Covid-19 vaccination units for tourists are fully open to Thais, official says
Vaccination units must provide Covid-19 jabs to Thais and foreigners impartially, said Department of Disease Control chief Dr Thares Krainairawiwong on Friday, while insisting that Thailand has an adequate supply of vaccines for both local residents and foreign tourists.
The Public Health Ministry has opened vaccination units to provide Covid-19 vaccines to foreign nationals in several areas.
Units in Bangkok include the Bang Rak Medical Centre, the Institute for Urban Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute of Dermatology, and three hospitals: Rajavithi, Lerdsin and Nopparat Rajathanee.
Outside the capital, foreign nationals can get a vaccine at provincial hospitals.
Thares said that hospitals in tourist provinces such as Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Phuket, and Sonkhla had reported that several foreign nationals received vaccinations.
While Thai citizens receive Covid-19 vaccines for free, foreign tourists must pay a medical service fee of 380 baht as well as the cost of the vaccine: 800 baht for AstraZeneca and 1,000 baht for Pfizer.
The ministry has ordered vaccination units that provide jabs to foreign nationals to also give free jabs to Thais, Thares said.
Thais do not need to worry that these vaccination units will only vaccinate foreign nationals, he said. Thailand has enough Covid-19 vaccines in reserve to provide them to both Thais and foreign nationals, he added.
The Department of Disease Control is compiling a list of health facilities that want to provide vaccines to foreign nationals. More than 100 facilities have already expressed interest.
Vaccination units must keep records of fees collected from each foreign recipient and submit the records to their parent agency and the Ministry of Finance for verification, Thares said.
