AlienHermit66

23 hours ago, tribalfusion001 said:

They are never mentioned for being so good at controlling covid-19 unlike South Korea and Taiwan.

They brag about it repeatedly in recent media stories. Maybe spend some time away from this forum and explore some other media, worthwhile or not. 

25 minutes ago, wotsdermatter said:

Sorry, wrong.  Those used in atomic submarines and for space craft are considerably superior.

'nuf sed.

Yeah, those places that are such a normal part of life for most of the population.... sheesh... you forgot to mention labs where they work on infectious diseases and biological weapons. Einstein that you are, how could you forget these other places that are so extremely relevant to our daily lives?

6 hours ago, Pattaya46 said:

Not 100% true.

Several example that I know for France an Italy were the virus arrived from local businessmen traveling abroad, China or other infected areas, or even from militaries.

Yes, the Western business men were in China on business, or in other cases, they had meetings in other countries with Chinese businessman, and the Chinese kindly gave them the virus to take back to Europe, so yeah, the virus was spread by Chinese to other spreaders.

Don't worry, be happy. Under current usage conditions, a few hundred Mbps out of a 1GB service is great. I have 100 Mbps service in my city (because I'm cheap), and fiber optic right to my door, and use wired LAN, and I'm only getting download speed of 6 Mbps since the lockdown started and everybody is sitting at home using the net. If I were getting 40%-80% of 100 Mbps, I'd be happier than a pig in poo. 

13 minutes ago, UbonThani said:

Next time just leave things open like Sweden.

Yep, I like Sweden's approach - not much different that what the situation in Japan has been. 

Just for everyone's amusement, here's the Brazilian response: https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/06/a-little-flu-brazil-s-bolsonaro-playing-down-coronavirus-crisis

On 4/7/2020 at 1:33 PM, Brunolem said:

So you mean that Thailand is THE special case in the whole world... 

 

And neighboring countries (Vietnam, Cambodia...) didn't receive lots of Chinese in January and February... 

Japan also get millions and millions of Chinese tourists per year, and as of today, Japan has less than 100 deaths out of a population of roughly 126 million. The fatality rate here, and the number of critical cases is farcically low, so no, Thailand is not the only "special" or different country. The guy who presented the math made it clear that many countries (all but eight), had case rates and death rates far below the worldwide hyped numbers. 

Disgusting that Thailand won't accept them, but I kid you not, they are actually being treated better than normal by Japan. Japan is generally really strict about cases like this, unlike in Europe and elsewhere, where people can live in limbo in an airport for years (Tom Hanks - The Terminal, as an example). In Japan, what normally happens is that if a person cannot enter Japan for any reason, period, the person has two choices: 1) get yourself a ticket to somewhere asap. 2) be put in a room similar to a prison cell, and be charged roughly $1000 a night for as long as you stay there. You bloody well pay that until you, your family, your gov't gets you on a plane - they don't care what the reason that you are not technically allowed to enter Japan. These Thais are "lucky" to some extent that the Japanese are allowing them to stay in the transit area (They have to be in the transit area, since no Thai can get a visa to enter Japan at the moment). 

18 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

As I posted directly on his FB page. I came through hours after him and despite coming from a 'country of ongoing infection' nothing was done. No T8, no app, no disease control office, no tracking, no request for 14 day self isolation, no ongoing point of contact... All lies..  

What I have worked out is if you exit immigration in bangkok, they are doing some things, if you transfer to chiang mai, phuket, samui etc in Swampy.. Nothing at all was done. 

Lol...exactly what my thoughts were before my trip, and that is what happened to me too. I came in from a "high risk" country, but by-passed BKK. My entire inconvenience amounted to a temperature gun to the head while in an immigration line, and filling out the usual landing card. End of story.

5 hours ago, Max69xl said:

Automatically, I think not, but they can get the info of course, the official way. 

I believe, but cannot guarantee, that on the newer high-tech passports, your travel history, your ins and outs from countries comes up on their screen. I believe that is WHY so many countries stopped the stamping - waste of time, just like it is a waste of time for IOs to page through passports looking for stamps and dates. 

1 hour ago, Mitkof Island said:

Oh good to know that much. But i have to have health insurance when i enter Thailand ? And who do we report to from our Thai homes ?

