UAE bans citizens from travelling to Thailand, Kuwait suspends flights

[wensiensheng]

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Your understanding is based on what?

 

Singapore Changi airport is around 8 x the transit hub that Suvarnabhumi. Keep in mind that most of them have never stayed in Singapore either.

But Singapore has been totally transparent about their cases and VERY detailed on contact mapping, PLUS has very stringent controls in place for quarantine. Thailand has ministers of Health and Tourism who, with out wishing to be disrespectful, have acted like 6 year olds. 
 

so one is a totally known quantity with clear and effective controls, the other is murky and wish washy to an extreme.

 

as an aside, kudos to the Thai Education minister, he at least announced some kind of controls over teachers parents and kids, even though anyone else is not subject to self quarantine 
 

 

[stevenl]

1 minute ago, Bkk Brian said:

This could well be the reason that Kuwait has stopped flights to Thailand, they've just announced another case yesterday although not saying where its from https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200224-sitrep-35-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=1ac4218d_2

So they don't say where it is from but you presume Thailand.

 

So far nearly exclusively the cases are directly related to China, where it is dying down. On top of it, the virus is having less impact than a common flu, and the people dying from it are having other issues and in nearly all cases 75+ years old. This will be over before you know it.

[Phoenix Rising]

2 hours ago, Chivas said:

We've checked in successfully at the moment.....

I just tried to check in online for my trip tomorrow to Europe via Dubai and was able to complete the check in only for the Dubai-Europe leg. For the BKK-DXB leg I was told to contact the check-in counter.

Maybe nothing but.....

 

[NanLaew]

19 minutes ago, Jane Dough said:

Another reason to never go to these ghastly countries in the middle east. And come what may to never use their airlines.

 

Rooster

I have a couple of associates traveling today on Emirates from west Africa through to Malaysia and Singapore. Their online check-in indicated 20% pax load for the hop to Dubai and maybe only 45% for the onward flights to the fare east. No need to try and get an upgrade!

 

I am headed from the same point of origin on TAP to Amsterdam via Lisbon and Coach is full so I was upgraded to Business.

Edited February 25, 2020 by NanLaew

[WaveHunter]

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this but apparently Israel has also banned travel from Thailand ????

 

See Thailand asks Israel to reconsider entry ban over virus concerns

[CGW]

5 minutes ago, stevenl said:

This will be over before you know it.

That may be the understatement of the year? ????

[manhood]

As i mentioned days before: Thailand sure do not publish the correct numbers of infections and as other countries stop their people going to Thailand there must be some facts behind that! And yes still open all doors for Chinese visitors.  Thailand will pay for all of that later with money and tears!

[WaveHunter]

12 minutes ago, stevenl said:

So they don't say where it is from but you presume Thailand.

 

So far nearly exclusively the cases are directly related to China, where it is dying down. On top of it, the virus is having less impact than a common flu, and the people dying from it are having other issues and in nearly all cases 75+ years old. This will be over before you know it.

OMG...where have you been hiding for the last two weeks?  Take your head out of the sand.  Everything you just said is so wrong.  With all due respect, you obviously don't have a clue of reality. 

 

I guess what you are saying is that all of the world's top experts are all wrong; they're just talking through their hats, and all must be part of some diabolical global conspiracy, right?

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by WaveHunter

[stevenl]

Just now, WaveHunter said:

OMG...where have you been hiding for the last two weeks?  Take your head out of the sand.  Everything you just said is so wrong.  With all due respect, you obviously don't have a clue of reality. 

Disagree, I have a very strong sense of reality. Just don't subscribe to the scare mongering some people, you at the forefront, are propagating here.

 

And no, you don't mean 'with all respect'.

[WaveHunter]

8 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Disagree, I have a very strong sense of reality. Just don't subscribe to the scare mongering some people, you at the forefront, are propagating here.

 

And no, you don't mean 'with all respect'.

C'mon, this "scaremongering" nonsense went out the window as soon as the first international cases started to appear, and as soon as the WHO actually started working the word "pandemic" into the briefs.

 

The exponential growth outside of China that is starting to occur in places like South Korea, Italy and Iran are not imaginary; they are real!

