Mr Bhummikitti shared the information on his Facebook page last night (May 20).
Registration for all foreigners working in Phuket opened on Wednesday (May 19).
According to Mr Bhummikitti’s post, 113,487 people in Phuket registered for the first round of mass vaccinations, and 177,932 people registered for the second round, which is currently ongoing.
The post also noted that 8,563 foreigners had been registered, bringing the total number of people in Phuket registered to be vaccinated through the mass-vaccination campaign to 300,002.
From information gathered by Thai officials and embassy and consular representatives in Phuket there are an estimated 11,000 foreigners currently on the island.
After months of silence about when foreigners in Phuket will have the opportunity to receive a state-provided vaccine, only recently have they consistently publicly announced that foreigners working in Phuket will be vaccinated in June ‒ when the AstraZeneca vaccine will be available.
So far all vaccinations provided through the mass-vaccination campaign have been of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine ‘CoronaVac’.
Despite consistent requests from Phuket’s expat community, Thai officials have yet to confirm when any of the vaccines already approved by Thai Food and Drug Administration will be available from private suppliers, such as hospitals.
Meanwhile, The Phuket News was today informed of a foreigner who was registered through the ‘Phuket Must Win’ web portal to receive a vaccine and sent an official appointment to receive his first vaccination injection today, only to be turned away at the vaccination centre this morning and told that foreigners will not receive any vaccination injections until next month.
All people in Phuket must register through the ‘Phuket Must Win’ website (www.ภูเก็ตต้องชนะ.com) in order to receive a state-provided vaccine.
Any registrations through the national ‘MorProm’ channel will be cancelled, officials have confirmed. (See stories here and here.)
This applies to all expats in Phuket, officials have also confirmed.
Of note, the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket) has reported that as of yesterday (May 20) 147,182 people in Phuket had already received at least one vaccination injection, some 31.5% of the 466,587 target set by officials.
Phuket health officials have set a target of vaccinating 70% of the island’s population in order for the island to achieve herd immunity so that the island can open to receive fully vaccinated foreign tourists from July 1.
Meanwhile, to help encourage more people to be vaccinated, local officials will start conducting door-to-door knocks, Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong explained yesterday.