oldcpu

Correction to my post ... This was at the Phuket Merlin and not Karon Orchard.

This can be difficult to find out, and I find when it is available, it tends to lag a bit other information provided. Here are some image/charts showing Phuket testing status as of 23-August (114,158 from 1-April start date? ) and 24-August (114,610 from 1-April start date?). ie from 23-to-24-August there was 114,610 minus 114,158 = 452 ... ie 452 tests done in the one day. I think this total of 452 tests does not include "New entrants (ATK+) proactively checked CI = 79 cases" where these who tested positive will be tested again - BUT I could have that WRONG as I don't fully understand this. For those of us expatriates who are very curious, it would be nice to see more detailed English language reporting by the English language news on # of tests conducted.

I speculate (emphasis on 'speculation') that there may be a few day (week ? ) pause in vaccinations in Phuket ? This morning my Thai wife took her 85+ year old aunt, to where she had an appointment for her second AZ jab (Karon Orchard) and there were no jabs being given. My wife checked the "phuket must win" and the link for Thai people to check on their appointments was disabled (but it does still work for foreigners). My wife then phoned the phone number on the appointment sheet, and learned her aunt's appointment for today, 25-August, had been delayed a week back to 1-September-2021. There was supposed to have been an SMS sent (notifying of the delay), but none was sent. Again, note this was for a Thai citizen, not a foreigner. My 2nd AZ jab is still listed as on schedule. I don't know if this the case for other vaccination centers, but it does have me thinking there may be a very small/slight delay in AZ jabs in Phuket. Given this is AZ (where the longer between 1st and 2nd jabs is nominally good for increased efficacy) I have no opinion as to whether the delay from 25-August to 1-September was due to a desire to increase the AZ efficacy, or whether it was due to no AZ being available. Lots of room for speculation and lots of room for rumours. It would be nice to read an official statement.

Sadly, this is never very simple. My understanding is European experience has seen cases of people with pre-conditions, where high blood pressure was a symptom, had very serious side effect problems because of the vaccine jab, and the medical view is if they had waited for blood pressure to drop prior to jabbing, then the very serious side effects would not have happened. When ever side effects are too serious, the press jumps all over the vaccination, and the entire vaccination drive can be halted, while there are investigations, and hundreds/thousands of vaccinations are delayed as a result of one case (giving a jab too soon after high blood pressure). .... Hence the desire to lower blood pressure first. Again , IMHO not so simple. Studies have show the longer one waits for the 2nd jab of AZ (after the first jab) the more effective AZ is wrt preventing infection, more effective of reducing serious illness, and more effective in reducing risk of death. That then suggests wait 12 to 16 weeks. .... Of course, the other side of the coin, while waiting for the 2nd jab of AZ, one can catch the virus and die. That suggests get an earlier 2nd jab (8 weeks or sooner). .... So its not an easy call. How long to wait ? Those with high blood pressure will benefit from waiting, if they don't die first. If they die first, the 2nd jab won't help. These are very surreal times.

There are some of us (like myself) who are well over 60 who have blood pressure that is slightly below average for our age group ( ie similar to that of someone 20 to 30 years younger, ... and a VO2max of someone 40 years younger) so this sort of news for us is a confidence booster. It helps reinforce in our minds that our efforts to stay fit and eat healthy when even in our late 60s are paying off and should help a bit wrt surviving this virus. So I, for one, are happy that they post such news articles.

Indeed - so many then like to bad mouth anything Chinese - even if it saves lives.

