TallGuyJohninBKK

Saw no such breakdown on that national number....

"The Ministry of Public Health is planning to open more hotel based isolation facilities, to accommodate those infected who cannot remain in isolation in their condominiums or who may not find it convenient to remain in community isolation facilities." https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailands-hospitals-and-hospitels-half-full-again-as-covid-19-continues-to-spread/ Perhaps this is part of the government's response to the recent pleas from the Minor Group exec for them to make things easier on the tourist industry... Let's go out and get more hotels into the COVID business.... But who's going to pay the daily "hospitel" hotel rates for ordinary Thais? I don't think that's covered under their standard government health insurance program... ????

It's a good example of some part of the TH goverment doing PR blather, as I posted on earlier in the thread with the very misleading The Nation article talking about the occupancy rate for TOTAL beds.... when they should have been, but didn't, talk about the occupancy rate for beds suitable for COVID patients, meaning isolation, which are far fewer in number.

You're talking about sending things from Thailand TO the U.S. Here's we're talking about sending from the U.S. to Thailand. And over the years, I've sent scores of small packages from the U.S. to Thailand via USPS, and NEVER had one of them disappear. It's a perfectly reliable means for the US to Thailand route.... Though, I have also heard a lot of complaints from people about the TH to US route being often problematic. But, of course, you can't SEND anything from Thailand to the US via USPS... It's going to be EMS from Thailand, and then a handoff to the USPS once in the U.S., and perhaps that's where the problems occur. PS - if you really want to get reamed on Customs fees, go ahead and use DHL to send any kind of $ value package from the U.S. to Thailand.... I made that mistake once, and never again!

A month or so back, I had a package rejected for shipping because it contained 4 regular consumer sized cans of shaving creme (Gillette Foamy type). Ran afoul of the shipping rules against aerosols... so they said. ????

When you ship via USPS First Class International, there's RARELY any customs duty of any kind charged. About the most I've ever gotten on any kind of electronics was a 7% VAT charge, and that only for higher priced, multi hundreds of dollar items like laptops. For under $100 stuff, usually nothing, just delivered to your door. But that advice above ONLY applies for USPS sent packages. Use any of the private couriers, and you're in a whole different world when it comes to customs risk.

It looks like he made very similar comments at the same event back in 2017: Munich Security Conference Bill Gates Munich, Germany February 17, 2017 "The point is, we ignore the link between health security and international security at our peril. Whether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year. And they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10-15 years. ... You might be wondering how likely these doomsday scenarios really are. The fact that a deadly global pandemic has not occurred in recent history shouldn't be mistaken for evidence that a deadly pandemic will not occur in the future. ... That is the situation we face today with biological threats. We may not know if that weapon is man-made or a product of nature. But one thing we can be almost certain of. A highly lethal global pandemic will occur in our lifetimes. " https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/speeches/2017/02/bill-gates-munich-security-conference

I can't explain the whys of things.... As I pointed out in a post here yesterday, for the volume of "official" cases being reported now, the share of severe cases hospitalized is much less now compared to the Delta wave last year. Probably due to a combination of vaccinations, temporary immunity from prior infections, and Omicron in general causing a lower share of acute health effects vs Delta. The last comparable time Thailand had about 700 serious COVID cases in hospital and under 200 intubated cases was late April 2021 at the beginning of the Delta wave. But those numbers occurred with daily case counts at that time of only about 2,000 and a total hospitalized COVID population of about 26,000. Nowhere close to today's nearly 19,000 new cases per day and almost 75,000 current COVID hospitalizations. It would seem we're comparatively lucky this is Omicron instead of Delta all over again. PS - I think it's hard to rely on the local media for reliable info re the real state of hospital availability. They've never done a very good job at that, and most tell-tale signs in the past have bubbled up from social media posts -- not the official media outlets. All I can recall immediately, is someone here posted here just the other day that they had someone come down with COVID, needed hospitalization, called around, and was being told that no one had any available beds for new COVID cases. Obviously, that's anecdotal.

I've shipped single hard drives from the U.S. to Thailand using Planet Express for a total cost of $10 to $12. I don't think that's unreasonable, considering the package is making an 8,000 or so mile trip by air.

Ya right....except: "Somsak added that since Covid-19 infections were still rising, the department will divert patients with mild symptoms to home, community and hotel isolation to ensure that there are enough hospital beds to treat those with severe symptoms of Covid-19 and other diseases." https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012526?fbclid=IwAR3oHWuEqiPokoiVflAep7xU2IVkWUbC8n8p8P68Q2xEMcPwSjXyrlKBVRk And, in case you hadn't noticed, the volume of COVID patients hospitalized increased by almost 5,000 just in the past day... So if so many of them will be out "within a few days," then there must be a WHOLE LOT MORE coming in the doors every day.... because the overall COVID hospitalization figures are climbing like a rocket. Despite continuing misperceptions by some here, I think it's pretty clear the days of the Thai authorities hospitalizing asymptomatic DOMESTIC COVID cases just because of positive tests only are long gone.

