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‘Vaccine tours’, anyone? Thai travel agencies offer COVID-19 jab trips to US

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Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat, Reuters

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/reuters/05/06/20210428-health-coronavirus-thailand.jpg"/><figcaption>A person recovers after a reaction following vaccination against COVID-19 at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok on April 28, 2021. <em>Jorge Silva, Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>BANGKOK—Travel agencies in Thailand are selling coronavirus &quot;vaccine tours&quot; to the United States, as some wealthy Thais grow impatient awaiting mass inoculations that are still a month away amid the country&#x27;s biggest outbreak so far.</p><p>The tours reflect global differences in vaccinations, with the United States and Britain making swift immunization gains, but many lower income nations — and increasingly their well-off citizens — are still working to secure doses.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/04/30/21/thailand-covid19-outbreak">Thailand makes masks mandatory, bans Bangkok restaurant dining</a></li></ul><p>Bangkok tour operator, Unithai Trip, has packages from 75,000 baht to 200,000 baht ($2,400 to $6,400) for trips to San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, with prices dependent on the time gap between doses.</p><p>&quot;Johnson &amp; Johnson is one jab, but 90% of inquires want Pfizer,&quot; which needs about 20 days between the first and second doses, the agency&#x27;s owner, Rachphol Yamsaeng, told Reuters.</p><p>He said a group was tentatively scheduled to leave next week.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/04/29/21/thai-pm-prayut-granted-sweeping-powers-to-curb-covid-19">Thai PM Prayut granted sweeping powers to curb COVID-19</a></li></ul><p>My Journey Travel is offering a 10-day trip to San Francisco for a Johnson &amp; Johnson shot and said it has received hundreds of calls in three days.</p><p>The vaccine tours could be a boon for Thailand&#x27;s tourism agencies after travel collapsed during the pandemic.</p><p>&quot;All tour agencies are suffering now,&quot; said Rachapol, whose agency is also offering similar trips to Serbia. &quot;Whatever we can do, we have to try to do it.&quot;</p><p>A spokesman at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok declined to immediately comment, but the U.S. State Department&#x27;s website lists medical tourism as a valid reason to visit.</p><p>The United States is not the only destination offered to Thais. Another agency, Udachi, advertised a 23-day &quot;VACCation in Russia&quot; to receive the Sputnik V vaccine for up to 210,000 baht ($6,700).</p><p>Thailand&#x27;s main vaccination drive is set to begin in June with locally-produced AstraZeneca shots.</p><p>Its latest outbreak has accounted for more than half of its total 74,900 infections and 318 fatalities.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/05/05/21/who-experts-voice-very-low-confidence-in-sinopharm-covid-19-vaccine-data">WHO experts voice &#x27;very low confidence&#x27; in Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine data</a></li></ul><p>Thailand&#x27;s tourism ministry warned on Wednesday that customers should carefully examine vaccination packages after the foreign ministry said U.S. regulations may vary by state. (Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Martin Petty)</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/06/21/ph-to-get-13m-vaccine-doses-from-covax-pfizer-jabs-this-month-says-galvez">PH to get 1.3M vaccine doses from COVAX, Pfizer jabs this month, says Galvez</a></li></ul><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1678666" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>Such trips have sprouted, as some wealthy Thais grow impatient awaiting mass inoculations that are still a month away amid their country's biggest outbreak so far.</p>

Such trips have sprouted, as some wealthy Thais grow impatient awaiting mass inoculations that are still a month away amid their country's biggest outbreak so far.

‘Vaccine tours’, anyone? Thai travel agencies offer COVID-19 jab trips to US

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‘Vaccine tours’, anyone? Thai travel agencies offer COVID-19 jab trips to US

Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat,

Reuters

Published May 06, 2021 07:41 AM PHT

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