TallGuyJohninBKK

The share of Thailand's population that's received a third-shot booster dose of a COVID vaccine to best combat the Omicron variant remains at only about 30%. The share of the population "fully vaccinated" with just two doses has reached 71.7%, according to the Ministry of Public Health. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/515825986702397 And the comparable numbers for the age 60 plus and younger children vaccination rates: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/515890503362612/?type=3

More than two years into the COVID pandemic, Thailand passed the 3 million mark (3,004,814) on Saturday for total official COVID cases reported, while also setting new record highs for the year of COVID patients under care at 232,147 and COVID patients requiring intubation to breathe at 355. The 3 million official cases tally means that about 4 percent of Thailand's 70 million plus population has become an official COVID case since the start of 2020 -- although the actual case numbers are believed to be many times higher because many asymptomatic or minor symptom cases are never officially tested and reported. In other statistics reported by the government on Saturday, official new cases ended three consecutive days of increases with a modest decline to 22,818. Unofficial cases, the result of positive ATK tests, increased to 33,085. And the combined total of the two reached 55,903, an increase of 498 from the prior day. New COVID deaths for the day declined from 54 on Friday to 52 on Saturday, bringing Thailand's cumulative COVID official death toll to 23,176. Serious COVID cases in hospital rose from 1,115 to 1,124, remaining just slightly below the record daily high for the year of 1,131. Among the record high 232,147 active COVID cases considered under care, 80,016 were in regular hospitals, a slight decline from the prior day, while 152,131 were alternate care arrangements such as hospitels, community or home care, an increase of more than 4,800 from the prior day, and another daily record high for the year. RED numbers are daily highs for 2022. RED numbers are daily highs for 2022. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main For added context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and intubated patients peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period.

I guess additional "forgiveness" might also be possible in the event the several others on the boat also happened to pony up some substantial payments to Mom??? After all, a Mom's gotta live...

My Thai wife, who's good at following dara news, says the Thai news is reporting that the boat owner has agreed to pay Tangmo's mother something like 30 million baht in exchange for her "forgiveness". https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/now-everyone-is-mad-at-tangmos-mom-for-taking-30m-baht-to-forgive-companions/ Now everyone is mad at Tangmo’s mom for taking 30M baht to ‘forgive’ companions "Already brooding over an actress’s drowning death, the public has turned its fury on her mother today after she announced she has accepted compensation from those linked to her daughter’s death. The latest twist in the case gripping the 70 million-strong nation came with Panida Siriyudthayothin, the mother of Nida “Tangmo” Patcharaveerapong, saying she has forgiven two of those with her daughter when she died in exchange for at least THB30 million (US$920,000). ... Today, she said her forgiveness of those possibly responsible should not affect the ongoing case. That said, the justice system traditionally takes a favorable view of those who reach settlement agreements. (more)

BlackRock (BLK -0.4%), the world's largest asset manager, has confirmed that it suspended the purchase of all Russian securities in its active and index funds on Monday, in the light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "We also have proactively advocated with our index providers to remove Russian securities from broad-based indices," Rich Kushel, head of portfolio management group for BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), and Salim Ramji, global head of iShares and index investment for BlackRock, said in a joint statement. Russian securities make up less than 0.01% of BlackRock's (BLK) clients' assets, mostly in its index portfolios, they said. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3809226-blackrock-suspends-purchase-of-russian-securities-from-funds

Another update on the continuing COVID spikes in other assorted Asian countries apart from Thailand: --In Hong Kong, where the peak is expected in the middle of March, cases reached a new daily record of 56,827. --South Korea's cases [March 3] topped 240,000 for the first time, with more than 60% reported from the Seoul area, according to Yonhap News... and health officials expect cases to peak in the middle of March. --In Japan, among the countries reporting later Omicron variant surges, cases are starting to decline, though hospitals are still under pressure, according to Reuters. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/03/asias-omicron-surges-soar-us-adds-technology-who-led-push

In my book, you have to be careful about a lot of the fruit and veggies at Makro, because some of the fresh fruit and veggies, and almost all of their frozen fruit and veggies, are imported from China. (Sometimes, you gotta look in tiny print on the back of the packages to find the "Made in China" tag. And for political and food health/safety reasons, I prefer not to eat food products that originate in China.