And here's what appears to be a somewhat misleading article from The Nation, since it's only talking about occupancy rates for TOTAL hospital beds, not the much smaller number of ISOLATION hospital beds that are supposed to be used for COVID patients. No mention of the current occupancy rates for their isolation beds. Bed occupancy still below 50% despite Omicron surge "As of February 16, Covid-19 patients were using 80,756 of a total 174,029 beds available – an occupancy rate of 46.4 per cent. Meanwhile, 93,273 beds were still free. In Bangkok and surrounding provinces, Covid-19 patients occupied 25,359 of a total 55,369 available beds, a 45.8 per cent occupancy rate." Ya, they've got SO many beds available for the daily rising tally of COVID hospitalizations. BUT... note the following added tidbids... "Somsak added that since Covid-19 infections were still rising, the department will divert patients with mild symptoms to home, community and hotel isolation to ensure that there are enough hospital beds to treat those with severe symptoms of Covid-19 and other diseases. ... The department has also instructed hospitals to convert as many beds as they can into Covid-19 treatment beds.” (more) If they were being legitimate their reporting, they'd be talking about the occupancy rate for ISOLATION beds... and not including the rate for all the general purpose rooms. Another oddity about the above report: It's saying COVID patients were using 80,756 hospital beds as of Feb. 16. But the MoPH's daily report above for Feb. 16 said there were 64,919 COVID patients hospitalized as of that date... What gives with that? But hey, it's only a difference of 15,000+ beds utilization! ???? Meanwhile, no medical emergency here... Nothing to see. Just walk on by...

I noticed this detail wasn't included in the OP report above... just to keep some sense of perspective: For the past 24 hours: New general public "official" domestic cases -- 18,554 Imported cases from travelers -- 224

Thailand 2022 COVID hospitalizations (regular hospitals): Jan 4 -- 17,280 Feb. 1 -- 40,590 (Past Week) Feb 13 –- 58,245 Feb 14 –- 60,558 Feb 15 –- 60,303 Feb 16 -- 62,752 Feb 17 –- 64,919 Feb 18 -- 69,943 Feb 19 – 74,697 (more than quadrupled since the start of the year) Thailand 2022 COVID patients in serious/critical condition: Jan 4 -- 555 Feb 1 -- 557 (past week) Feb 13 -- 641 Feb 14 –- 687 Feb 15 -- 702 Feb 16 -- 699 Feb 17 -- 728 Feb 18 -- 755 Feb 19 – 749 Source: MoPH daily COVID reports, including the latest below, with the hospitalization and patient condition statistics in the blue colored section. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/506768357608160/?type=3 Also, more broadly as shown in the blue box, Thailand currently has 157,499 COVID positive cases in care, including the 74,697 in regular hospitals, and another 82,802 in various alternate arrangements including "hospitels," field hospitals, etc. (and I believe this includes official home quarantine as well)

If it's a one time thing, you can use USPS First Class International to ship a small box, I believe up to 4 lbs, and the rates aren't bad. Just arrange direct thru your local P.O. in the U.S. If you plan to be doing future or semi-regular packages, best to use a re-shipping service like Planet Express or Shipito, who both have very good rates for small packages up to 4-5 lbs. I usually pay about $10 to $12 a pound using Planet Express and their own economy mail service from the US to TH. Delivery time is usually 10-14 days. Very reliable, and insurance is optional, if desired, at very reasonable add-on rates of a couple bucks.

It's one thing in Thailand to get arrest warrants... There've been arrest warrants out for the Red Bull kid for years. It's a whole other thing to actually make the arrests and actually bring the suspects to court to face criminal charges and obtain convictions. From the OP article, all that's clear is that at least ONE apparent customer among the mentioned eight customers/men is actually in custody. Who knows about the others? And the same with the alleged procurers. There's mention of one who's a teen-age girl, and no mention or details of anyone else, despite a reference to "Procurers of the teens were soon rounded up." Oh ya? Who, how many? Where's the criminal charges filed against them? Let's wait for the day when any of these cases are actually filed in court, the perpetrators actually identified, and convictions and sentences obtained. Otherwise, it's just Thai police talk.

I wonder if the posting OP actually read what the study he posted says? Regarding protection against COVID infection: "It was reported that neutralizing antibody titres wane by 7.3-fold within 6 months of CoronaVac [Sinovac] vaccination,17 but comparable data are not available for BNT126b2 [Pfizer] vaccination. If we adjust for a 7.3-fold waning of antibody titres for both vaccines, we estimate that only eight (16.3%) of 49 receiving CoronaVac vaccines meet the protective threshold while 39 (79.6%) of 49 of those receiving BNT162b2 do so 6 months post-vaccination. This difference in immunogenicity may explain reported difference in vaccine efficacy between the two vaccines." Regarding protection against serious illness and death: " As it is likely that T-cell responses are important in limiting severity and fatal outcomes,7-11 both vaccines may be effective in preventing such adverse outcomes of COVID-19."

