TallGuyJohninBKK

Your comment above is simply false. You apparently haven't been paying attention to the news.... Not serious for some, if you're lucky. Very serious for others. You wanna spin the roulette wheel with your health? 10 COVID deaths in Thailand last week, double the week before... Tell them it's "not severe and mild only." And the following as well: "New weekly COVID hospitalizations in Thailand continued their sharp rise for a fifth consecutive week hitting 1,811 new cases as of last week (April 23-29), up more than 66% percent from the prior week and more than 10-fold from the start of the month, according to newly released data by the Ministry of Public Health. ... Also last week, the share of COVID hospitalizations reported in serious condition rose to 157, more than doubling from the 73 count two weeks ago and the 19 counted during the first week of April (April 2-8). Likewise, the share of COVID hospitalized patients requiring intubation to breath more than doubled to 79 last week compared to 35 two weeks ago, and 14 the first week of April."

Regarding Switzerland (as of April 2023): "High-risk individuals can still access the vaccines after consulting a doctor, the FOPH's website says. That includes people who are older than 65, have chronic health conditions or are pregnant. "Vaccination may be wise in individual cases, as it improves protection against developing severe Covid-19 for several months," the agency's recommendations say. The FOPH plans to update its guidelines ahead of the fall and winter seasons, but Ming told AFP they could change earlier if Switzerland's epidemiological situation and immunity levels shift." https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.33CZ8KQ

I believe I saw recently that one of the main government hospitals in Chonburi was offering vaccinations....but I didn't hold onto the details I had on that. ???? One way to try, in general... The Thai MoPH and BMA seem to be using a mobile phone app called "QueQ" that, once installed, has a section on vaccination sites surrounding the area of the user. Presumably MoPH is updating that as things change on the ground. QR code for the QueQ app is shown in the BMA graphic below:

I thought it was against forum rules to use forum posts to advocate for political change. "23. You will not use ASEAN NOW as a platform to gather support to effect changes on religious, political, or governmental issues."

Then apparently you don't know too much... Latest info from the U.S. CDC is.... unvaccinated adults have a SIX times higher rate of dying from COVID during the current Omicron phase than do those who have been boosted with the newer bivalent vaccines. "All vaccinated groups had overall lower risk of dying from COVID-19 and testing positive for COVID-19 compared with people who were unvaccinated. People who were vaccinated with an updated (bivalent) booster dose had lower rates of dying from COVID-19 and slightly lower rates of testing positive for COVID-19 compared with people who were vaccinated but had not received an updated booster dose." https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status Thailand has already announced plans to make the COVID vaccine an annual one in conjunction with the flu shots for the next couple years. The U.S. and the U.K. are both planning booster shot campaigns especially for the elderly and other at risk groups later this year. The COVID vaccines are recommended by the major public health agencies around the world, especially for older and other at-risk groups. There is no legitimate, credible "science" that says otherwise.

This is one of the latest announcements from the BMA that talks about the details of their health center availability in the top two red color sections, and then their BMA hospital locations in the bottom green sections. Can use Google Translate via the camera on a mobile phone to translate into English. The hospitals listed in the green section include: BMA (Klang) Central Hospital Vajira Hospital Ratchaphiphat Hospital Sirindhorn Hospital Charoenkrung Pracharak Hospital Bang Khun Thian Elderly Hospital Luangpho Taweesak Hospital Taksin Hospital Khlong Sam Wa Hospital Bangna Hospital Ladkrabang Hospital The details listed for Khlong Sam Wa Hospital say Thursdays, 1-2 pm only... not exactly the most expansive offer. The others seem to have much broader time and day offerings.

When anyone's going to a Thai government venue to get a COVID vaccine, you always want/need to bring your passport for ID (or perhaps Thai pink card if you have one) and any document history you have of prior vaccinations in Thailand. The document history of prior vaccinations typically will have the specific ID number for you that the MoPH uses to track you and keep records of your vaccination history, in part for determining when you're eligible for a new shot. Four months since your last prior COVID shot has generally been the Thai MoPH's standard for booster eligibility.

With the recent surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has been on a big marketing push for COVID vaccines lately -- though unfortunately, mostly all in Thai language announcements. They've been promising they'll have the vaccines available at BMA run hospitals and at their district health centers throughout the city -- though usually only on certain days and times each week. The CentralWorld and MBK options explained above are easy, clearly explained, and will have the newer bivalent vaccines available, though they won't be the closest options to the OP's home location.

This place -- Rungrot Pharmacy -- out in On Nut near the Big C Extra there also has gotten good reviews in the past for product stocked and good prices -- though it can be busy and can have a queue to wait. Short walk from On Nut BTS station nearby, https://goo.gl/maps/Vfmw7Nm99orjRLht7

They have a LINE account. You can just add them in LINE, and then message them about whether they have something in stock and what the price would be. And then yes, they'll then deliver for a fee, and you can pay the delivery driver COD. And the staff there speak English fluently.

The wife and I popped in there a couple months back while we were doing some business in the area...and I remember looking around and checking some of the non-medication things we buy for home periodically. And from what I recall, the prices for the things I was checking were not particularly good and/or better than what we pay at other places such as Southeast Pharmacy. But I'll try to check about some medications my wife periodically uses next time we're by there in the future.

Yesterday, I got our electric bill from our landlord for the past month. It was DOUBLE what our normal, typical bill would be. Admittedly, we ran the AC a lot last month because of the searing heat, which seemed like one of the worst heat spells I've seen in Thailand, both in terms of length and the peaks of high temperatures. And, on top of that, because the Bangkok air quality was terrible for most of that same period due to agricultural burning, we also were running our HEPA air purifiers almost constantly on high during the same period. All of that made for a rather unpleasant month, and a rather unpleasant surprise when the latest electric bill arrived!