A fairly large number of Phuket locals have received two jabs of a vaccine (352,343 people as of 22-August-2021) which I suspect is mostly Sinovac. If one counts both 1-jab and 2-jabs then as of 22-August, then 428,114 is the official number of people vaccinated in Phuket. As for Sinovac not working well against Delta for preventing infections, sadly the same is also true for 1-jab of AstraZeneca, where its 8 to 10 weeks in between the 1st and 2nd jab of AstraZeneca. Further, Thailand struggles to get AstraZeneca deliveries, and hopefully the recent news of 60-million AZ doses to be delivered by end of year-2021 is accurate, as I think many are skeptical. I have also read articles (Israel for example) where Pfizer is not stopping Delta infections. Back to Thailand : given the AstraZeneca shortage, and given ongoing studies that have indicated a Sinovac followed by AstraZeneca jab, is superior to BOTH 2-jabs Sinovac and superior to 1-jab AstraZeneca, its good to see the Thai government trying to recover from a far too slow start in vaccinating the country by offering this mix. A caution thou - any one thinking of traveling internationally, this mix may not be recognized, as vaccination typess are becoming a political football between international governments. Phuket, despite its increasing # of cases every week, is still managing wrt hospitals/hospitels for those infected, compared for example to some cases in Bangkok, where some hospitals in Bangkok were overloaded and could not handle the # of people infected. I think the hospitals tell the story, and for those willing to look (with help from someone who can read Thai ) there are figures available for Phuket where one can see the infected/hospital situation in Phuket to a certain degree - and it IS far better shape than some of the more heavily hit provinces in Thailand. ... That suggests the vaccines (Sinovac w/2-jabs and AstraZeneca) while FAR from being as good as the mRNA vaccines are helping - and are saving lives. Having Sinovac save lives must really iritate the China haters, who love to put down anything Chinese.

The NZ borders were not 100% closed. The Delta variant is believed to have come from an Australian who came to NZ (as NZ 'softened' their entry requirements allowing some from Australia to come to NZ). I think they (NZ) are up to 107 cases currently. The NZ # of cases (107 thus far in this current outbreak) is relatively small ... and NZ has a strict HARD and EARLY policy when it comes to dealing with the virus. I am interested to learn how they will manage with the Delta, which spreads much easier than other COVID variants. I suspect once more in NZ are vaccinated, they may change that HARD/EARLY policy, but at present given the 'relative ease' for them to close their borders, prior to the delta this strategy appears to have mostly been working for them (compared to most other countries).

I seriously doubt the jungle will take over. I just spent the weekend in Karon (I live in Panwa area but checked into a Karon hotel for the weekend to give them some business ). I agree shops on most streets in Kata/Karon are 95% closed. I note thou the beach at Kata was surprisingly active .. it reminded me of typical low season numbers on a very slow day. The very light traffic and relatively quiet beaches made it incredibly nice. Fabulous. I do thou pity the locals as there is clearly not enough business to support them yet. Still, even the Sandbox trickle is better than none.

Well 600 per day, while too small a number of tests IMHO, it's an improvement over about 100/day in June and about 200/day in July. I too would like to see more testing as I believe it would help the government by giving them better information to support their decision making. I fear thou their budget could limit their quantity of future testing.

I was actually making the point that the population was close to 500,000 people (the number of people have dropped since the exodus last year of people living in Phuket) and DaveC held a differnt view from me, saying the number much larger. Eventually, after my looking more into this, I came around to his view, and noted my original estimates incorrect. I note: The numbers in Phuket news (link in my above post) don't exactly add up, which I guess is no surprise. I don't think any one really knows the population of Phuket, given last years exodus of people leaving Phuket. ... Still, I note according to that June-2021 Phuket news article, current estimates (where I assume this is people age-18 and older): * about 310,000 people registered in Phuket * about 100,000 people registered in other provinces who work in Phuket * about 74,000 migrant workers or expats ... which adds up to 484,000 people by my calculation. This exceeds the 466,000 island population estimate the article also mentions. However this is NOT all the people in Phuket. The article also notes about 107,000 children under age-18. So 107,000 + 484,000 = 591,000, ... or about 600,000 people in Phuket, including children. The article gives more numbers, confusing this further, but I now prefer to assume a population of 600,000 people in Phuket.

A mute point perhaps, but you have underestimated Phuket's current population. I have been through this on another thread where like you I underestimated the population. It's closer to 600,000 people which has a sizeable impact on your calculations. Edit: Here is a reference: https://www.thephuketnews.com/officials-change-definition-of-population-of-phuket-claim-island-74-vaccinated-80369.php