 

I am trying to show you some respect but with comments like you just made, it's very hard to do.  Right now, people should be taking this all very seriously; not panicking, but realizing this is very real.  To compare it to nothing more than the Flu is just plain ignorant, and more importantly, irresponsible.

Edited February 25, 2020 by WaveHunter

[fruitman]

4 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

So does this mean the regular Emirates and Etihad flights between LHR and BKK, via UAE are suspended?

 

Emirates is still flying to Beijing and passengers who use Dubai as a transit are not checked at all.

 

They also have restrictions on Singapore now.

 

Qatar air has restrictions on flights from S-Korea and Iran.

 

IT's starting to get complicated. Why don't those united arab countries use the same restrictions?

[SpanishExpat]

4 hours ago, Canuck1966 said:

Just checked google flights and you can still book on either.

I think they will cancel pretty quickly and will affect a LOT of people

They won`t cancel their services to Thailand 99,9% until there would be an explosion in infection cases like South Korea/ Italy. Kuwait Airways (and also Saudia) are extremely conservative compared to Emirates, Qatar, Etihad and Gulf Air. 

 

In any case it will be even worse to Thailand and especially BKK, as it`s also a famous destination for Arabs. I usually fly Qatar, but during my 2 times with Kuwait in Business Class all I can tell is, that it was filled up with Kuwaitis. And those people spend a lot of money when visiting Thailand.

[fruitman]

24 minutes ago, stevenl said:

So they don't say where it is from but you presume Thailand.

 

So far nearly exclusively the cases are directly related to China, where it is dying down. On top of it, the virus is having less impact than a common flu, and the people dying from it are having other issues and in nearly all cases 75+ years old. This will be over before you know it.

Many Arab flight companies are blocking destinations untill the end of April...so this isn't over before you know it....soon the European countries will start banning destinations i guess, so it's just started.

[hobobo]

5 hours ago, Maverell said:

So what do these countries know, that we don't, if they are banning travel to Thailand?

For starters, they know that Thailand still welcomes the Chinese, from anywhere, with open arms...

[stevenl]

9 minutes ago, WaveHunter said:

C'mon, this "scaremongering" nonsense went out the window as soon as the first international cases started to appear, and as soon as the WHO actually started working the word "pandemic" into the briefs.

 

The exponential growth outside of China that is starting to occur in places like South Korea, Italy and Iran are not imaginary; they are real!

 

I am trying to show you some respect but with comments like you just made, it's very hard to do.  Right now, people should be taking this all very seriously; not panicking, but realizing this is very real.  To compare it to nothing more than the Flu is just plain ignorant, and more importantly, irresponsible.

You're right about one thing, comparing it to the flu is ignorant, the flu has far more impact on health than this does.

[GarryP]

52 minutes ago, Jane Dough said:

Another reason to never go to these ghastly countries in the middle east. And come what may to never use their airlines.

 

Rooster

I have always had good service on Emirates Airlines.

[WaveHunter]

3 minutes ago, hobobo said:

For starters, they know that Thailand still welcomes the Chinese, from anywhere, with open arms...

Chinese tourism accounted for a third of Thailand's annual tourism revenue up until the baht started getting very strong, so they were already jittery about loosing Chinese visitors before the outbreak.

 

Now, that confirmed cases are here, Thailand has neither restricted Chinese tourists from entering the kingdom nor dropped its visa-on-arrival fee waiver, implemented to attract Chinese, and Thailand hasn’t imposed any bans on tourists or travellers since the outbreak of the virus...unless something has changed and I am missing something.

 

Something smells very bad about this.

[kwak250]

5 hours ago, Vacuum said:

Meanwhile; Thai officials let all Chinese tourist enter Thailand with open arms...

Rumor has it they give free piggyback rides straight through immigration to all the chinese tourists if they seem weak or unwell.

[ravip]

5 hours ago, Maverell said:

So what do these countries know, that we don't, if they are banning travel to Thailand?

Maybe they are scrutinising TVF minutely?

[Xonax]

18 minutes ago, stevenl said:

You're right about one thing, comparing it to the flu is ignorant, the flu has far more impact on health than this does.

The bigger difference compared with the flu is, that the self proclaimed Elite all have been vaccinated against the flu.

