Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

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odd

Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

Post by odd »

Gerefan-111 cases on Wednesday and not 11 as you state.
I know this is a bit late but you might now change your opinion?
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Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

Post by Gaybutton »

This morning I had a surprise. I left my house at 7:30am for my 10:00am doctor appointment at Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital. I left so early because I was expecting major traffic delays and police checks. As you can see by the time of this post, I am already home.

I never saw any police. There were no stops. I was at the hospital by 7:45am. No traffic delays of any kind anywhere. As a matter of fact, traffic was actually unusually light. I certainly wasn't expecting that. I was lucky.

Apparently the lockdown, so far, is a failure. A Thai friend says he saw on the news that the lockdown created such a tremendous traffic gridlock that at some point during the night the police just gave up.

Apparently the following news article substantiates this and Pattaya's powers-that-be are now in the process of rethinking how to do this. Once more information becomes available, of course it will be posted.
______________________________________________________________________________________

Closure restrictions of Pattaya City to continue but checkpoints will be adjusted for traffic concerns

By Adam Judd

Friday, 10 April 2020

As we first announced on our social media channels last night Pattaya City leadership will be making adjustments on the current checkpoints in the city to help with traffic concerns. The overall closure will continue and was only temporarily suspended, not cancelled, like some Thai media claimed.

Pattaya City Mayor Sonthaya Khunpluem confirmed to The Pattaya News that the closure of Pattaya City, which involves strict checkpoints around the city proper, will continue. However, he stated that City leadership is reviewing the checkpoint locations and the closure of smaller sois near the railway to help alleviate traffic concerns.

Pattaya City Hall is meeting this morning to determine exactly where the checkpoints and changes will be.

Mayor Sonthaya stressed that the National Covid19 team as well as local and Provincial leadership feel that Pattaya, like Phuket, still has many high risk groups that could potentially have the Covid19 virus in the city. This includes roughly 2,800 foreign and domestic tourists still in the area, many who recently arrived from other provinces.

Restricting access to the city for three weeks will allow officials to further identify these high risk groups and scan them for potential virus symptoms as well as ensure more foreign and domestic visitors don’t enter the city.

Therefore, the closure will continue but in an altered form in terms of the checkpoints.

The Pattaya News will provide these details later in the day once the details are determined and released. Pattaya City advises that anyone who wishes to avoid traffic and potential hassle to stay home unless a trip is absolutely essential. They also encourage people to work at home if possible.

https://thepattayanews.com/2020/04/10/c ... -concerns/
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Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

Post by Dodger »

I have to wonder if some of the delays in getting people through these checkpoints didn't have to do the officers tasks of verifying people's residence.

The process of issuing pre-authorized forms to residents for this purpose seemed to be poorly planned and botched from the beginning.

Tough task. I wouldn't want to do it. Better luck next time.
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Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

Post by Gaybutton »

Dodger wrote: Fri Apr 10, 2020 10:23 am poorly planned and botched from the beginning.
"Of course, dear. What did you expect?"
- Gladys Cooper (Mrs. Higgins), 'My Fair Lady'

Anybody doubting that whatever they come up with next will also be poorly planned and botched?

Botched lockdown or not, the disease numbers in Thailand are infinitesimally small compared to several other countries. I'm happy right here in Thailand, even with all the restrictions, where those of us here are unlikely to become infected as long as we don't behave like damned fools.
odd

Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

Post by odd »

Just returned from Jomtien Beach Road via Chaiyapreuk and quite a lot of traffic. The sois that were blocked yesterday seem to be open 12.15pm
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Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

Post by Gaybutton »

Pattaya Lockdown Lifted

by Pattaya Mail

April 10, 2020

The decision to blockade Pattaya City which went into force on April 9 at 2 p.m. has been lifted, at least until the authorities figure out what to do next.

Yesterday saw one of the worst traffic snarls Pattaya has ever experienced as residents spent hours stuck in their cars waiting to present their papers to the authorities to get permission to enter Pattaya where they live and work. A majority of the people did not even have the necessary papers nor knew what it was about.

The 5 checkpoints were meant to control the flow of people in and out of Pattaya so as to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) amongst the residents and tourists.

Having seen that the blockade plan was not going as smoothly as expected, Banglamung District Chief Amnart Charoensri and Pattaya Mayor Sonthaya Khunplome convened an urgent meeting at 7 p.m. last night to discuss the serious matter.

The checkpoints had caused tremendous inconvenience to the people of Pattaya and the surrounding areas causing a huge uproar amongst the citizenry.

To ease the situation, the city fathers decided to lift the blockade with immediate effect.

Authorities will explore methods to thoroughly inform the public about getting the necessary papers for entry and exiting Pattaya City and will rethink and re-plan the best possible locations to setup checkpoints so as not to cause major disruptions to the people’s daily lives.

For further information one can call Pattaya City Contact Center 1337 – 24 hours a day.

https://www.pattayamail.com/featured/pa ... ted-294926
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Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

Post by Gaybutton »

Pattaya Mail wrote: Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:13 pm the blockade plan was not going as smoothly as expected
How's that for an understatement?

My guess is the problem happened because East Pattaya, aka "The Dark Side" was not included as part of Pattaya. Since there are only a few access roads to and from "The Dark Side" and thousands of people who need to leave and later return to "The Dark Side" every day, even without this blockade there are usually rush hour traffic jams.

All they need to do so that everyone can live their lives as normally as possible and avoid fiascos such as yesterday would be to include East Pattaya as part of the city and blockade the outer perimeter instead of blockading access. I know of no virus cases occurring on "The Dark Side" at all and the vast majority have perfectly valid reasons to be allowed normal access to Sukhumvit and the city. In my opinion, they are blockading the wrong people. Trying to blockade "The Dark Side" is likely to work about as well as the Maginot Line did.

The powers-that-be also need to take delivery vehicles into consideration.

Meanwhile it will probably take a few days before they can plan and implement a new blockade. By that time, what would be the point of a blockade at all?

No word at the time of this post what their new plan will be. Why am I expecting another botch job - and several new items that will be perfectly appropriate for entry on my "I Don't Get It" list . . . ?
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Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

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Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

Post by 2lz2p »

2lz2p wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 1:51 pm Although the PM article was primarily aimed at foreigners, it did contain this sentence:
One principal aim is to prevent foreign and Thai tourists from coming into the area which is why proof of a personal address is important.
(Emphasis added)

Thus, my interpretation was that in addition to showing an ID, a Thai would also be required to show proof of personal address being in Pattaya and that they were not a visitor.

We live in a house and my Thai partner does not have an employer. Why flag down a policeman to show proof of living in Pattaya when the document I mentioned should accomplish that. It took only a little time to prepare. As I mentioned in my earlier post, may it not be needed. But I will feel more comfortable with him having some sort of "proof" if asked for it.
My Thai partner went through one of the checkpoints today. He told me they did want to see something to show he was a resident in Pattaya. He said he showed them the paper I had previously prepared for him and it was sufficient.
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Re: Pattaya Lockdown - Beginning Thursday, April 9

Post by Dodger »

2lz2p wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:23 pm ...My Thai partner went through one of the checkpoints today. He told me they did want to see something to show he was a resident in Pattaya. He said he showed them the paper I had previously prepared for him and it was sufficient.
You had a good read on this from the beginning...well prepared...good going!
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