There's a health aspect to this unfolding tragedy also, as per Johns Hopkins March 3 COVID update: "The WHO warned on February 27 the country [Ukraine] has dangerously low supplies of medical oxygen, a key tool in treating people hospitalized with COVID-19 and other diseases. The agency announced its first shipment of medical aid for Ukraine will arrive in Poland today, but details about last-mile delivery to Ukrainians in need remain unclear." Meanwhile, the WHO under WHO Director-General Ghebreyesus, in its statement about the situation (Russia's invasion of Ukraine) "avoided naming Russia as an aggressor during their press conference, instead focusing on calls to stop attacks on civilians and medical institutions." Ghebreyesus' WHO, back to its old China-COVID tricks, ever deferring to autocracies... So, the United Nations can/did condemn Russia's invasion, but the WHO won't. https://myemail.constantcontact.com/COVID-19-Updates---March-3--2022.html?soid=1107826135286&aid=Eaxshkc7nZg

And this tidbit from Johns Hopkins March 1 COVID update: (the full version is longer and has more details, but you'll need to read those on their site, because of the forum's fair use quoting rules). "SARS-COV-2 ORIGIN In 3 preprint studies posted online last week, scientists provide additional evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a Wuhan, China, market due to a zoonotic viral spillover event. ... Many scientists agree that the preponderance of evidence, included in these studies and others, supports a zoonotic origin story of SARS-CoV-2 instead of an accidental laboratory leak." ... Researchers around the world continue to analyze available evidence, but without additional samples from early human cases and animals, the world may never know the true origin of the novel coronavirus that has so far killed at least 6 million people worldwide in just over 2 years." https://myemail.constantcontact.com/COVID-19-Updates---March-1--2022.html?soid=1107826135286&aid=LniDwNryJeM

Same chart as above, but removing Hong Kong and the western countries with higher death rates, and just focusing on the Asian region, which more clearly shows the Thailand trend line, which has been slowly and steadily rising. Source link same as prior post The missing element in all of this re Asia is China, where the data officially reported is so unreliable as to be meaningless.

Per capita COVID deaths by selected countries / regions since Jan 1, 2022. Thailand faring pretty well: Source link: Something going seriously wrong in Hong Kong...

Just speculation.... Barring the emergence of some new COVID variant with a very different/more serious illness profile, I THINK they're done with any further/tougher restrictions on incoming tourists. But domestically, if the case and hospitalization stats continue to rise/deteriorate, I wouldn't rule out the prospect of them imposing some new/restored types of business operating restrictions... not that the ones they supposedly have now are actually being seriously enforced. My wife's Thai company in BKK still has all their office staff pretty much working from home, ongoing for months now. There was some thought around New Year that might be lifted. But then a new memo came down from HR recently restating the work from home policy for the foreseeable future, indeterminate time.

I'm guessing yesterday's ATK count, which marked a huge increase from all prior days, was some kind of counting/statistical aberration for whatever reason. But even if you leave out yesterday's ATK tally, today's number was still the second highest of the year and well above all prior daily counts.

Ouch! If the gloomy projections above prove correct, that means the official daily COVID case count by mid-April would almost double from the current mid 20,000s levels, or more! The latest actual daily stats reported today clearly show Thailand's Omicron wave is continuing on its upward trend right now. The bleak projection above from MoPH would suggest that they don't see that wave peaking any time soon. And that likely means even higher daily death levels and cases hospitalized in serious condition. Gotta remember, presumably, they're now also factoring in the emergence and rapid rise of the BA2 strain of Omicron in Thailand which, while it apparently doesn't cause more serious health issues, is once again more contagious than the original Omicron variant.

