mbenson

Just in case you need an excuse for extending an emergency decree.

How about expats and others with homes in Thailand who use Test and Go to reenter? I get the first hotel stay and test - to prevent the spread of imported cases. But then they can go home, only to need to gop out and rent another SHA+ hotel room for the second test? I would find that just a bit annoying. And it does seem like the purpose of that second test is not to detect imported cases, but to do something else. Let's say you were exposed before arriving, but viral load is too low to be detected with the first test. Plenty of time to become contagious while wandering around Thailand during the days between the first and second tests. There is little value in sequestering in a hotel at this point because there have been many opportunities to spread the virus up that point, so what is a few hours in the hotel going to do? However, the hotel may be a good way to prevent people from disappearing if the test positive. Turns hotel personnel into prison guards, but that might be what the intent is.

It's all political. But of course they want the visitor's money without the visitors.

Does it strike anyone as odd that the graph of daily new cases seems to deviate from the patterns seen in SA, UK, Denmark, Germany, and Israel (among others)? All of these places show a very sharp increase with a sharp peak and dramatic fall in cases. Thailand's numbers increased quickly, but more or less levelled off. Maybe this is an artifact of testing? Are they doing "active case finding anymore?" Also, it is clear that now that ATKs are available everywhere that people are self-testing, if testing at all, and then not telling anybody if they are positive. The only way that the government knows to come for you is if your positive result is reported by the lab that processes your RT-PCR test. It would not be politically expedient to reopen Test and Go while the number of cases is showing a dramatic increase. Maybe they have decided that they just don't want to really know.

What gets me is the quote I have read from the guy talking about the insurance. It is like he is blaming tourists for taking advantage of Thailand by forcing the government to pay for charges that insurance doesn't cover. First, that does not seem true to me, and I would love to know details of what exactly the government paid. I see many reports of hospitals forcing people to make 100,000 - 200,000 baht deposits due on admission. It feels like a myth to me. It is the Thai authorities who stipulated that insurance is necessary and the amount of coverage required. If they could not specify that the insurance MUST cover everything, then whose fault is that? We just buy what is available. People are trying very hard to get policies that cover non-symptomatic hospitalization. Isn't it up to the authorities to specify what the insurance products should be and evaluate whether people have the right policy before permitting entry? I hate the insinuation that tourists are somehow forcing the Thai government to make payments when the tourists are doing the best they can to comply, and it is the Thai insurance companies that are providing inadequate products and the Test and Go platform that is evaluating compliance, apparently solely based on the stated amount of Covid coverage, not the conditions of that coverage. So, I guess it is up to the Thai insurance companies to come up with products that fit this requirement, and for the platform to somehow verify that people have purchased those products. This should be fun!

They are saying the R value is between 3 and 5. This means that one person infects 3 to 5 people over the course of their illness. Then those people each infection another 3 to 5. You can see how that might get out of hand rather quickly.

Is Kim still around? How about Peter from Woodstock?

More and more I suspect that "thinking too much" includes worrying about paying the piper in the future. Everybody puts off the anxiety generated by needing to one day pay back loans. Then, it gets serious and it is time to seriously flip out! As mentioned above, high credit card debt is not unique to Thailand. However, Thais do have a unique ability to happily put off concern about the dire inevitable. Really, I never quite understood how issuing credit cards in Thailand was not to cause serious trouble for the econonmy one day.

Yeah totally ready, if they had the money. Ridiculous statement. No way that 70% of Thais have the money to travel abroad. Maybe this more like, 70% of Thais would like to travel abroad..."

I saw a comment about the reason for a rejected application (language does not match country of origin) that led me to believe that they are using image recognition AI to vet the submissions automatically. A person did not look at the JPG and note the language difference. A software system recognized the language in the image and compared it with the departure location of the passenger. I believe this is why they are insisting on images of all documents rather than text. They don't have software that can determine what they want to know from a PDF. I think they are also determing document quality with AI. This system is built to require minimal human touch, which is why people can be approved so quickly. This is also why there are staff who are free to expedite applictions when called. If people were checking everything, nobody would get approved in 7 minutes or 45 for that matter. One exception is for vaccination records that are not digital or that they can't access online. In those cases, somebody has to look at the submissions. This is why applications from the US take longer, usually days.

Astounding Thailand: We got rid of the risque and added many risks!

I think part of it was the mix and match booster. I guess they can't really track the other unorthodox things they did like changing the duration between shots against the guidelines and halving dosages.

Unfortunately, the authorized kits are not good either.

Really. I mean tourists are asked to sacrifice for Thailand? For the privelge of going on vacation here?

Politics is more important than public health. The Pfizer doses ran afoul of some sort of political group and the Polish vaccines had some problems as well. The government could have facilitiated both deals but found it advantageous not to. It's clear where their priorities lay.

This is why it is important to not only look at the costs or the first night's lodging, but also susequent nights. The cost of the PCR test and travel form the airport should be included in the first night, but not the second. If you are capitive for 2-3 nights, the chance of getting gouged for those subsequent nights is pretty high I would say. If you need the extra nights, you have no choice where you go.

