Thai companies offer trips to US to receive Covid-19 vaccine
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.
Packages for two cost 117,000 baht (about $ 3,700) per person, but the rate drops to 78,000 baht with groups of more travelers.
My Journey Travel also began offering organized trips to Los Angeles and San Francisco this week for tourists who want to get vaccinated for 175,000 baht per person for groups of two travelers.
The Udachi agency organizes trips to Russia to be inoculated with the Sputnik vaccine from 119,000 baht per person for groups of 10.
Thailand began its vaccination campaign Feb. 28 with Chinese company Sinovac, although the rate of administration is slow because its strategy relies more on vaccines from British-based AstraZeneca, which will begin to be available from June.
More than 1.6 million people have received at least one vaccine dose and 434,114 people have received both — or 0.45 percent of its nearly 70 million inhabitants.
The country is in the middle of its third wave, responsible in the last month for more than 60 percent of the more than 76,000 accumulated cases and 70 percent of the 336 deaths registered since the start of the pandemic.
Vaccination trips are also taking place in other parts of the world such as Mexico, where many cross the border with the United States to be inoculated in clinics in Texas, Arizona and Louisiana.
The exclusive British club Knightsbridge Circle organized trips to Dubai in January, where vaccinations are conducted by private services, unlike in the United Kingdom, within a three-week luxury trip for about 50,000 euros. EFE
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