pookondee

What does it matter anyway, if they are tourists or not?

Any real tourist going there is taking the huge risk of getting infected along the way, getting forced into Covid jail and most probably missing their flights home.

And considering the hoops one must jump through to get there,

who in their right mind would take all that  for the sake of a 3-4 week holiday??

7 minutes ago, robblok said:

There are more suicides. I think you don't understand the concept of lockdown. Its not to stop covid, its to slow it down so the health system does not get overloaded. Its the vaccines that do the work not lockdowns. 

 

There are countless social issues that the government should help with. That does not mean lockdowns are bad just means the goverment neglects to help the people affected. Just imagine the deaths if there were no lockdowns (India Brazil ect). 

 

But sure can't be denied that there will be more suicides, but that is because the government does not help those in need. In my country people get money if their business is affected that is how a lockdown should work. That is not the case in Thailand a lot of people don't get any help while the army still buys subs.

Its not to stop covid, its to slow it down so the health system does not get overloaded.

I get your point, but the same approach was stated by Australia at the start.

No hospitals were ever inundated. In fact all sorts of surgeries and procedures were called off, for no reason.

Australia has endured many lockdowns, for the sake of under 10 cases in the whole country.

Lockdowns are all well and good, and it worked for Australia..

but the problem with that is..now they are are accepting a zero tolerance of any Covid at all..which is ridiculous.

The fact that Australia is the least hit country, yet with the most draconian of lockdowns, clearly means its a victim of its own success.

It cant be long before the people revolt.

If zero Covid obsession spreads to governments (like it has in Australia)

we are all going to be treated to a future that isnt even worth living at all.

Many countries have taken the hint that they cant stamp out Covid, and therefor must learn to live with it.

I suspect Thailand, now talking about opening in the latter part of the year, are starting to see it to.

2 hours ago, Thujone said:

Only into the crook of your elbow.

Dont laugh.

In Australia they are doing tests at sewerage plants in a desperate attempt to find cases.

Im sure we will soon hearing about

strain F being passed with...

err, passing wind.

18 hours ago, Sheryl said:

Vaccinated people, if/when they get it, have much less virus in the nasopharynx so are much less likely to transmit the virus. It is nto totally impossible, but unlikely. Hence the US CDC guidance that vaccinated popkle can stoop wearing masks.

 

Of course in Phuket there is the problem that most of the vaccinated locals are nto protected against the variant at all.

Thats interesting you should say that.

So, by this reasoning

(less virus in the nasopharynx) 

shouldnt that also be the case with Asymptomatic people?

They would appear to have no virus at all in the nasopharynx, so how can they spread that which they dont have?

It sounds like a lot of what we've been told is total nonsense.

The whole thing about those having no symptoms whatsoever, but still being spreaders sounded like hogwash from the start to me. 

Well it may as well be the end of end for some.

How about the Thailand regulars who used Phuket as a front door to get back into Thailand??

They must be very worried, if not absolutely livid right now, if its true that all means of transport OUT of Phuket is blocked/banned.

So after the 2 week mark these people could be forced to stay in the over-priced Phuket accommodation??

instead of joining family/wives/gf's

in other parts of Thailand, as they planned?

This could turn very ugly, or at least an absolute P.R disaster if these people end up sandblocked.

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

It's starting to ramp up....

soon 10,000 a day infected with deaths rising fast, time for Prayut & Anutin to step down or be removed.

Who is going to remove them? ????

58 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Rhetorical question I would surmise, right?

He is probably wondering why the un-infected are taking the risk of lining up at close quarters with those possibly infected.

Like many were saying last week:

"If you didnt have it before testing, youll soon have it after"

In my logic, knowing one has Covid is pretty much useless as far as recovery goes.

Its just brings the added risk that more people will get infected at the testing centres and spread it further to family members and anyone in close contact, as well as crowded buses, MRT etc

Well the nerve of them!

I sure hope these invaders get

holy หeแ rained down upon them.

Who do they think they are?

farangs?

2 hours ago, FarFlungFalang said:

Which is about 10-15% of the total from what I've read, so just add a naught on their daily numbers and you'll be right on the money for the real numbers.

It seems they have finally conceeded that it might be better to advise the people with milder cases to stay at home.

And its hard to disagree with that for a number of reasons,

especially if you might have a sector of society who see no problem with being sick and catching a public bus to get to a hospital in Bangkok.

Not very funny that people are talking ugly and wishing the worst for Thailand in these sorts of times.

Makes me wonder why some people are even there if its so terrible.

Actually, with that attitude i wonder why they havent left already, considering the negativity towards Thailands ability to survive Covid.

So life there cant really be all that bad.

Some will seemingly never leave, even while they themselves are predicting Thailand will go down to the pandemic ????

7 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

I stated asymptomatic and pre symptomatic. Only around 30% or less of all covid cases are truly asymptomatic. 

 

Besides you missed the main point and that is that they would not know they are infected without a test and so would carry on their lives as normal, that includes the pre symptomatic who develop mild symptoms or worse days later, unless tested they are out in the community socializing and carry on life as normal.

 

This is not about Faucis or what you believe or don't believe about him.

30% or less of all covid cases are truly asymptomatic...

Im very suprised by that figure, but i am no expert.

I guess there are no easy answers.

All i can say is for me, I wouldn't really like to be lined up in a huge queue in Bangkok waiting to be tested.

If i didnt have it then, id deduct there might be a slightly higher chance of having it afterwards.

