JonnyF

Hopefully this just means shutting down the girlie bars that bought a microwave and re-employed the girls as waitresses. It would be a real shame for the genuine eateries like the Irish pubs in Bangkok to suffer because of this. Of course being Thailand under this "barrel of a gun" regime I suspect it will be a lazy ruling that affects everyone. Because why would the filthy rich power grabbers care about the proles?

As I predicted yesterday. Start releasing the real figures today, start restricting the things they pretend to hate (but secretly partake in themselves) tomorrow. It's beyond boring.

No surprise. The next wave is here. Expect deaths to stay low with this variant. Also expect the government's least favourite activities to be 'restricted' again shortly. Of course this will make no difference to the spread as Covid doesn't care about fake puritanism and pompous posturing. Anecdotally, the company I work for tested around 300 employees on Tuesday before allowing us back into the offices/factory and not a single one tested positive. I was amazed, but the general gossip amongst my Thai colleagues was that the test kits that were being used are one of the brands unable to detect Omicron and will be changed for the next round of tests. I didn't bother looking into this to verify it but it makes me wonder if this is the case at many testing venues.

Expect some more realistic case numbers to be released tomorrow to justify these restrictions. A decent increase for sure. Not entirely accurate of course. They'll hold some back in case a spike is needed at a later date for even stricter controls.

I agree. If's it's a choice between Thaksin and Prayut/Anutin I'd take Thaksin every time.

Reminds me of the old "Waiter Waiter there's a fly in my soup" joke. But on a serious note, this type of story is exactly why the "Quality tourists" won't be flocking here any time soon. They need to address this type of thing first, and then they can move onto the type of first world service that quality tourists expect, such as waiters being able to explain a bit about what type of wine is on the menu. Wine being served at the correct temperature, meals being served to diners at the same time instead of 20 minutes apart etc. On the bright side, at least the customers weren't assaulted for complaining.

Deliberate IMO. A lot of these less desirable bar areas (e.g. Soi 6 Pattaya) are not only an ebarrassment to the fake puritans in power, they are also on prime real estate. So if they can drive them out they get to pretend they have cleaned up the image of Thailand (they won't have) and their cronies/relatives can pick up some cheap real estate for another mall, theme park, condo etc. Two birds, one stone. It's a bad idea, because 'quality' tourists won't suddenly want to come just because the bars are gone. There will still be the broken pavements, hanging wires, soi dogs, taxi thugs, poor air quality, corrupt cops, flooding, sewage etc. so they will drive out the sex tourists and not much will replace them. Fortunately for them, they have such phenomenal wealth that the fate of the average Thai doesn't really matter to them as long as they get even richer.

He wants people to test. He just wants them to pay for it themselves. The various slush funds are all full and all accounted for. They are far more important to him than the wellbeing of the Thai people. Let the peasants pay for their own tests.

3 tests a day? I can definitely see the benefit of taking a test before going to visit friends and family over New Year. I always take a test before I drive from Bangkok to stay at our farm in Korat, but 3 a day? I suggest the PM releases some money from the trough and supplies these tests to the Thai people free of charge if he is serious about slowing the spread. But he won't, because he has other priorities for that cash.

I suspect they are keeping the numbers low until after New Year, either through low testing numbers or deliberate manipulation. They want the numbers to support keeping the New Year period open for travel (I assume to throw a lifeline to domestic tourism) and then after that, they will have no choice but to let the true numbers be known. This will result in them re-introducing their favourite restrictions in early January, which of course will do little to stop the spread. Basically a replay of Songkran, shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted.

Blunt? Maybe... I'd have said Crass.

Well, you sound like a very classy couple... ???? She might want to be careful though. Thailand isn't really the place for foreigners to "rip into people", especially those on the fringes who are struggling to survive and have very little to lose. Maybe a bit of empathy would be more fitting given the current situation many find themselves in?

She should show a bit of decorum and empathy, in my opinion. If my gf did that not only would I remind her that it's extremely rude to point at or mock others less fortunate than ourselves, but that those ladies probably didn't feel great about themselves being there and likely saw her disrespecting them. But then, I've never had a gf who uses expressions like 'selling pussy'. Where do they learn such language?

