Coronavirus vaccines are hard to get in Thailand, the wealthy are heading on overseas-screenshot-2021-06-25-three-weeks
Rachpol Yamsaeng owns a Bangkok-based travel company called Unithai Trip, which is arranging trips abroad for Thais who want to be vaccinated.

Wealthy Thai people are flying overseas for their COVID-19 shots, saying they do not want to delay getting vaccinated and do not trust the vaccines on offer in Thailand.

Key points:
  • About 3 per cent of Thais are fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University
  • Thailand is using AstraZeneca and China's Sinovac to vaccinate its people
  • Some Thais are spending up to $8,300 to go overseas to get vaccinated


Their choice to spend thousands of dollars getting the jab abroad comes as people across the rest of the country try to navigate what some have described as a "chaotic" vaccination program rollout.


Popular Thai language tutor and TV host Jakkrit Yompayorm recently returned from a trip to the United States to get two doses of Pfizer.

Coronavirus vaccines are hard to get in Thailand, the wealthy are heading on overseas-screenshot-2021-06-25-three-weeks
Jakkrit Yompayorm spent $4,200 to travel to the US from Thailand for two doses of Pfizer. (ABC News: Mazoe Ford)

Mr Yompayorm said he booked an appointment at a Walmart pharmacy before he left Thailand and already had a visa for the US.
The vaccine was free but he spent about $4,200 on airfares and other travel-related expenses, including two weeks in hotel quarantine on the way back into Thailand.



Travel agents offer 'vaccine vacations'

Some Thai travel agents whose businesses all but dried up when the pandemic shut down most overseas travel had been trying to cash in, offering so-called 'vaccine vacations' to the United States.

Packages include visits to tourist sites as well as a pharmacy to get vaccinated, with the length and cost of tours depending on how long a gap there is between the first and second shots.

HERE