ukrules

It sounds like he was allowed to walk out and get into a taxi, I wonder if they're covering their <deleted> by saying he 'escaped'. After all, he wasn't imprisoned was he? Or was he? I also read an article yesterday which said he had the Delta version of COVID. It's also possible that he recovered in the few days between leaving the hotel and the retest - you're going to test positive even after an infection but they may only detect 'a small amount'....

No longer workable - they're giving up already.

Interesting, so January 4 is the important day to watch out for, the peak of the high season. Also interesting, they're not coming until March, the start of the low season. This suggests to me that this guy knows exactly what's coming on or before January 4 which is less than 2 weeks away - an extension of the 'Test and Go' suspension, until at least March. This is is in line with my expectations. I wouldn't be making any travel plans at all right now.

I wonder, do you realise that 'we' already pay for the NHS through our taxes? The drunks pay more tax than most as there's a load of taxes on all alcohol, maybe you should pay more to make up for your shortfall if you don't drink enough? There's another often used argument about how smokers are a drain on the NHS but if you look at the amount of money in taxes collected it simply doesn't add up which is why they never show the actual cost (it's negative to the tune of billions a year) - they pay for a lot more of the system than they ever use. Careful what you wish for as you might just get it....

If it's there then it's everywhere.

Allowing all those who have booked already to come will do nothing to stop new cases arriving. They might as well not bother. Also it's already here so the might as well not bother. I guess they need to be seen to be doing something, even if it makes no difference whatsoever.

You can only continue to say that for so long until you have to accept the result. It's been there since November already. People have been saying this for 4 to 5 weeks already

"Kinfe"

That 'allow' will then become a 'demand' every 3 months...just watch.

If they don't do this before New Year it's coming soon after anyway.

I would say about 4 weeks, but it could be far sooner than that because there's not much Delta to replace - not according to their tests anyway. I don't believe the current test results in any way reflect reality. People hide away instead of going for a test when they get infected with something due to the governments way of handling the problem by locking them away for isolation. They have created an atmosphere which discourages anyone from seeking treatment for all but the most serious infections - this will really help Omicron to spread massively. This will remain the same for Omicron so I fully expect the cases to explode and not only become dominant but Delta will look like a tiny blip compared to Omicron when it gets into full swing. We're talking lockdowns, curfews, all non essential stores closed, take away food only plus anything else they can think of - all in January. Happy new year ????

He's offloading the 'blame' onto the governors before 'it' happen, he knows what's coming....

Nowhere near Measles.

No it's not. Lets keep things in perspective : COVID in the Omicron form appears to be between 3 and 5 when it's doing its worst in a population with no previous exposure to that variant so there are far more transmissible viruses out there and as you can see COVID is at the lower end of the scale here. If it was spreading like Chickenpox or even Measles then there would be a far worse problem.

That remains to be seen. Personally I think they're wrong based on what's actually happening on the ground elsewhere. Still, we will know for sure in a couple of months won't we?

Anything that came before will look like a couple of little blips on the infection numbers chart by January / February.

Indeed, I mentioned this before but right now there seems to be some attitude of a false sense of achievement prevailing. We're in the eye of the storm and things are about to get very real very fast. Prepare accordingly. It's already too late to keep it out. As for disease severity I'm not that concerned about Omicron, I'd rather have Omicron going around than Delta, not that there's a choice, come January it's going to be everywhere regardless of what they do and that's not necessarily a bad thing as it does appear to burn itself out relatively quickly. The main annoyance here is not the disease itself but the way they handle it with the forced isolation, this entire forced isolation system will collapse in on itself within weeks of Omicron going wild, count on that.

Same here, I've never had one of those 'international permits', they're just a translation of the real license. I had to show the full UK license to get a Thai license with a minimum of fuss.

I prefer to think of the current situation as being in the 'eye of the hurricane' - because that's exactly what it is. The storm is still raging and the clocks ticking. Unless this new Omicron variant is especially vulnerable to high heat and humidity then 2022 is going to be interesting.

I've been long waiting (pre covid) for the day when the airlines have simply had enough of the Thai governments BS and decided to pull out. It's been on the cards for a long time for various reasons. I hope they never resume this route and many other airlines follow their lead.

That's far too much hassle to go on holiday, cancel it.

Lol, British Airways is an old and somewhat crappy airline, many people gave up flying with them a decade ago. Whenever I previously flew I preferred KLM or Lufthansa with a transit stop in either Amsterdam or Frankfurt but routing changes at Lufthansa and the KLM Air France merger really messed with the schedules which didn't suit me. I haven't been back since.

Buzzword overload.

Crypto doesn't require any form of permission in a global sense. It can be restricted locally but that won't stop someone who wants some, nothing will.

One of the team of US journalists that travel with these guys has COVID, isn't that clear? What might not be clear is that when people like this guy travel - they bring the US press with them - sometimes on the same plane and other times (like when the President travels) they come on a separate plane if they need heavy media coverage. Bringing COVID into Thailand from another country is what this is about, COVID rates in the US are not relevant to what's happening here.