Miami007

5 hours ago, Natai Beach said:

Yes, from the onset of the news out of Wuhan they were on to it, being the first country to test for covid outside of China in January while other countries were dithering.
 

By February most Thais were masking up while other countries were declaring they were not necessary and PPE had been distributed to the over 10,000 hospitals in Thailand.

 

By March they had road blocks temperature testing and then testing those with high temperatures immediately. Similar to get into shops, plazas and airports.

 

Late March they implemented a state of emergency and locked down with curfews and alcohol bans.

 

By April it was largely controlled in Thailand and in May they had developed the Thaichana app. 
 

It is December and they are still temperature testing to enter supermarkets etc and still most Thais are masking up.
 

The last two days the Thais have really clamped down again after this cluster was imported by stupid and selfish hookers. Thankfully they have mobilized again quickly and set up emergency Covid facilities to handle any outbreak.

 

World’s best practice.

 

Nearly half the countries in the world deaths are in the thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands deaths with bodies piling up.

The Thais are not even in triple figures.
 

Yesterday the USA had the most deaths ever with over 3,000 dying. Worldwide over 12,000, it is getting worse, not better. If only they had followed Thailand’s example, it would have saved over a million lives.

 

With chinese tourists roaming freely in december 2019, January and February 2020 thailand should have seen a big number of infections by late February.  

3 hours ago, Salerno said:

 

Define "very expensive".

 

There are ASQ hotels starting at 35K ... for transport from the airport, 3 meals a day, covid tests and medical on call.

I can think of nothing better than spending more than USD 1000 to stay in a hotel room for 2 weeks and get 3 meals and covid tests.

If I stay home, I can at least go outside, walk, exercise, play tennis or go to the beach and gym... all things I can not do in ASQ

11 minutes ago, brucec64 said:

I know a lot of people who come on extended holiday and 45 days will definitely be a big help. You need to look beyond the people on the left and right of the Nana Plaza barstool you're sitting on, and maybe see there are many people with the means for extended holidays.

So funny, when they initially suggested the STV, I heard the exact same argument that there were "a lot" of people who would be interested.  There were not - not even Europeans who wanted to escape winter.  

The rules are just to difficult - 30 days, 45 days, 90 days - it does not matter.  As long as there is a quarantine requirement, there will only be a few interested travelers who have to come to Thailand

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

45-day Tourist Visa Mulled

 

 

BANGKOK, Dec 7 (TNA) – The government’s business easing committee will propose the government extend the validity of tourist visas to 45 days from 30 days to attract visitors.

 

National Security Council secretary-general Gen Nathapol Nakpanit in his capacity as the director of the committee discussed with committee members the idea as well as COVID-19 situation in Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province.

 

After the meeting, Chaturon Chaiyakham, deputy director-general of the Consular Affairs Department, said the prime minister ordered the Foreign Affairs Ministry to work out measures to attract visitors.

 

Full Story: https://tna.mcot.net/english-news-596716

 

-- © Copyright TNA 2020-12-07

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

The government needs to understand that they will not get many interested visitors as long as they have quarantines, insurance requirements etc.  Another issue is whether the government of the source country is allowing citizens to return without quarantine.

People will not go on vacation, if it is a hassle.  People will only endure these restrictions, if they have to go to Thailand.  If there is no need to go, then there is always next year

14 minutes ago, mr mr said:

 

taxi driver - welcome phuket sir where you go. what hotel you stay ?

you - actually i would like to just go a few hundred feet down the road to the 7. how much ? 

taxi driver - special for you 1000 baht.

maybe you walk a few 100 feet, and save the money...I am sure most of us tourists can walk 300 yards LOL

21 hours ago, dbrenn said:

I can remember when Thailand had 4 million tourists per year. That figure became 39 million in 2019.

 

The place was much nicer and more beautiful back then. Thailand has been spoilt by the scourge of mass tourism. I hope that they never return. 

If you live in Thailand on an Expat salary making 10-15 times more than the average Thai plus housing and trips home every year, you are right... Great to be the rich one in a poor country.

Not so good for the millions of Thais who will no longer have jobs and income because 35 million tourists are no longer visiting.  

6 hours ago, Yme said:

And of course other countries will also rightly refuse the jab to their none citizens too, such as foreign students, migrant workers, foreign workers, retirees, etc.

 

Refusing to vaccinate people in your country is counter productive.

You want to protect the entire population or most of it.

Afaik, there are no plans to exclude foreign students in the USA. Or look at Dubai,  for example... the majority of residents are non-citizens and non Arab...

5 hours ago, johng said:

Most people infected don't develop severe symptoms anyway and wouldn't even know they where infected without a test.

