Trip agency, which offers Los Angeles and San Francisco as destinations in the United States to be inoculated with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, as well as Serbia.
Thai travel agencies offer COVID-19 vaccine tours to U.S
FILE PHOTO: People wait to receive the second dose of Sinovac s COVID-19 vaccine at the Bang Khun Thian Geriatric Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand April 21, 2021. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo reuters tickers
This content was published on May 5, 2021 - 10:42
May 5, 2021 - 10:42
By Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Travel agencies in Thailand are selling coronavirus vaccine tours to the United States, as some wealthy Thais grow impatient awaiting mass inoculations that are still a month away amid the country s biggest outbreak so far.
The tours reflect global differences in vaccinations, with the United States and Britain making swift immunisation gains, but many lower income nations - and increasingly their well-off citizens - are still working to secure doses.