34 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

What he is clearly saying is to reduce active testing which at the moment is minimal anyway so that they can concentrate on the more serious cases with symptoms so they can get a test instead.

 

How can you separate the two? His suggestion is you have to be suffering with symptoms before getting tested.

 

However that leaves all the other pre symptomatic and asymptomatic in the community not getting tested and carrying on spreading the virus and not even knowing they have it.

 

Thats not how it works in Thailand, this is not the UK where they carry out mass testing regardless, identify as many as possible and home quarantine asymptomatic. 

 

This will just lead to further spread with the minimal vaccines available.

And theres always the chance that Thais arent officially buying into the idea that the asymptomatic are bad spreaders.

The ex Pfizer scientist guy (controversal video doing the rounds)

 makes a pretty good case that if your Asymptomatic then you cant possibly have the stuff in your system to spread it.

Who knows what the Thais believe.

A lot of Fauccis stuff was complete nonsense after all.

18 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Unbelievable view from this Professor Dr. Nithi Mahanonda

 

First he says this: 

COVID-19 pandemic, which is rapidly spreading “far and wide” to the point that “we do not know who are infected among the people around us.”

 

 

Then he says this:

He proposed the scaling down of pro-active case finding, so there will be sufficient resources to focus on people who think they may be infected, or develop mild symptoms, so they will get tested.

 

What planet is he living on?

 

I think he saying they are aware there is so many cases out there.

and those people who will come to seek treatment will need the tests.

Not much use going out wasting time and resources testing all and sundry if they have infected people everywhere.

They might as well let the worst effected come to them for treatment, and the Asymptomatic will probably be best to stay at home and not infect any more.

id say he is on our planet, but with a slightly different approach than the west, who have not exactly done a stellar job either, all things considered.

12 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

I think the system is maxed out now. Hospital walk-ins cannot exceed 4,000 or so, plus only 2,000 can test positive based on 20,000 tests, as long as the positivity rate is around 10 to 12 percent.

 

They will have to open up more beds to have more official cases, or test more (hah).

 

of course, this means that the numbers over the last 3 days are an artifact, in the sense that they are artificially low due to limits on hospital beds.

So can i ask where you get the figure of 20k total tests taken?

I was under the impression that Thailand only test when they have to, or when they have a walk-in that needs diagnosis.

not like us in the west, randomly testing the masses trying to find infections.

10 hours ago, cyril sneer said:

I think Phuket will have no issues with covid, too much money at stake

Phuket needs to promote more sport and especially football.

In certain places stadiums seem the safest place to be.

Thousands packed in, yet hardly nigh an infection, 

Just dont call into a pub or restaurant on the way home.

17 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Thinking of it - Bangkok (the Corona hub of Thailand) has limited testing due to lack of hospital beds.

 

Is there a figure of how many percent of tests being conducted were positive? I think that number would matter more than how many were actually found positive.

 

If you have 5533 positive cases... that's from how many tests? 100,000? 5%. 50,000? 10%. 10,000? 55%. 6,000? That's nearly 100%. That does make a major difference.

A lot seems to depend on the narrative that each country adopts.  Knowing the % of positives from total tests taken would surely give a hint at how widespread it is in the community.

In Australia, they have just had figures akin to 300k total people tested, with maybe 10 or so people returning positive.  And that's enough to shut down the whole country.

Australia NEVER publicised people recovered/released, like Thailand does.

The narrative in is that Covid is a death sentence or something that will be with you forever.  They are maniacally testing as many as they can, in a desperate attempt to find even 1 or 2 positives, so the politicians can justify their idioctic OTT response.

In Thailand, when the numbers were lower, i thought they might only be testing a neat figure of 10k per day, hence figures of 1-3%  But actually it seems Thailand is only testing when they absolutely need to, on walk-ins, or to actually confirm the patient has it.

So, Thailand is not going out wasting thousands tests, just randomly looking for cases everywhere, for the sole purpose of finding more positives and spreading panic.  Sorry, but it Makes sense to me.

Interesting to note also:

In Thailand the availability of vaccines is obviously a big issue for expats.

You guys actually want it.

In Australia most folk can get vaccinated for free, basically anywhere anytime,

yet many are refusing it, dont want it, or are scared off by all the conspiracy nonsense.

I don't know what's worse...  Thailand has Covid issues, yes.

 Australia has no Covid,  but 50% are idiotically scared of a disease that 99% of people recover from..  While the other 50% are terrified of the vaccine conspiracy rubbish.  That makes it a stalemate as far as trying to sort out this mess.

I'd hazzard a guess that Thailand will be the ones quicker to get on with life, and let people have their freedoms back.

Whereas in Australia it looks like we will be struggling with this nonsense for years, not allowed to even leave the country although there is no (or very little) Covid here.

6 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

Impossible because Phuket will be 100% fully vaccinated by tomorrow ????

Im sure by year end the figure quoted will be around 120%

(Math Thailand not same same.

very strong, can go over 100% no plobrem)

No suprise.

Its just the latest Covid inspired buแ<deleted>  many countries are pulling.

Pretending their economies have bounced back stronger, or are normal,

when there is no possible way they can be.

They have borrowed gazillions,

record number of businesses closing,

massive unemployment, (of which they desperately try try to fudge the figures).

GDP down, record low consumer spending.. on and on

But Yep, its all back to normal or better ????

Typical example Australia,..a massive boom apparently, amid the silliest lockdowns on Earth with businesses slowly choking to death.

Although when you ban people from leaving and the cost of houses skyrockets in 3 months it has got to help some.