It is almost as though they believe that if they keep out the Cheap Charlies and mongers the quality tourists will rush in to fill the void (financial void). However, why are these high-end tourists not in Thailand already? Maybe the government believes the sleazy stuff is keeping them away. So destroy a whole buch of businesses, deprive thousands of people of employment, and trash thousands of hotel rooms rather than adding value to Thailand as a destination. Well, they did want the opera guy to come for NYE. Maybe that is the kind of value that they want to add. I think that most reasonable people would rather that Thai women wouldn't need to work the sex trade. I think the Thais would prefer not to as well. However, their personal priorities motivate them to work in the industry in order to send money to family. There will be a lot of merit lost if they must stopping sending the money back home. Another impact of this initiative.

Some folks, myself included, feel that making this announcment without a shred of knowledge of her schedule was an attempt to coerce her to come to Thaliand. ทำตามใจตัวเอง It put her in a horrible position, requiring her to say "no" to her country when it is attempting to restart. Another concern is making the government henchemen lose face. Maybe a good idea to avoid that. Lot's of pressure on her. In addition, it was possible that Thai fans and Thai Nationalists would just straitght hate for not coming. One thing is sure, she is not coming to Thailand to see her family for New Year's.

Has it been revealed which banks had this problem? It is starting to sound like it could have been only SCB. It would be cool to know anecdotally if other banks were impacted because I doubt that they will announce it a cause a panic.

As regards the "blue zones" to which people who pass their Covid test can go. It is very interesting to me. For example, I want to visit a friend in Lamphun which is currently not a blue zone. Of course, I can go stay in Chiang Mai which is a blue zone. However I can't travel to Lamphun. How will they stop people from slipping over the borders? Who and how will they check it to determine that someone is legally in a non-blue zone? Of course, they can always stop every farang they see and ask to see ze papers. What about non-farang tourists? Some will be not so easy to spot. That sort of puts an hint of racial bias into it, no? As for farang expats, you could be required to show proof that you belong in your home province until your province goes blue. So carry your proof.

Medicare is staring me in the face too. You are not eligible for it, you are required to get it. It is fairly complex what with the different drug coverages and gap plans. I may be mistaken, but some of the gap plans may offer foreign insurance for people who travel or live abroad. However, they make some exceptions for people who live abroad. I am not sure, but it would kind of suck to be stuck paying for Medicare and the Medicare part D and gap insurance if you have little possibility of using it. Especially because you would need to additionally pay for coverage in Thailand. It would be sweet if we could let it lapse and then re-enroll at a later time if you need to, like if you suddenly need treatment for something. However, for the gap coverage, they said if you don't sign up for it within a certain period of time, the gap insurers have the right to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. We Americans apparently have a fetish for painful healthcare programs. It really is appalling!

Hmmm.... They want hotel bookings. For how long? Hopefully only one night. Otherwise, there is the risk factor of potentially losing the money that is put into the hotels in the event that something happens, especially if they insist of paid bookings over cancellable reservations. In addition, unless the bookings are cancellable without penalty, there goes any spontaneity for you trip unless you want to eat the bookings. I bet these xenophobes will want to know where every tourist is as closely as possible, so they will insist on the entire trip being booked up front. I am not a typical tourist - might want to pick up and go someplace that is a bit obscure... Udon for example!! It would suck if it all had to be mapped out up front. I wonder if Agoda, which did offer the possibility of refunds on cancelled reservations will do that again.

Where will the quarantine hotels be? Most folks fly into BKK. So will all foreign arrivals be forced to find a room in BKK until the test is approved? Otherwise, they'll need to create secure transit facilities in the airports and permit people to go to the other destinations for quarantine. Maybe the tests can be administered in those locations also, taking the load off of the BKK labs. I can see this working. They have your SHA+ info that will have the hotel contact info. It is just getting those tourists to the gates for transit and having separate airport facilities for "the pest." This may be part of the reason for stipulating a group of permitted destination cities. Gives them time to setup the secure transit facilities, designate the compliant hotels, and get the testing infrastructure in place. While many people say that no planning occurs, that is certainly not the case. Good for the Thais, I hope it works out.

"Thai tourism formula of crowded bars and nightlife" What happens to Thai crowded bars and nightlife venues? What is to keep tourists from going to those places. At those places, how will they keep Thai working girls out? Tourists who want to party would just go to the Thai places, which will quickly become tourist places. Are they planning on barring foreigners from those places? Or will they close down the crowded bars and nightlife venues that cater to Thais also? That seems implied. Maybe they will start up private clubs for Thais only or something.

I don't see mention of the day two test here. Maybe I missed it? However, what I see seems pretty relaxed. Quoted from: UK Testing Requirements You must take a COVID-19 test before you travel to England if you either: do not qualify as fully vaccinated for travel to England have been in a country or territory on the red list in the 10 days before you will arrive in England You do not have to take a COVID-19 test before you travel to England if you qualify as fully vaccinated and you have not been in a red list country.