OK, so here's the latest brilliant scheme. This is for Thailand-based people only, not applicable to those traveling to the Kingdom. But this short article reveals a bit about Thai processes...notice the overuse of the conditional "would" which is an Asia-wide writing tic (my analysis at bottom):
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Govt to launch 'Health Wallet' app for Covid-19 vaccine registration
PUBLISHED : 2 APR 2021 AT 17:37
WRITER: MONGKOL BANGPRAPA
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thai ... accine-registration
The government will soon launch “Health Wallet", a smartphone app for people to register for Covid-19 vaccination.
Government spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had discussed the preparation of a phone app for people to register to receive Covid-19 vaccines at a meeting with officials from the Public Health, Interior and Finance ministries on Friday morning.
The Health Wallet app would be used for Covid-19 vaccine registration. It would keep all registration data so vaccines could be distributed to people in all provinces.
The Finance Ministry and Krungthai Bank would supervise the Health Wallet app and work closely with the Public Health Ministry, which will launch the “Mor Prom’’ phone app, which allows people to book their Covid-19 vaccinaion.
Mr Anucha said the prime minister put emphasis on accelerating all processes to have Thais vaccinated against Covid-19, so the country could fully re-open.
By year's end, at least 60% of the population should be vaccinated, in preparation for the official re-opening of the country in early 2022, the spokesman said.
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It seems the Health Wallet' app is to track residents ("Thailand Plus" has been mentioned for visitors) while the “Mor Prom’’ app is to book vax appts as-and-when. One perennial problem: Thai gov't IT tools typically simply do not fucking work. The development team is headed by somebody's cousin or something. "The Finance Ministry and Krungthai Bank would supervise the Health Wallet app"...oh, please. It's a sweetheart deal and when the servers crash, they'll find someone to blame, but it still won't work. Prove me wrong, I'd love it. But this is the pattern.
Residents like me are already expecting to show up in person or hire a fixer. Send signed documents via motorcycle-taxi. Just expect things not to work and plan for that, saves a lot of aggro.
And this coda: "By year's end, at least 60% of the population should be vaccinated, in preparation for the official re-opening of the country in early 2022." So, any day before May 31, then.
JtB
PS: someone posted a notice from the Thai consulate in Dubai with info and at least one URL. I attach it here. This is Dubai, but it makes sense there would be more info as Emirates has been running flights from there semi-regular. And there's usually one COVID-positive passenger per day who's whisked into quarantine. | |