What some folks here seem to be missing is that not all geographies are affected the same, at the same time, with COVID. The UK lately, and perhaps the U.S. soon, are/will be able to lighten up on their restrictions because their case counts and hospitalizations have already peaked and have begun declining. Thailand and at least several other Asian countries including South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia are all still on the upward trend of their Omicron waves... And who knows how long it will be before their respective numbers begin to fall. You can't base judgments about the necessary COVID control measures that are needed and appropriate in Thailand on what's occurring in the U.K. or the U.S. Both last year and again this year, the COVID wave in Thailand is running months behind the west.

Traffic fatalities are not contagious and don't grow exponentially. COVID is and does, unless restrained by effective vaccinations and social measures. Thailand got up to more than 300 COVID deaths a day last August, six times the daily rate of average road deaths. But months before in June, those daily numbers were in the teens, 20s and 30s, just like now.

Just for comparison purposes, my records from last fall, based on daily reports of that time, had Bangkok's daily case count peak at above 5,100 in mid August 2021. In the same vein, there was a long period of time in August 2021 where the daily count of serious/critical COVID cases in hospital was running above 5,000, and the intubated group was running above 1,100, before beginning to decline -- far above current levels. The current numbers for serious/critical COVID patients and those intubated roughly match those from late April 2021 (April 29 -- 786 serious/critical and 230 intubated), and it took another four months or so before they later peaked at the levels I mentioned in the prior paragraph.

Thailand 2022 COVID hospitalizations (regular hospitals): Jan 4 -- 17,280 Feb. 1 -- 40,590 (Past Week) Feb 12 -- 56,099 Feb 13 –- 58,245 Feb 14 –- 60,558 Feb 15 –- 60,303 Feb 16 -- 62,752 Feb 17 –- 64,919 Feb 18 -- 69,943 (now more than quadrupled since the start of the year) Thailand 2022 COVID patients in serious/critical condition: Jan 4 -- 555 Feb 1 -- 557 (past week) Feb 12 -- 610 Feb 13 -- 641 Feb 14 –- 687 Feb 15 -- 702 Feb 16 -- 699 Feb 17 -- 728 Feb 18 -- 755 Source: MoPH daily COVID reports, including the latest below, with the hospitalization and patient condition statistics in the blue colored section. https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/506187714332891/?type=3 Also, more broadly as shown in the blue box, Thailand currently has 149,589 COVID positive cases in care, including the 69,943 in regular hospitals, and another 79,646 in various alternate arrangements including "hospitels," field hospitals, etc.

Interesting juxtaposition of news headlines on the forum today: Provincial governors in Thailand told to prepare plans for COVID-19 surge COVID Not Medical Emergency Anymore ????

Perhaps a reminder of the statement the prince issued in connection with the settlement is in order: "The statement added: "Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years." https://www.insider.com/virginia-roberts-sexual-assault-claims-prince-andrew-timeline-2021-8#february-2022-andrew-reached-an-out-of-court-settlement-with-giuffre-16

Try again... See the right side graphic below. Source

Feb. 17 update from Johns Hopkins: "The WHO COVID-19 Dashboard reports 414.5 million cumulative cases and 5.83 million deaths worldwide as of February 16. The global cumulative incidence passed 400 million cases on February 9, only 33 days after reaching 300 million. The global weekly incidence continues to decline, down 18.2% from the previous week. Notably, all WHO regions with the exception of the Western Pacific region (+18.7%) reported decreasing weekly incidence last week. Global weekly mortality remained relatively steady, up 0.5% from the previous week. The weekly total of 73,145 deaths is the highest since the week of August 23, 2021—the peak of the previous wave." ... Our World in Data estimates that there are 4.88 billion vaccinated individuals worldwide (1+ dose; 62% of the global population) and 4.28 billion who are fully vaccinated (54.4% of the global population)." https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/resources/COVID-19/COVID-19-SituationReports.html

Feb. 17 Update from Johns Hopkins: "Studies differ on how many people experience long COVID symptoms, with one US CDC study estimating 1 in 10 will develop symptoms more than a month after acute infection and another from Oxford University estimating 1 in 3 individuals. While some see their symptoms resolve within weeks or months, others are experiencing nagging symptoms that have lasted a year or more. Additionally, evidence is emerging that people who have had COVID-19—including those with mild cases and who do not have typical long COVID symptoms—have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mental health conditions when compared with individuals who have never had the disease. Therefore, millions of people worldwide could experience long COVID or future health implications, with lasting societal and economic impacts. ... In the UK, 1.3 million people—2% of the population—reported experiencing long COVID symptoms for more than 4 weeks after their initial infection." https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/resources/COVID-19/COVID-19-SituationReports.html