Well, health insurance is wise, but you are not on the list of countries that has to show proof of travel insurance...

As for reporting, they will make you download an app to your phone while you are at the airport. You will use the app for daily reporting - things are probably a bit more complicated for people who do not have a smartphone...

11 minutes ago, zydeco said:

I'm still confused, too. But putting together the info from the US Embassy and the Thai MOPH, it seems that the health document is only needed for "Disease Infected Zones," not "Countries with Local Transmission." Hard to tell. I just tried to get what info I could from both sources. It's confusing. And still no idea about just who is required to have proof of the US$100,000 health insurance.

Your first statement is correct. As for proof of health insurance, that is also for people coming from "Disease Infected Zones." 

13 minutes ago, Mitkof Island said:

Sorry still confused . Looking for a yes or no answer.

The answer is "no," you do not need any special paper or certificate of health. You will be subject only to all the "self-monitoring" and reporting (if they seriously follow through with that.) And of course, if you are coughing like crazy or sweating when you get off the plane, you will be nabbed and taken to a hospital for observation. 

2 hours ago, zhounan said:

Thailand should add itself in this list.

For sure. Last couple of days, Thailand has been racking up more new cases per day than Japan. (Of course, some of the Thai cases supposedly had their origins in Japan...)

54 minutes ago, Seattle2k said:

From Thai Embassy website, "TRANSIT PASSENGERS:  Passengers transiting these countries for fewer than 12 hours do not have to present a health certificate or fill out the T-8 questionnaire.  They will be subject to enhanced screening.  Passengers transiting these countries for more than 12 hours will be treated as if they are passengers arriving from those designated locations."    The countries they're referring to are "China, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Italy, and Iran"

ref:https://th.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/

Yeah, but the Thai gov't, its embassies, and airports are all in a state of massive confusion. If one wants to transfer through places like Italy or China, one is just asking for trouble. It just makes you look scarier and/or more undesirable when you have to fill out on forms where your last flight originated. If one has a choice, I would recommend, as I already did to the OP, that one choose to transit through a country that is not even on the death list. But, hey, everyone can do as they like. Personally, I never transfer through China, period, even when the world is peachy. 

Also, other sources yesterday state clearly that everyone, period, has to submit a T-8 now, which contradicts what is written above, so with that type of confusion coming from the Thai gov't, why not choose the route that would have the least chance of trouble for you? 

38 minutes ago, Elkski said:

If Thailand stopped all VOA what is the Visa  I get on  Arrival  from America?

 

Not sure anything has changed  for arrival from USA?  Even if we were to transit through Shanghai or Tokyo?

Any idea on what  clean bill of health  would entail?  I cant imagine every  getting a test for this reason  as hard as it is to get a test.   And 1300$

You are in a category called "Visa Exempt," which is different from "Visa On Arrival". Regarding your transit airport, I would not recommend China or Hong Kong. At the moment, the better choices would be Tokyo or Singapore, since people coming from these locations still do not need a "CV-free clean bill of health in order to board a plane."

56 minutes ago, Proboscis said:

Not necessarily. The fact that Thailand has 35 degrees C and bright sunshine has something to do with it. Sun, heat and even humidity will destroy the virus on surfaces and reduces the level of transmission.

 

Madrid currently has a high of 20 C and a daily low of 7C. Go figure!

Yeah, the conspiracy theories get really tiring. Temperature is definitely a factor, and also, the "bad" countries like Spain, Italy, and Iran, are places where people are kissing/brushing their lips on each other's faces all day long. Compare that to a place like Japan or Thailand were people basically don't touch in any way at all, not even each other's hands... No mystery at all why some countries would have a higher spread rate. 

3 hours ago, Virt said:

In Thailand atm and not sure how to react after WHO now call it a pandemic and the numbers of infected in Europe are going through the roof. Is there a chance Thailand will stop all flights to Europe so we get stranded here in Thailand? 

I'm from Denmark. 

 

Not sure if to break off the vacation and take first flight home or if they will continue to fly people home, but not bring new tourists to Thailand 

 

Or am I overreacting? 

