70% of population in Bangkok now fully vaccinated

[reader]

From Bangkok Post

Seventy percent of the population in Bangkok -- 5.43 million people -- have so far received a second dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

Deputy Bangkok governor Sophon Phisutthiwong said on Tuesday that Bangkok was ready to reopen in line with the government’s policy to admit fully vaccinated foreign tourists next month.  

Pol Lt Gen Sophon spoke during a meeting with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation via a teleconference.

He said 5.43 million people, or 70.63% in the capital have also received a second shot to date.  It was expected that 80% of the population would receive the second dose by Oct 30.

BMA health and district officials had inspected 247 businesses at shopping malls between Oct 14 and Oct 15 and found that 244 of them strictly followed Covid guidelines. 

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2200559/70-of-population-in-bangkok-now-fully-vaccinated

[vinapu]

Now we can only hope they utilize that fact to open door to us and our walletts

 

[Patanawet]

My sums are not too good, so what is the population of Bangkok?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Patanawet said:

My sums are not too good, so what is the population of Bangkok?

A good question.    If 70.63% is 5.43 million, it implies the total population is 7.69 million.       Various considerably higher figures can be found on the internet, but I guess it depends on which boundaries you use.

Also, dividing the total number of doses by twice the population, the average national vaccination rate is equivalent to 48.3% fully vaccinated.    That's not the actual fully vaccinated number of course, due to a much higher number of first doses.

So this implies the vaccination rate in Bangkok is far ahead of the national average.  

For comparison, I'm fairly sure there would be an awful lot of complaints had, for example, the UK prioritized London ahead of the north of country.    It would be unthinkable.  In practice, vaccines were offered at the same rate nationally.   

In practice, the vaccination rate is far lower in London and other urban areas, due to personal choice.   Apparently there is a high percentage of anti-vaxxers amongst the urban voters.  The same urban voters, who The Guardian likes to describe as "educated".   Despite this "education", apparently they still don't look at data from various countries before making a decision.     Unlike the US, the UK anti-vaxxers seem to be in areas where the left wing Labour party is well supported, whereas I think it's more of a Republican thing in the US.

I've no idea about attitudes to vaccination in the various regions of Thailand.

 

[spoon]

A quick google of bangkok population is around 10.5mil, so either the population estimate is way off, or the 70% is only considering adult population (above 18). Have thailand start vaccination for below 18?

[reader]

The answer to the confusion lies in all the actual political (jurisdictional) entities that make up the metropolitan Bangkok area. The Province of Bangkok, however is smaller and does not encompass Samat Prakan (where BKK airport is located), Nakhon Phathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Samat Sakhon.  Taken together they form what is considered the metropolitan Bangkok planning area as described  in this chart:

https://citypopulation.de/en/thailand/bangkokmetropolitan/

As with population figures anywhere, they are fluid. As you look at all the smaller jurisdictions in the listing above (and even these figures are estimates dating back to 2019) you get a feel for the complexity of what metropolitan Bangkok looks like.

In any case, the deputy governor in the Bangkok Post article was speaking for his province (Bangkok). Now if Samut Prakan was included in the inoculation zone because travelers arriving by air would have to pass through it to get into Bangkok, you'd come up with a total population in the vicinity of roughly 7.6 million, about the number that z909 cites in his post above.

 

[Londoner]

Simovac will apparently no longer be provided at the end of the month. If there is enough Pfizer and AstraZeneca available, infection rates should decrease, bearing in mind the inadequacy of Simovac in resisting the D variant. 70% sounds better than the reality when so many of those inoculated have been so with a vaccine that  is not as effective as others

[Patanawet]

22 hours ago, reader said:

 

As with population figures anywhere, they are fluid.

A few years ago I read the population of Bangkok as about 10 million  PLUS itinerant of 5 million.

Maybe that has changed now with Covid.

I think the government cherry picks whichever statistics suit the message of the day.

 

[Guest]

Definition of boundaries have an awful lot to do with numbers.    

For instance any references to Tokyo as the largest urban area in the world with 30 million people are including Tokyo, Yokohama and many other smaller cities which make up the 30 million.  Now Yokohama is not Tokyo, it just happens to be adjacent to Tokyo, without anything recognizable as a green belt.   The same applies for the other cities.