Once again, fantastic cutting edge insight from the great Dr. Yong. No flies on him, that's for sure.

Agreed. They should stop this grandfathered rule immediately. Anyone flying to an Omicron hotspot and then entering Thailand and taking a single test before going into the community is deeply irresponsible. The super spreader couple proved that. No matter how much they virtue signal or claim their first class ticket makes them immune from covid.

If you took the time to read and comprehend my posts before you started angrily pounding your keyboard you'd see that we agree on many points. Unfortunately you seem determined to have an argument as opposed to a discussion which is why there is no point taking the conversation further.

Exactly. That's why I was hoping for people to take individual repsonsibility and not exploit this loophole that the Thai government has left open because it's clearly going to result in more cases. Unfortunately there are people who love to tell everyone else what to do but don't practice what they preach.

You seem like a very angry man with limited comprehension skills, so I will wish you a good day and leave this discussion since it appears to be a waste of my time ????.

Well in fairness I am really talking about the situation in Thailand since that is where I live and where I am currently, and this is a Thai based forum. As for your question, I don't believe there should be any more lockdowns, whether that is to protect the NHS (an expression I hate) or for any other reason. That is why I believe it is up to the individual to protect themselves by being given the facts (not the scare stories), assessing the risk and then making an informed decision regarding their own actions. If people would take responsibility for themselves and make their own decisions not to take unnecessary risks then we could move away from this paternalistic form of governance and authoritarianism. We could also move away from lockdowns since the number of cases would fall due to people being more sensible about the risks they take. Not because the government mandates it, but because they take responsibility for their own well being based on the facts. This attitude of "They've relaxed the rules so I'm going to have a massive party, fly around the world for a holiday and let the NHS protect me" is a lovely idea but in reality it just perpetuates the cycle of Freedom, lockdown, freedom, lockdown that we've seen the last 2 years.

Again, I agree. Much like the airbags in my car are supposed to protect me. That doesn't mean I drive into a brick wall at 100mph. Omicron is coming for sure, but I'd much rather it came slowly and we don't slip back into lockdown, rather than we all pretend Covid doesn't exist and remove all the shackles overnight, the numbers skyrocket and the government shuts everything again. I just want to keep moving in the right direction and if a few minor inconveniences allow that to happen I will reluctantly accept that.

I totally agree. But there is a big difference between stopping life as we know it and recommending (not mandating) that we reduce unnecessary international travel for a few weeks. If a few minor inconveniences now can prevent another 6 months of lockdowns later then I think that's a reasonable trade off. Because we all know that if daily cases quickly rise back into 5 figures (as is quite possible with Omicron) then the government will start shutting everything down again and I really don't want to go back to that. If people voluntarily take reasonable precautions now and we continue the vaccine drive then hopefully we can continue to ease back into normality without the normal 1 step forwards 2 steps back cycle.

More likely they won't do any testing, and claim they got Brilliant.

It's a slippery slope though isn't it? What's next? Refuse treatment for Smokers? Drinkers? The obese? Those who take no exercise? Those who eat nothing but junk food? Maybe we could have a points system like China's social credit system where you get good citizen points for doing exercise and buying vegetables. Points deducted for buying a bottle of wine or a burger. If you don't have enough points, you get refused treatment. Nah, it's all a bit Brave New World for me.

He's advising people not to travel to prevent/slow down the spread. It's actually good advice. Perhaps if people followed his advice the pace of spread can be slowed and health services won't be overwhelmed. Instead of (for example) flying to the Omicron epicentre of the world (the US) and then using a grandfathered rule to return to Thailand without quarantining.

Thailand does very little testing (comparatively) so it's impossible to know what the real figures are in terms of cases and deaths. Britain on the other hand does millions of tests every week and counts someone as a Covid death if they get hit by a truck while Covid positive. Comparing the figures makes little sense in such circumstances. We do know that Thailand has destroyed huge sectors of the economy with it's arbitrary lockdowns/restrictions and hugely delayed vaccine rollout while offering next to nothing to the poor that have been made destitute by such policies. I doubt the millions unemployed with no social security feel particularly well protected.