[parafareno]

4 hours ago, GarryP said:

I have an Emirates flight booked in to Manchester in May. Keeping my fingers crossed.  Also another flight from BKK to Budapest in the same month. 

i have etihad in april....<deleted> will happen

[Bkk Brian]

1 hour ago, mickymouse1 said:

Israel issued and enforced a total travel ban on Thailand. It is a well known fact the the MOSAD has a very strong link to their Thai counterparts and am certain there is a hidden truth that made Israel issue the ban.

This ^^

[WaveHunter]

38 minutes ago, stevenl said:

You're right about one thing, comparing it to the flu is ignorant, the flu has far more impact on health than this does.

I might agree with you...if this virus was static or on the decline, but it is not.  It is less than 8 weeks old, and has a lot of ground in front of it, and covering that ground very fast.  It's already surpassed both SARS and Influenza in certain critical ways.

 

This is a brand new type of coronavirus.  Almost nothing is really known about it yet.  There is no natural immunity to it yet, and no vaccine.  Treatment options for seriously infected are minimal and are already putting a huge strain on public health systems in China, and now in an increasing number of international locations.  We know it has a long incubation during which a person may be asymptomatic.  This makes it very hard to detect carriers who can AND ARE spreading the virus at an alarming rate.  We're not even sure all the ways it can spread.  

 

These factors alone make it much more dangerous than Influenza which has been around for a long time, is very well understood by doctors and scientists, and there is a vaccine for it.

 

It's not about what the current status of the outbreak is today; it's about what it will be tomorrow, next week, and next month.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do the math and imagine where things may be in a month from now.

 

Seriously, use some basic common sense and objective reasoning here.  How can you dismiss what is happening not only in China, but now in South Korea, Japan, the Diamond Princess, Italy, and Iran, as well as many other emerging hot spots around the world.

 

"This will be over before you know it." ???  I don't think so!  Not by a long shot.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by WaveHunter

[laocowboy2]

A number of the GCC countries are in full-on panic mode. Apart from Thailand there are bans on flights to Iran (apart from Tehran) and to Italy. Some are introducing quarantine for all returning from the Far East. Latest is that Bahrain stopped flights to Dubai!

[simtemple]

5 hours ago, stevenl said:

The panic and reactions by governments are simply due to overreaction by uninformed people on social media.

Really? You think governments react on the basis of what they read on social media? 

Have you heard of specialist epidemiologists and the World Health Organisation? They react because the situation is now on the verge of being officially declared a pandemic. It is estimated that most deaths will occur in South East Asia and Sub Sahara Africa. Those stupid enough to think it's a storm in tea cup will no doubt be surprised when they fall victim to the virus. 

 

[Lingba]

6 hours ago, carabaothai said:

Strange..

Only 34 people here but banning Thailand like Korea (833, 7 dead), Italy (230, 6 dead)...

Strange... 

they are telling us 34....maybe its really another number

 

[cmrichsw]

6 hours ago, Vacuum said:

Meanwhile; Thai officials let all Chinese tourist enter Thailand with open arms...

And where do you read this bit of information from? Thai & Chinese have been related in many ways long before tourists came along. Please post your open arms stories. 

[Bkk Brian]

One thing with the outbreaks in both South Korea and Italy, it can now give us a benchmark on trends, mortality rates and severity. 

 

Currently Italy has 231 confirmed with 7 deaths.

South Korea has 893 confirmed with 9 deaths.

 

Thats a very high death rate compared to the statistics that came out of China and of course death is the ultimate price paid for catching coronavirus, if your one of the unfortunate ones that becomes critical then you have a long stay in hospital with intensive treatment.

 

I'm keeping my eye on those two countries.

 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Edited February 25, 2020 by Bkk Brian

[dcnx]

Keep pretending nothing is wrong here. Governments have intelligence to find out such things. They know Thailand is at risk to explode with infections. They also know how incompetent and untruthful the government is.

 

[natway09]

What you sow you reap

This is really going to annoy the big boy  but had he closed the borders with & stopped any direct flights from & to  China for 6 weeks this would not have happened.

Many more countries will follow as the place still has many Chinese tourists flitting around.

(Not that they spend anything anyway)