Official new COVID cases rose for the third consecutive day to 23,834 on Friday, while new daily COVID deaths increased yet again to set another record high for the year at 54. Total COVID cases under care also rose again to a new yearly record high of 227,843. In terms of serious hospitalizations, the current number of serious COVID hospitalizations declined to 1,115 from yesterday's 1,135 record high tally for the year. But the number of intubated COVID patients rose again from 325 yesterday to 337 today, setting another record high for the year. Among the 227,843 COVID cases under care, the number hospitalized in regular hospitals rose to 80,539, but that remained below the record high for the year. But the number of COVID cases in alternate care such as hospitels, home and community care rose even more to 147,304 and set a new record high for the year. Overall, Friday's new COVID cases count of 23,834 represented the country's third highest case tally of 2022, trailing only two days in late February. The 31,571 unofficial cases tally from Friday, counting positive ATK tests, was Thailand's second highest number for the year. Together, the combined 55,405 official and unofficial cases was the second highest number for the year. RED numbers are daily highs for 2022. RED numbers are daily highs for 2022. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main For added context, during the peak of the Delta wave last fall, Thailand's daily COVID case count topped out at 23,418, but the numbers of serious hospital cases and intubated patients peaked above 5,600 and 1,100 respectively, and daily deaths topped 300 for a brief period.

Found this notice when I logged into my U.S. brokerage account today (click to enlarge):

Obviously, quite a few posters here have missed the fact that COVID deaths, serious hospitalizations, patients requiring intubation, etc. have all reached record-high numbers for this year, and are continuing to increase pretty much daily. The following are recap summaries of MoPH daily COVID reports. The figures in RED denote record high numbers for 2022. It's no wonder people are flooding the government's COVID phone hotlines. Not to mention, only about 30% of the population thus far has received a third dose booster vaccine that's needed to adequately protect against Omicron.

Keystone cops time.... ???? From the OP report: "Meanwhile, rescue workers gathered at NBC Boat Club in Muang district of Nonthaburi to retrieve the propeller of the speedboat that Tangmo had boarded before her plunge last Thursday night. Police of the Nonthaburi station lost the propeller in the river near the club last night when they turned on the engine of the speedboat for reenactment but the propeller sank right away. Earlier police detached the propeller from the boat for examination."

Stone is a loon on Russia and Putin, as illustrated by the following 2019 New York Post report: Oliver Stone asked Vladimir Putin to be his daughter’s godfather "Was Oliver stoned? In a scene more bizarre than any of this conspiracy theories, Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to be his 22-year-old daughter’s godfather." But his conversations with Putin back then did eerily presage the future: "Putin also told Stone that the Russians and Ukrainians “are one people” and the countries should find a way to combine." https://nypost.com/2019/07/20/oliver-stone-asked-vladimir-putin-to-be-his-daughters-godfather/ Stone's credibility on Ukraine is bottom of the barrel.

And the only reason for that is, Russia and China have permanent member veto votes on the U.N. Security Council. In the wake of the invasion, there is considerable scrutiny being given to finding a way to remove Russia from the Security Council, though the U.N. provisions and Russia/China's veto power probably make that unlikely. At any rate, LOTS of serious sanctions are being applied by the E.U., US and others outside of the U.N.

With today's update, the current numbers of COVID cases hospitalized in serious condition and those requiring intubation to breathe have both more than DOUBLED since start of the year, e.g., the past two months. COVID Serious Condition: Jan. 4 -- 555 March 3 -- 1,131 COVID Intubated: Jan. 4 -- 151 March 3 -- 325 Daily COVID deaths have increased four-fold: Jan. 4 -- 12 March 3 -- 49

Actually, official COVID death counts, here in Thailand and elsewhere, are also widely considered a significant undercount. Because, not every death has a COVID test or autopsy done to determine the actual cause. Especially in Thailand, some people just die at home without being hospitalized/treated and then are cremated, period. Both here in Thailand and in other countries, the tracked numbers of excess deaths during the pandemic has greatly exceeded the official COVID death counts that have been recorded.

Also, kinda interesting that the Thai PBS article focuses on ATK test positives for the day (many of whom may have no or minor symptoms) reaching a record high, but not that deaths, serious condition COVID hospitalizations and various other COVID stats also reached their highest numbers yet for 2022. I guess context is only important sometimes.

The actual prior high for official cases confirmed by RT-PCR was set the next day on Feb. 26 at 25,615. Feb. 26: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/511077657177230 Feb. 25: https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/510461740572155

Yes, in general, here in Thailand and elsewhere, the official stats are a considerable undercount to what's really occurring.