One of the few diseases that require a test to let the majority know that they are sick.

I wonder how many people carry a flu virus without symptoms. I asked a doctor and he told me that nobody is being tested for flu unless they show symptoms

Considering that we are now finding coronavirus in blood samples from December 2019 in the USA and September 2019 in Italy, we should try to find out how long this virus circulated before it was in the news

10 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

True, it mostly impacts the elderly.  But many others are dying also.  Young, strong, and not old. Let's not downplay the severity of this virus.  And not forget those with long term effects.  Many of which are not fully understood yet.

If you check CDC stats by age group, you will see where deaths are concentrated. Very few who are young and strong are dying or in the hospital. Just look at the professional athletes who were infected and were playing or practicing the day before the positive test and are now back on the field (NFL, soccer, tennis.. all sports where you need to run and have lung capacity). Have you heard of TV personalities who got sick and passed away? Same for politicians or royalty.

My parents at 85 and 78 have to be extremely careful as they are old and have other ailments (high blood pressure, diabetes, overweight). My sister at 52 is fairly save and my nieces 16 and 17 have a minimal risk (and already had it without symptoms).

The long-term risk is speculation

So not everyone has to panic - we need to assess risk for people and act accordingly 

Groups with natural immunity? Who would that be ? Or did DJT make a detour to Asia and convince people that "children are practically immune" LOL

Some groups are more likely to get a severe reaction to the virus than others. Younger people in general have milder or no symptoms, but there is no immunity. If certain. Groups had immunity, why did the world lock them up line the rest?

Bad translation or lack of knowledge?

7 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

2020 is pretty much a write-off with about 20% of the 2019 revenue. 

The most pressing question is how will 2021 be?

Different agencies have projected 8-11 million tourists, so it could be 20-25% of 2019 levels. 

Meager years ahead for the tourist industry,  but good deals should be plentiful for us local travelers. 

The problem with the good deals for locals is that there may not be many hotels left to chose from at the end of 2021. Hotel owners don't have unlimited funds to keep the operation running at normal service levels.

3 hours ago, rayw said:

 

I must add to your coments that if we hopefully get the Russian and/or Chinese both well tested and very very promising vaccines here in Thailand they  will be supplied at cost as a duty of care rather than a duty of corporate greed. So will be affordable to most ordinary Ex Pats here who are far from well off as well as less of a drain on the Thai public resources too.  I would not personally  trust or take any vaccine produced by western big pharma who do so solely for huge quick profits, but agree we must all have a choice  as to which vaccine we are prepared to have or indeed for some choose not have one at all.  That the Russian and Chinese tested and effective vaccines, which are virtually available about now, are not being allowed into the UK is a stupid, irresponsible and childish anti Russia/Chinese deplorable policy by a bad UK Government who are trying to protect the big corporate western pharma profits rather than make you and I their rightful priority.  

 

I do though very much trust the Russian and Chinese vaccines produced, as usual in those nations, purely as a duty of care to the people and to meet urgent responsible public health needs. They also use tried and test traditional vaccine production methods not the risky unknown long term effects experimental DNA system being developed by western big pharma and which really need probably a few years to test the new technology, rather than rushing it out for a quick big profitable return as big corporate pharma always do. We should all be of course fully aware that their CEOs and shareholders are who matter to them not the well being of you and I. 

 

Personally as a 75 year old retiree I want the Russian Sputnik 5 vaccine as soon as possible now it has completed the last stage three certification testing and has shown one of the highest success rates with I think a 94% effectiveness and with a two year protection lifespan.  What's not to like?  I believe the Chinese have three similar developed vaccine candidates too whcih are shortly also going to be available and supplied at cost.  

 

IMHO all pharma and healthcare worldwide should never be run by modern day private usually corrupt corporates but exclusively by state run controlled enterprises and run efficiently for the people, by the people and fully accountable to the people.  Yes in true and sensible democratic Socialist ways. Much like the way the NHS in the UK used to be run fully by the state pre that awful Thatcher woman, and since then has steadily been privatised underhandedly and destroyed by successive right wing non Socialist Governments (incluidng the Blair/Brown pink Tory new Labour Governments of '97 to '10 ) who put corporate profits before a responsible duty of care to the people.

How do you know that Sputnik works 2 years? It hasn't been around for 6 months...

If it worked that great, why does Russia still have 20,000 cases yesterday?

You are aware that in the history of mankind, they found a total of zero effective vaccines against the many Corona viruses that existed before this one.

Now we found at least 5 that work more than 90% in less than 1 year?

Sure...

But as long as it stops the paranoia 

Domestic tourism in Thailand is at 50% of normal. No way close to making up for the loss of international business. 

