Bkk Brian

Health Officials report first Omicron death today of an 86 year old bedridden woman, double vaxxed caught it from her grandson. Reported by B.P.

Yes we all know it was wrong but its relevant to the post I was replying to, clear enough............

2 years ago today: WHO's most infamous tweet, saying China found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of coronavirus

Good positive balanced article here on Omicron becoming endemic in the UK soon. Lifting of most restrictions is slated in a couple of weeks time including mask wearing in shops, public transport the work from home ceasing and full spectators at football matches events etc. Nationally numbers in intensive care have been falling since November. While its good news the world also needs vaccine equity because until then a new variant can still surface. "Alpha, Beta, Delta and now Omicron – has not been a descendant of the previous one, as is typical in flu and seasonal coronaviruses, allowing immunity to develop." "Instead these Covid variants of concern are likely to have arisen from individuals with chronic infections, with virus genetic make-up from distant lineages" https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/endemic-covid-the-pandemic-will-only-be-over-when-the-world-is-jabbed-1402691

I agree, there must be a good proportion of delta still lingering in the US deaths and no doubt in ICU, never seen a breakdown of that though. I think the cleanest countries to look for Omicron deaths are South Africa and Denmark as they were both well out of the previous delta wave. https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/denmark

US now starting to follow UK in some states. "there are growing signs that the Omicron wave has reached a peak in some areas. The record today is only 2.8% above last Friday and the seven-day average is declining in seven states."

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is currently offering free COVID-19 tests at several locations across the capital, including at the Southern Bus Terminal in western Bangkok. https://twitter.com/NBTWORLDNews/status/1482261269474275330

Astra/Pfizer booster after Sinovac offers powerful defence against Omicron: virologist People given two jabs of Sinovac followed by a booster of AstraZeneca or Pfizer had high protection against the Omicron variant, renowned virologist Dr Yong Poovorawan said on Saturday. Both booster shots also triggered a big increase in “killer” T cells, which are thought to be especially effective in combating heavily mutated Covid-19 variants such as Omicron. Yong cited studies on the medRxiv internet site, which pre-publishes scientific data and research ahead of the peer review process. https://www.nationthailand.com/life/40011132

It was reported some days ago they have set up some free ATK testing stations for the general public in Bangkok and the report was that positivity rates were only about 1 or 2%. Much less than the delta wave. If they're doing it by nasal swabs then its hardly surprising. Makes the figures look mighty good for them though

No but the US falls way short of the UK's immunity wall. Link to actual hospital cases source is here https://newsnodes.com/us The unvaccinated will probably be making up the majority in ICU

Omicron is not done with us/US, but we now have >155,000 hospitalizations, nearly 26,000 patients in ICUs, and as reported today another almost 2,800 people who died—the majority of all of these outcomes eminently preventable + >926,000 confirmed new cases https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1482154850125160449

Agreed, pioneers in a lesson on how to decimate the tourist industry leaving hundreds of thousands destitute, on food handouts and next to zero support. I wont even go into their continued ignorance in the education of their children by their school closures.

PCR test positive cases, total of 7,793 official new infections. 18 official covid deaths recorded. Rapid tests positive cases, 2,039 bringing the total of PCR and ATK results to 9,832 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/ Rolling 7 day average chart (up to 12th Jan) https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/thailand

https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/index.php?dashboard=province Drop down menu top right and it will take you to the province required

This is what you can claim when the testing does not reflect the true picture................... Thailand to declare Omicron ‘endemic’ this year as nation learns to live with virus Disease Control Department chief Opas Karnkawinpong said the country was slightly ahead of the World Health Organisation and other countries regarding measures to deal with the new Omicron strain. However, he added that Thailand did not disagree with the WHO’s warning that it is too soon to regard Omicron as an endemic rather than pandemic disease. “We are simply launching a public awareness campaign on how to prepare and to live with Omicron as endemic disease,” Opas said. https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40011096

Yes I know he's untouchable thank you for proving my point

Hypothetical nonsense that has nothing to do with the corruption in this case.

Yes the prosecutors dept is alleged to be one of those dark forces involved in the corruption along with the some of their own police: NACC says 4 officers failed to seek an arrest warrant… Wiradol, along with former chief of the station Chumphol Phumphuang as well as the station’s interrogators Samrit Ketyam and Wibul Thinwatanakul. The NACC says 3 officers failed to guarantee a thorough investigation and interrogation in the case. The former commander of the Metropolitan Police Division 5 Krit Piakaew and the division’s former deputy commanders Sukhun Phrommai and Tramet Uthai.

I know who the victim was but whats that got to do with the police corruption behind Vorayudh Yoovidhya escape and lack of extradition. Proves they additionally have no honour among themselves. Very sad and a prime example.

ssssshhh..........Vorayudh Yoovidhya, Red Bull heir

Bangkok Ready to Cope with New COVID-19 Wave BMA spokesman Pongsakorn Kwanmuang said the City Hall already had readied about 10,000 beds to treat COVID-19 cases as it daily logged about 970 new caseloads that accounted for 1-2% of about 4,000 people undergoing mass testing every day. The infection rate was lower than 10-12% detected during the four previous waves of COVID-19, he said. https://tna.mcot.net/english-news-861604

Impossible to know how this is going here with the lack of testing. Enough anecdotal evidence around that as opposed to previous waves most of us now know people who have been infected this time. Certainly where I live the ratio of people I know infected now is enormous compared to the delta wave, although as we know the majority of people are getting mild symptoms even though that can mean high temperature and shakes. I guess the only true measure are the hospital admissions, ICU, ventilated cases and deaths that will give us a clearer picture. Here are those trends since 1st Jan although lag times are still in play of course. Official figures taken from the dashboard Hospital Admissions. (does not include those admitted to field hospitals, hospitels, community care or home isolation) 1st Jan = 15,784 14th Jan = 42,004 ICU and Ventilated cases, general trend since 1st Jan still down. Deaths

PCR test positive cases, total of 8,158 official new infections. 15 official covid deaths recorded. Rapid tests positive cases, 2,760 bringing the total of PCR and ATK results to 10,918 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/ Rolling 7 day average chart (up to 12th Jan) https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/thailand

They probably did but I doubt we'll never know the results

This is misleading without context. Firstly this report is mainly for the delta variant, this topic is about boosters for Omicron. In addition the UK on the 21st Dec, two days after this report you linked to had only recorded a total of 14 confirmed Omicron deaths, statistics also reported by the UKHSA. Omicron is having far different outcomes compared to Delta. Despite that, the figures you've quoted for table 10 needs to be read in conjunction with the "Interpretation of data" page above it which states: "These data should be considered in the context of the vaccination status of the population groups shown in the rest of this report. In the context of very high vaccine coverage in the population, even with a highly effective vaccine, it is expected that a large proportion of cases, hospitalisations and deaths would occur in vaccinated individuals, simply because a larger proportion of the population are vaccinated than unvaccinated and no vaccine is 100% effective. This is especially true because vaccination has been prioritised in individuals who are more susceptible or more at risk of severe disease. Individuals in risk groups may also be more at risk of hospitalisation or death due to non-COVID-19 causes, and thus may be hospitalised or die with COVID-19 rather than from COVID-19." There is also a separate explainer in a link from that report that goes into more details on this. "A simple comparison of COVID-19 case rates in those who are vaccinated and unvaccinated should not be used to assess how effective a vaccine is in preventing serious health outcomes. This is because these figures are susceptible to a number of differences between the groups, other than the vaccine itself, and these biases mean that you cannot use the rates to determine how well the vaccines work."