Plans to open Thailand’s leading seaside resort of Pattaya to tourism have been shelved indefinitely.
The plan was to open up on September 1st. The TAT has now abandoned this idea, Pattaya’s mayor Sontaya Khunplome told Manager yesterday.
This came as 6 cases of Covid-19 were reported on Koh Larn off the coast of Pattaya.
Access to the island had already been severely restricted but the latest cases dealt a blow to its limited reopening, notes ASEAN NOW.
All six cases are in hospital care and the mayor said that Pattaya city would be conducting a pro-active testing program of residents there.
The island is being sealed off completely again for 14 days.
The TAT have not set a date when Pattaya can reopen to tourism.
Chonburi reported 1,318 new Covid-19 cases on Monday with clusters of between 10 and 18 at Chicony Electronics in Muang district, Mitsubishi, Italian Thai (Thai Oil project in Sri Racha and Italian Thai in Bang Lamung.
A total of 199 infections were within families and 267 from the workplace.
Mayor Sontaya has consistently said that vaccination was the key to the reopening of Pattaya and a batch of Sinopharm has been bought out of city coffers costing 88 million baht.
Despite this, his hand has been forced by the infection numbers and events on Koh Larn meaning that Pattaya will continue to be a ghost town for the foreseeable future.