New COVID hospitalizations continue their sharp rise for fifth consecutive week "New weekly COVID hospitalizations in Thailand continued their sharp rise for a fifth consecutive week hitting 1,811 new cases as of last week (April 23-29), up more than 66% percent from the prior week and more than 10-fold from the start of the month, according to newly released data by the Ministry of Public Health. ... Also last week, the share of COVID hospitalizations reported in serious condition rose to 157, more than doubling from the 73 count two weeks ago and the 19 counted during the first week of April (April 2-8). Likewise, the share of COVID hospitalized patients requiring intubation to breath more than doubled to 79 last week compared to 35 two weeks ago, and 14 the first week of April." Some of the top COVID weekly new hospitalization numbers by province: Bangkok -- 525 Chonburi -- 148 Nonthaburi -- 112 Lamphun -- 100 Surat Thani -- 99 https://aseannow.com/topic/1293588-new-covid-hospitalizations-continue-their-sharp-rise-for-fifth-consecutive-week/#comment-18054005

And they were almost entirely, if not entirely, vaccinated with their own Chinese-made non-mRNA vaccines that have proven less effective than the mRNA counterparts like Pfizer and Moderna manufactured outside of China.... So in effect, even the vaccinated domestic Chinese are under-vaccinated.

The other important aspect of discounting the referenced recent Cochrane report (which the editor of the site has essentially retracted/recanted as pertains to COVID) is that much of the research summarized in their review didn't actually involve COVID but research involving other viruses prior.

There have been numerous other studies that have supported the protective effects of face mask wearing. The US CDC has done a recap of them at the following page: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/masking-science-sars-cov2.html#anchor_1634654801820 Use of Masks to Control the Spread of SARS-CoV-2 [a list of numerous studies too long for me to fully quote here under forum rules] "At least ten studies have confirmed the benefit of universal masking in community level analyses: in a unified hospital system,47 a German city,48 two U.S. states,49, 50 a panel of 15 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.,51, 52 as well as both Canada53 and the U.S.54-56 nationally. Each analysis demonstrated that, following directives from organizational and political leadership for universal masking, new infections fell significantly. Two of these studies51, 52 and an additional analysis of data from 200 countries that included the U.S.56 also demonstrated reductions in mortality."

According to the Thai MoPH's COVID dashboard for April 23-29, some of the provinces with the highest weekly new COVID hospitalization numbers included: (below is not an absolute ranking of all provinces, but instead a selection of various of Thailand's 77 provinces) Bangkok -- 525 Chonburi -- 148 Nonthaburi -- 112 Lamphun -- 100 Surat Thani -- 99 Khon Kaen -- 66 Pathum Thani -- 50 Prachuap Khiri Khan -- 42 Chiang Mai -- 2 Phuket -- 1 https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=province This is the direct ranking of top provinces from the MoPH dashboard:

Because I was using a U.S. internet connection when browsing to that site... When i change it to Thai, as I mentioned above:

The 190b reference is in the lead of the OP article in this thread: "Pattaya — Central Pattana in partnership with Klook is launching a new bus route that will operate between three major malls: Central World, Central Pattaya, and Central Village, for only 190 baht." The Klook website where you can do a booking currently lists the price as $7.29 USD, which is closer to 250b.

Prior vaccinations and prior infections BOTH provide SOME protection against being infected and having COVID illness now... Although, as the virus continues to mutate, the longer in the past a person had a prior infection or a prior vaccination, the less their protection is going to be in current time. In general, public health experts advise that vaccination is a better protection against COVID than mere past infection alone, in part because vaccinations don't carry the same extent of current and future health risks/complications as COVID infections do.

Interesting comparisons: For the last week of 2022, Thai MoPH reported 2,111 weekly new COVID hospitalizations, an average of 302 per day, and 75 new weekly COVID deaths -- all three numbers higher than the latest weekly totals for April. So while Thailand's current COVID hospitalization and death numbers have definitely spiked during the past month, the current levels still remain well below those from 2022. Another comparative example: November 20-26, 2022: 4,914 weekly COVID hospitalizations and 74 weekly COVID deaths. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos

"In Thailand, from 3 January 2020 to 12:37 am CEST, 26 April 2023, there have been 4,730,490 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 33,947 deaths, reported to WHO." https://covid19.who.int/region/searo/country/th That cumulative COVID death toll for Thailand is more than four times Thailand's total 7,600 civilian and military deaths from World War II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

This source puts the latest annual figure for ALL-cause deaths in Thailand at an average of about 1,085 per day, or just under 400,000 per year. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107872/thailand-number-of-deaths-by-gender/

Fortunately, the current officially reported COVID death numbers for Thailand are remaining relatively low, just 10 for the entire country in the past week, which is a low rate that would be typical of the current Omicron variants. However, the current COVID-driven new hospitalizations are averaging 258 per day. If that same exact rate were to continue for an entire year (which it presumably won't), it would translate into more than 94,000 annual hospitalizations. It would be interesting to know what other single illness or medical condition, if any, might be driving more daily hospitalizations than COVID in Thailand at the current 258 per day average. The daily deaths number cited in the prior post -- which is unsourced and unattributed -- presumably counts all kinds of other non-medical fatalities including old age, traffic fatalities, homicides, accidental deaths, etc etc.

Update with latest weekly COVID hospitalizations report for April 23-29: