Public anger grows over coronavirus in Thailand, with eight cases of the illness

[webfact]

Public anger grows over coronavirus in Thailand, with eight cases of the illness

By Chayut Setboonsarng

 

Health workers use infrared thermometers to check the temperature of tourists who arrive at Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport, Thailand, January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Panumas Sanguanwong

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The health minister in Thailand, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China of the new coronavirus, called an emergency meeting on Sunday with the transport and tourism ministries amid rising public discontent over the government's handling of the illness.

 

"We can control the situation and are confident in our ability to handle the crisis," Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters. The number of cases of the disease in Thailand rose on Sunday to eight.

 

Anutin added that three of the people infected were being treated and five had recovered and gone home.

 

The hashtag #crapgovernment was top trending on Twitter in Thailand on Saturday with over 400,000 tweets. Users complained about the management of the virus and other health issues.

 

"If it reaches a point where public health is in danger, we will take (more) action," Anutin said, adding that the government would not prioritise tourism revenue over health.

 

"Detecting infected patients is a good sign because it shows that our system is efficient," Anutin said.

 

China is Thailand’s biggest source of tourists and had nearly 11 million visitors from there last year.

 

In China, there have been nearly 2,000 cases of the illness and 56 people have died. A scattering of cases have been reported in other countries, including Thailand.

 

Graffiti artist, @headachestencil commented on Twitter, "Can close roads and islands, but can't close the country from China for the safety and confidence of the public. Can you not value Yuan more than our lives #crapgovernment."

 

All but one of the eight cases in Thailand were tourists from Wuhan, the central Chinese city that is at the epicentre of the outbreak. One Thai national, who had visited Wuhan over the New Year, contracted the disease.

 

There have been no cases of human-to-human transmission in Thailand.

 

The government is scanning passengers arriving on flights from Guangzhou across five airports including the main Suvarnabhumi airport, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Don Muang and Krabi.

 

Based on numbers during the SARS outbreak in 2003, three months of reduced travel from China would result in 50 billion baht (£1.2 billion) of lost tourism revenue, Minister of Tourism and Sports, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, said.

 

Major shopping malls in Thai tourist spots have introduced hygiene measures.

 

Mass transit operators including the Bangkok skytrain and subways are increasing the frequencies of wipedowns and spraying disinfectant in trains, the Transport Ministry said.

 

(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Frances Kerry)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-27

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[Creasy]

Don't worry people of Thailand.

 

The voteless prime minister will order, demand and instruct the corona virus to go away or set up a committee full of junta flunkys to talk about it.

[AlexJohanson]

Thai Health Authorities confirm two more cases of Coronavirus in Thailand, including a case in Hua Hin. They have stressed the fact that five of the eight have fully recovered and returned to China and the other three are being treated in good condition and urged the public to stay calm.

[webfact]

Eight confirmed coronavirus cases in Thailand so far

 

 

As of Sunday, there have been eight confirmed coronavirus cases in Thailand, five of which have already returned to China, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul disclosed today.

 

He also said that 84 Chinese tourists are under observation, including 24 who were detected with a fever at airport screening on their arrival, and 60 who went to hospital themselves after developing symptoms associated with coronavirus.

 

45 of them, however, have been discharged and have returned to China, leaving 39 still under observation. The health minister assured the public that the current preventive measures are sufficient for the time being adding, however, that they might be strengthened if the coronavirus situation worsens.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/eight-confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-thailand-so-far/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2020-01-27

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[Soikhaonoiken]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

If it reaches a point where public health is in danger, we will take (more) action," Anutin said, adding that the government would not prioritise tourism revenue over health.

TAT always thinks of revenue, before health or anything else for that matter, they will still welcome all the Chinese tourists, and not thinking of the long term consequences.... 

[AlexRich]

Come back Farang ... all is forgiven!!

[Pravda]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The hashtag #crapgovernment

Lol

[Chrysaora]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Health workers use infrared thermometers to check the temperature of tourists who arrive at Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport, Thailand, January 25, 2020. REUTERS/Panumas Sanguanwong

They can all be contagious and not show one symptom.  

 

That's certainly a dead-end job.

[khwaibah]

Keep sucking up that Chop Suey Thailand.????

[DoctorG]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

There have been no cases of human-to-human transmission in Thailand.

That they know of.

[sahibji]

sure people have a right to be angry more so as there are no suitable methods of screening arrivals for their temperature. it was observed that such screening was being done manually which is time consuming and unlikely to cover all arrivals. 

[Chrysaora]

2 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

That they know of.

What does that mean? 

Are you saying that all the confirmed cases got it from a non-human?

Where did it come from?

Lazada?

Edited January 26, 2020 by Chrysaora

[sahibji]

1 minute ago, DoctorG said:

That they know of.

matter of time as history has shown unless suitable precautionary methods are in place.

[sahibji]

36 minutes ago, Chrysaora said:

They can all be contagious and not show one symptom.  

 

That's certainly a dead-end job.

they could be carriers in which symptoms show up sometime later as proven in cases in singapore e.g.

[sahibji]

1 hour ago, AlexRich said:

Come back Farang ... all is forgiven!!

not so simple mate. 

[ExpatOilWorker]

8 minutes ago, Chrysaora said:

What does that mean? 

Are you saying that all the confirmed cases got it from a non-human?

Where did it come from?

Lazada?

They got it from another human while they were in China, not in Thailand: "There have been no cases of human-to-human transmission in Thailand."

[justin case]

could a farang lose his/her visa if deemed contagious ? this is thailand after all

 

what about you are getting sick but forced to do border runs ?

[BobbyL]

To be fair, not sure they can take too much blame. There have been EIGHT cases, all of which were contracted outside of Thailand. 

 

[GeorgeCross]

16 minutes ago, Chrysaora said:

What does that mean? 

Are you saying that all the confirmed cases got it from a non-human?

Where did it come from?

Lazada?

 

which bit of "in Thailand" did you not understand?

 

[RichardColeman]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

"If it reaches a point where public health is in danger, we will take (more) action,"

Ah, the scales of public health vs Tourism

[zyphodb]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

"If it reaches a point where public health is in danger, we will take (more) action," Anutin said, adding that the government would not prioritise tourism revenue over health.

Too late for that, you already have prioritised tourism revenue over health and the public know it...

[Chrysaora]

24 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

They got it from another human while they were in China, not in Thailand: "There have been no cases of human-to-human transmission in Thailand."

Proving what?  The incubation could be 2 weeks.  You're not claiming that it is only contagious in China, are you?

[RubbaJohnny]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

 

The numbers are mounting 

 

The Hubei government admitting here

http://wjw.hubei.gov.cn/

This is a machine translation despite years in China my technical Mandarin is insufficient.

 

 

2020-01-27 06:40 | Hubei Provincial Health Committee | Publicity Office

 

At 04:00 on January 26, 2020, Hubei Province reported 371 new confirmed cases of pneumonia with new coronavirus infection, 24 new deaths, and 2 new discharges. among them:

The first confirmed cases were reported in Qianjiang City. Among the newly confirmed cases, 80 were in Wuhan, 5 in Huangshi, 20 in Shiyan, 34 in Xiangyang, 11 in Yichang, 14 in Jingzhou, 52 in Jingmen, and Ezhou. There were 19 cases in Xiaogan City, 45 cases in Xiaogan City, 32 cases in Huanggang City, 21 cases in Xianning City, 16 cases in Suizhou City, 8 cases in Enshi Prefecture, 1 case in Xiantao City, 8 cases in Tianmen City, and 5 cases in Qianjiang. Among the new deaths, There were 18 cases in Wuhan, 2 cases in Jingmen City, 1 case in Xiaogan City, 2 cases in Huanggang City, and 1 case in Qianjiang City. Among the newly discharged patients, 2 cases were in Wuhan City.

As of 24:00 on January 26, Hubei Province had reported a total of 1,423 confirmed cases of pneumonitis with new coronavirus infection, 221 severe cases, 69 critical cases, 76 deaths, and 44 discharged patients. among them:

Of the confirmed cases, 698 were in Wuhan, 36 in Huangshi, 40 in Shiyan, 36 in Xiangyang, 31 in Yichang, 47 in Jingzhou, 90 in Jingmen, 20 in Ezhou, 100 in Xiaogan, and Huanggang. There were 154 cases in Xianning, 64 in Xianning, 52 in Suizhou, 25 in Enshi, 12 in Xiantao, 13 in Tianmen, and 5 in Qianjiang. Among the severe cases, 141 were in Wuhan, 4 in Shiyan, and Xiangyang. 3 cases, 2 in Yichang, 10 in Jingzhou, 28 in Jingmen, 1 in Ezhou, 9 in Xiaogan, 16 in Huanggang, 2 in Suizhou, 2 in Enshi, 2 in Xiantao, Qianjiang 1 case in Chengdu; 51 cases in critical cases, 1 in Xiangyang, 1 in Jingzhou, 3 in Jingmen, 3 in Xiaogan, 9 in Huanggang, and 1 in Tianmen; among the deaths, Wuhan 63 cases, 1 case in Huangshi City, 1 case in Yichang City, 2 cases in Jingzhou City, 3 cases in Jingmen City, 1 case in Xiaogan City, 4 cases in Huanggang City, 1 case in Qianjiang City; Among the discharged patients, 42 cases were in Wuhan City and Huanggang City 2 cases.

At present, 10,394 close contacts have been traced, 1,291 medical observations have been lifted, and 9,103 people are still receiving medical observations.

 

Meanwhile the authorities as we know have the means to control who enters LOS. I imagine a few visitors is seen as "their" problem, once some HI=SO locals realize that virus doesn't respect status some belated action may occur.

 

Apart from the tradegy of the health emergency it is probably the worst publicity possible for an economy so skewed to tourism.

 

In the karmic wheel the only upside may be the Binturong/Schleichkatzen  in my avatar and similar civets, marmots, genets , snakes and bats which may out of the restaurants and markets and back in the wild where they belong, and any foreigners tourists who are uninfected may be welcome albeit with health insurance.

 

 

 

[Chrysaora]

4 minutes ago, hrrecruiter said:

Corona Virus mask - I got recommended this from 3M that you can get at Lazada and delivered home. What are you using?

https://bit.ly/36tTyYv

You get used to it.

[miamiman123]

The Public Health Minister stated that detecting infected patient’s is a good sign, because it shows our system is efficient...

The problem with this statement and his argument is that the taking of the temperature of arrivals at the airport does not account for the corona virus “incubation” period. 
All the new arrivals that pass the temp test may be in the incubation period and are now in the population.

Cognitive Dissonance is the word. 

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by miamiman123
Spelling

[genset]

7 minutes ago, hrrecruiter said:

Corona Virus mask - I got recommended this from 3M that you can get at Lazada and delivered home. What are you using?

https://bit.ly/36tTyYv

No such thing as a Coronavirus mask, these guys should be hung by the short and curlys, but i'm sure they'll make a killing. An N95 mask will not prevent a virus from passing through the filter medium. In BSL rated labs (where they handle high risk pathogens), air is filtered/conditioned outside of the lab and fed into positive pressure suits, filter masks are not used.

 

What wearing an N95 mask will do is prevent you from physically touching the area around your nose and mouth with your hands, as physical transfer is usually the most common way to pick up viruses. I live near ABAC and there are busloads of Chinese tourists who use the 7-11's close to the university, all it would take is one contagious person to touch a fridge door handle to spread it far and wide. Be aware of what you're touching, wash your hands regularly, or carry a small tube of alcohol Gel... no guarantees but a few simple precautions will help hedge against possible infection, if it begins to spread widely in Thailand.

[mike787]

Can anyone blame Thai people's anger for letting this happen.  Are chinese tourists more important than the Thai person's life.  NOT!

[miamiman123]

If this virus threat is real....China is dead in the water ...and so his Thailand and the rest of the world.

New IPhones 12 arriving from Made in China factory???
Keep em like all the other China imports both here and WW.

China is done if this develops! 

 

[miamiman123]

iPhones 12 made in China??

haga keep em! 
the Chinese economy will be dazed and dead! Watch it! 

[tifino]

3 minutes ago, genset said:

28 minutes ago, hrrecruiter said:

Corona Virus mask - I got recommended this from 3M that you can get at Lazada and delivered home. What are you using?

https://bit.ly/36tTyYv

No such thing as a Coronavirus mask, these guys should be hung by the short and curlys, but i'm sure they'll make a killing. An N95 mask will not prevent a virus from passing through the filter medium. In BSL rated labs (where they handle high risk pathogens), air is filtered/conditioned outside of the lab and fed into positive pressure suits, filter masks are not used.

 

What wearing an N95 mask will do is prevent you from physically touching the area around your nose and mouth with your hands, as physical transfer is usually the most common way to pick up viruses. I live near ABAC and there are busloads of Chinese tourists who use the 7-11's close to the university, all it would take is one contagious person to touch a fridge door handle to spread it far and wide. Be aware of what you're touching, wash your hands regularly, or carry a small tube of alcohol Gel... no guarantees but a few simple precautions will help hedge against possible infection, if it begins to spread widely in Thailand.

yeah!   a certified to 0.3micron mask, but supposedly scam-battling a Virus sized down to 0.12micron