wensiensheng

This was in Phuketnews round up today. I think I’ve read it right? Happy to be corrected though. ????

I’ve no idea what caused the spike. Phuket doesn’t really publish where clusters are found. I did read that the sea gypsies village had been proactively tested and was found to be clear, but I’m not sure if that is as a result of recent testing or a restatement of the result of proactive tests done a month or so ago. Another sea village in the north had a 40% positive rate and 100 cases, but they aren’t in the Rawai numbers of course. it’s all rather opaque. Rawai is quite a small area, lots of mixing at the beach and in popular restaurants. Cases could go high very quickly, but then fall very quickly again because the population isn’t very big.

A lot of people have been vaccinated for sure. There seems to be some discrepancy over what percentage. Reports from the central government were that 77% have had two jabs. But on Thaiger today there was a report that it’s 77 percent of the 70 percent target. So a bit different if that is the case. but in any case, whatever percentage has been vaccinated, there will still be Covid cases. The focal point should be hospitalizations of symptomatic people. If that is manageable, then cases don’t really matter and life can be normal because the lockdown phase should be over and the vaccination phase well advanced. the caveat is that it’s quite hard to get a clear picture. As evidenced by the governors statement that no quarantine prisoners had escaped, when in fact two had. My confidence that all of the authorities are on the same page with the same information, is quite low.

Nothing. The deaths reflect the high cases of 2/3 weeks ago.

I live in Rawai. According to Thaiger, Tambon Rawai now has had a total of 182 cases since the pandemic began, an increase of 64 cases from the day before. So a 50% increase in one day, assuming I read the numbers correctly. restrictions are pretty loosely followed here, so I’m not surprised.

“The news comes as Public Health officials will accelerate the vaccination of people aged over 50 as a matter of urgency, after it was discovered that 80% COVID-19 related fatalities were people aged 50 and over, according to the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).” It’s statements like this that make me wonder whether half the CCSA have been unconscious for the last 12 months. I mean, haven’t they been paying attention?

40% positivity rate at one group of sea gypsies is pretty scary. No mention of which variant, so I assume delta. and now Phuket is to be given the luxury of booster jabs? It does seem they are trying to eradicate the virus from Phuket. An impossible target from the experience of other countries with higher vaccination rates.

The article doesn’t really provide any comparative yardsticks. Versus countries like Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia, I could see a score just above 60%, looking quite good. Against Singapore and HK, it probably looks miserable. the best I can say is that at least it improved. But imho, a score of 61% is nothing to shout about.

I’m not sure he admitted any mistake. At least not that can be read in the article. He simply gave a correct statement, that conflicted with the previous days incorrect statement. so he’s probably safe in his job for now.

Possibly the crowd who claimed a cure for cancer a few years back?

Once Covid has been around as long as the flu I doubt very much that there will be any surveillance whatsoever. Vaccines will be more effective and hospitalizations less and everybody will be bored with the whole thing.

“Schools will also be allowed to open without restrictions from Wednesday with teaching, training and testing for large groups allowed.” what on earth is going on? In Bangkok, a deep red province, schools can open, but in Phuket, the most heavily vaccinated place in Thailand, it’s just been confirmed that they must stay closed for another two weeks. another day in la la land.

Certainly the educational needs of their children hasn’t panicked them. No signs of those opening, even in Phuket!

Typical. In another thread, 7 more provinces set to open. In Phuket, kids can’t even go to school. Nonsensical.

But you do have a drivers license, right? You do wear a seatbelt, right? If in a civilized country, you do wear a motorbike helmet, right? You do stop at red traffic lights when driving, right. personal freedoms, pffiff. Totally imaginary.

So long as I can get vaccinated and have the ability to show I am vaccinated, I’m not bothered at all.

Don’t you mean, how often?

I just don’t get it. 70% plus of Phuket is double jabbed. Is the current scenario in Phuket the one that the rest of Thailand is striving to achieve? Schools closed, bars closed, no alcohol in restaurants, no public gatherings, now maybe restricted to your own Tambon. Is that the life people will live once 70% fully vaccinated levels are reached across the country? I am a big proponent of lockdowns at the right time and implemented in the right way. I believe them to be absolutely essential in serving a particular purpose at a moment in time. This ain’t that time and trying to eliminate all cases to save tourism ain’t the purpose.

I’ve no idea how much credence can be given to the number for yesterday. But there must be a lot more than 21 vaccination sites in the country. 77 provinces, every one of them with several vaccination sites. So logistically, I think it’s possible. Organizationally it seems a stretch, but who knows. the issue in my mind is, how long will supplies last out? At this rate, about a week?

I see a lot of provinces with registration sites open for Pfizer. But I don’t think that necessarily means that there will be enough actual doses to go around in the short term. I recall registering for AZ, having a confirmed appointment and it was cancelled 2 days before due to lack of vaccine. my understanding is the same as yours, in that currently there are about 1.5 mil Pfizer in the coffers. If registrations exceed that, some people will have to wait.

Based on those 10 points, why aren’t the population of Phuket allowed to live normally? It seems the criteria is met and yet even schools are closed because the authorities are still paranoid about case numbers. Probably because of the misguided idea that tourists give a toss about Covid numbers….they don’t, they care about restrictions after they arrive.

I believe that part of the justification for the change is that Thailand isn’t doing enough genome analysis of its cases and so may not identify new Covid variants quickly enough. People traveling back to the UK might therefore bring back a new unidentified variant.

The vaccinated people weren’t mostly elderly with underlying conditions were they? And the unvaccinated healthy young people? this is just conspiracy theory stuff.

Yes. It’s as though they believe their own spin that a large proportion of the population is double jabbed. And yet, in Phuket where 70% of the population IS double jabbed, schools are closed, restaurants can’t sell alcohol, bars are closed etc, so they act like most of the population ISNT double jabbed. it’s quite hard to work out what the overall strategy is.

I read in another thread that one of the reasons the UK put Thailand on the red list is because Thailand is not doing enough genome analysis to identify new variants.