International lost 85% this year, now less than domestic 

There simply is not enough purchasing power in the country. 

Overall, 800 billion baht in tourism revenue instead of nearly 4000 billion.

The world is not waiting for Thailand to open borders and everyone will return.  Business must be earned

6 hours ago, Kaopad999 said:

Thailand most certainly top 5 in the world for Covid response. 
It will be interesting to know the final winner once Covid has finished. 

I didn't know it was a competition. 

But Vietnam, laos, Cambodia, Tanzania, Taiwan  all have lower total numbers and lower per million residents.

That removes  Thailand from Top 5 .

What has Thailand done aside from keeping open to Chinese in January, February and then closing to all? Internal restrictions like Europe just lower testing of the domestic population 

13 hours ago, Pravda said:

The genius investors who bought in Samut Prakan and On Nut ghetto are in for a rude awakening. 

I guess you didn't have a chance to buy? Overall, a smart business decision to buy in an area which will be connected to mass transit. 

If circumstances change, then there will be problems. But in hindsight we are always smarter than anyone else

6 hours ago, alyx said:

Really? trust me, when I have a bad experience I do advertise it as much as I do for positive experiences. I do not think either that is a case of foreigners against locals (where ever that could have taken place). Fairness would have been to talk to the guest and use the right to answer. You may not be aware of this but if I comment, the place can reply and...I am not allowed to answer back. So the system is more than fair

I believe the hotel tried to contact the guest and he refused..

The best way to avoid malicious reviews would be to require the real name (and dates of stay) to be posted.  If I had an unpleasant stay at a hotel, I would / should be man enough to give my name and not hide behind an alias.  Negative reviews are good when they address actual shortcomings - not when they address perceived entitlements.  

Being in hotels myself, i would have responded and outlined the facts - suing the person in the USA would not get me anywhere.  If he kept posting on many sites, it would just create a nuisance.  It seems the biggest problem is that people have too much time and not enough work.

18 hours ago, patman30 said:

cannot really fault TA at all here
they must warn their users of the consequences of leaving a negative review
especially when there is evidence they could face legal action from specific hotel owners or management, whilst on holiday or travelling
most people are not generally clued up on many laws in the foreign countries they visit.

the hotel in question did really shoot themselves in the foot on this occasion
it will likely be a very costly lesson for them

Obviously, this warning will make a difference to European/ American/ Australian travelers.  Will Chinese care - not so much as they don't use Tripadvisor like in the West

The guest was an American citizen but lived and worked in Thailand.  I am sure that the NYPD would not arrest an American in New York if and when a hotel files a suit for defamation in Thailand - most TA users are safe

As the borders are closed for the most part (14 day quarantine, covid insurance, visa requirement of showing bank statements, no Visa exempt being the main roadblocks), this won't matter for the majority of the world for some time.

18 hours ago, unamazedloso said:

Comon ppl. Covid is rampant. Thai gov is lying and makig it near impossible for tourists to visit to keep it hush hush. My whole family wad a sick as hell recently. Same symptoms and thought we were going to die but pulled through. Never tested. Who knows!?!?

Why didn't you get a test?  Or would that upset some people in higher positions?

8 minutes ago, Techno Viking said:

plenty ARE that desperate.

How many is plenty? Thailand gets about 40 million tourists in a regular year. 

What percentage is plenty for You?

The STV seemed to be a huge success with 2 arrivals.. after that, has anyone heard about a steady stream of people coming to quarantine for 14 days?

Who can afford to take more than 2 weeks holidays and spend the first 2 weeks in quarantine? Plenty?

With a max 

1 hour ago, androokery said:

I think there’s method in this madness. At least the way they see it.

 

Instead of having 30,000,000 tourists spend 1,000 baht per day they now want 1,000 tourists to spend 30,000,000 baht per day. Ideally. 

 

They understand that they have to limit the number of tourists when they open up the country. This is a way to make sure that the first group is the wealthiest group. 
 

It’s still madness. But there is a logic to it. 

How many of these rich people are waiting to go into 14 day quarantine. Rich mostly are not patient and want to do what they want and when they want.

Good luck with these rules

8 hours ago, Techno Viking said:

Visa exempt is good for 30 days, how long did you want them to stay ?

Visa exempt may not return. And who would quarantine 14 days and leave in the next 14 days. Not many are that desperate 

1 hour ago, possum1931 said:

What about the professional footballers in the UK who got the virus and are now playing again after about four weeks?

Or the tennis players who played in New York, then Paris, then all over Europe and are due in London for the season ending event.

Some had the virus and are playing just as well as before and no quarantine or lockdown for them either

The Soviet Union must be rotating in its grave!!!  What would they have given to be able to track every foreign visitor during the cold War.