I'd say your concerns are legitimate. Whether you cut your vacation short or not might depend on whether you would enjoy being stranded in Thailand and whether you could afford to be. If one's home country/city gets locked down, it might be just as exciting/boring/stressful whether one is at home or in Thailand. Also, there might always be a "backdoor" to get home - like fly to Russia and then home to Denmark. 

13 hours ago, EricTh said:

That's because Japan refused to add Diamond Princess into their head count which other countries did so it's not fair for other countries.

 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

Taiwan only has 48 cases but Japan has at least ten times more at 587 cases so why is Japan's visa not suspended?

The death ship does not belong in the Japan numbers. That's why. The infection of those people had nothing to do with Japan at large. The ship was infected before it got to Japan, and the people on the ship were left on the ship to infect each other some more. Then, finally, they started sending the people home. Any Japanese people who got off the ship and entered Japanese society and/or died, are in the Japan numbers. When Japan was sitting at a level of 6 deaths for quite some time, 3 of those first six deaths were old Japanese who were on the death ship. Thus, your statement is not true. Japanese victims of the death ship are counted in the Japanese numbers, but the ship as a whole and all the people that were on it that had nothing to do with Japan, are not in Japan's numbers. 

Also, comparing bare numbers is meaningless. One has to talk in terms of cases or deaths per thousand or per million. Japan has a case rate of 5 per million people, in contrast to Italy that has a case rate of 206 per million. Also, Japan's death rate is EXTREMELY low both in terms of total numbers and as a percentage of cases or total population. Taiwan's infection rate is also low, so who knows. Maybe Thailand does not want to <deleted> off China by treating Taiwan better than it is treating China. It keeps China happy when other states treat Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau as "China." 

29 minutes ago, CH1961 said:

Any source for this, or just a fairy tale? 

I can't give you an official source, but I can tell you that I know and talk to two Japanese doctors personally, and they say that they are indeed doing very limited testing. They basically only test people that appear to be quite ill and/or ancient people. They have been told to not go crazy with testing, as testing people with mild symptoms of something will clog up the system. Also, it is not hard to find news stories that state that Japan is only testing a few hundred people per day, whereas other countries are testing thousands per day. I doubt that the journalists are just pulling these numbers out of the air. 

Japan is focusing on getting people to be careful and getting people to modify their behavior/habits, as a way to reduce spread, then if someone clearly comes down with something, they go to the hospital. Millions of people are staying at home and/or close to home in Japan without being forced to do so. It is obvious because of how empty the streets and trains are compared to normal. All kinds of places are closed: gyms, yoga studios, entertainment centers, regular schools, evening prep schools. 

18 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

So much for wealthy Indians to save the tourist industry.

 

Why on earth is Iran not on the list?

 

Interesting that Japan is also not included.

Japan gets a bad rap because of the death ship that was anchored offshore. When the death ship numbers are excluded, which they should be, Japan's infection rate is about 5 people per million people. This is in contrast to Italy's rate of 206 people per million, and South Korea's rate of 151 people per million. Deaths are also extremely low in comparison to those of the "dangerous countries." Sadly, some media outlets like to combine the death ship cases and death ship deaths with Japan's numbers, which is not reasonable. If someone ships a crate of diseased monkeys to your country, and then the monkeys die, does that mean that your country has a dangerous environment for monkeys? 

3 hours ago, baansgr said:

Airports are 24/7, time.of day really has no relevance anyway.

Definitely still relevant. Even at 24/7 airports, the number of flights coming in or going out between midnight and 6 a.m. is far, far lower than at other times of the day. 3 a.m., for example, is dead, compared to say 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. 

18 hours ago, Traubert said:

Pictures taken at 5.30am?

 

Like the ones taken of the Chinese airlines check in zone last week that claimed to be immigration?

I enjoy being cynical too, as a rule, but on some of these photos you can see an airport clock that says it is about 11 a.m. 

17 hours ago, Chivas said:

Probably 99% here are not afraid of the virus but 99% are rightly concerned about getting caught up in the subsequent disruption.

Nobody with any sense is booking right now for travel over the next 3 months

I have no sense. See you soon. 

I can't wait to hear people start complaining about the choice of Oakland for this death ship... Clearly a conspiracy to wipe out the population in that area, right?