300-400 suspected new coronavirus infections investigated in Thailand every day

[robsamui]

Standing back a bit and looking at the bigger picture - this has been on the cards for a very long time. Thailand's amazing hubris ("we've never been conquered" etc) and the daily chant in schools ("we are the biggest and best country in all the whole wide world" etc) has created an atmosphere of smugness that's thicker that the skies around Chiang Mai. Add to this the general distrust of the better-educated and technically qualified and aware farangs, and this has created a disdainful administrative scorn of all foreigners other than daytrippers.

 

And now suddenly the whole world is looking at Thailand - billions of farangs all pointing fingers and asking for Thailand's infection facts and figures, and questioning why there's only a handful of infections, just a month after a half-million Chinese came for a week at the Chinese New Year in January. And that's not even taking into account the 5,000 Thai workers about to return from South Korea, the government's complete inability to explain where 1,100 of the last lot have 'disappeared' to, or the highly suspicious  ridiculous 3,000 sudden cases of 'pneumonia'.

 

The government is in a panic and totally mortified at the international loss of face that's looming on the horizon - because it's finally happening . . . the simplistic and nationalistic blundering that poses as a functioning government (the "best in the whole wide world") is being exposed and laughed at by farangs worldwide. And, if the cover-ups and dodging continues, the ensuing epidemic will need those same dreaded farangs to step in (the WHO and possibly the UN) to help Thailand with its pitifully-funded-and-equipped testing and treatment - additionally revealing to the Thai people people that their government doesn't know how to care or cope.

Edited March 7, 2020 by robsamui

[ukrules]

3 hours ago, zhounan said:

I remember that when China officially announced the virus in January, at that time 13.000 Wuhan citizens were in Thailand, and in the following weeks hundreds of Chinese citizens arrived every day.

There is emerging evidence that this COVID19 was around in at least November last year.

 

A Sky news video interview has recently surfaced (yesterday) with a guy named 'Connor Reed', he lives in Wuhan working as a teacher and became ill towards the end of November.

 

Now it's highly unlikely he was the first person to catch this virus in Wuhan so it's anyones guess as to how long it was around before this guy became infected, his infection was confirmed, last year in Wuhan. It's now March.

 

The Wuhan quarantine came at the end of Janauary so it was 'in the wild' for at least 2 full months.

 

Source, article with video interview dated today : https://news.sky.com/story/fighting-coronavirus-one-of-the-first-british-sufferers-describes-his-ordeal-11950631

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by ukrules

[dallen52]

4 hours ago, crazygreg44 said:

already slipped into the country under the radar ?  What about these ?  

And no doubt already slipping between the sheets and continuing to ply their wares....

But not in a ghostly manner in their own country. 

[4MyEgo]

4 hours ago, smedly said:

as for Thais infecting Thais ..……...nope not one, they all have Viral Pneumonia - all 3000 

 To be fair: 

Epidemiology[edit]

Viral pneumonia occurs in about 200 million people a year which includes about 100 million children and 100 million adults.^[4]

[ThailandRyan]

11 minutes ago, robsamui said:

Standing back a bit and looking at the bigger picture - this has been on the cards for a very long time. Thailand's amazing hubris ("we've never been conquered" etc) and the daily chant in schools ("we are the biggest and best country in all the whole wide world" etc) has created an atmosphere of smugness that's thicker that the skies around Chiang Mai. Add to this the general distrust of the better-educated and technically qualified and aware farangs, and this has created a disdainful administrative scorn of all foreigners other than daytrippers.

 

And now suddenly the whole world is looking at Thailand - billions of farangs all pointing fingers and asking for Thailand's infection facts and figures, and questioning why there's only a handful of infections, just a month after a half-million Chinese came for a week at the Chinese New Year in January. And that's not even taken into account the 5,000 Thai workers about to return from South Korea, the government complete inability to explain where 1,100 of the last lot have 'disappeared' to, or the highly suspicious 3,000 sudden cases of 'pneumonia'.

 

The government is in a panic and totally mortified at the international loss of face that's looming on the horizon - because it's finally happening . . . the simplistic and nationalistic blundering that poses as a functioning government (the "best in the whole wide world") is being exposed and laughed at by farangs worldwide. And, if the cover-ups and dodging continues, the ensuing epidemic will need those same dreaded farangs to step in (WHO and possibly the UN) to help Thailand with its pitifully-funded-and-equipped testing and treatment - additionally revealing to its own people that their government doesn't know how to care or cope.

I will agree 100% with your observations....

[smedly]

29 minutes ago, bobnuts said:

I wonder how many have been tested in Thailand in total. UK has reported that currently it has tested around 20,000 people.

 

51

[30la]

Slowly you are approaching more credible numbers ...

[4MyEgo]

15 minutes ago, ukrules said:

There is emerging evidence that this COVID19 was around in at least November last year.

 

A Sky news video interview has recently surfaced (yesterday) with a guy named 'Connor Reed', he lives in Wuhan working as a teacher and became ill towards the end of November.

 

Now it's highly unlikely he was the first person to catch this virus in Wuhan so it's anyones guess as to how long it was around before this guy became infected, his infection was confirmed, last year in Wuhan. It's now March.

 

The Wuhan quarantine came at the end of Janauary so it was 'in the wild' for at least 2 full months.

 

Source, article with video interview dated today : https://news.sky.com/story/fighting-coronavirus-one-of-the-first-british-sufferers-describes-his-ordeal-11950631

 

In all fairness, I saw nowhere in the story that doctors "CONFIRMED" that he had COVID-19, you know like a blood test as such, coincidence, well, I don't know.

 

Connor recovered from his illness and a few weeks later doctors realised he had suffered from the virus that was now spreading across the province, which would become known as COVID-19.

 

I mean I have felt like that with a severe chest infection in the past.

Edited March 7, 2020 by 4MyEgo

[Mung]

4 hours ago, crazygreg44 said:

Haven't over 1100 Thais returning from Korea before March 2  already slipped into the country under the radar ?  What about these ? News was that the government is "trying"  to locate them.  In our little town of Kantharalak, rumours since March 4 are going around, that 2 "phi noi" ("little ghosts") returnees from Korea have been quarantained in the government hospital of Kantharalak . . . . . . . 

To be honest, I would be more concerned about the 80,000 tourists from Wuhan over the January and early February period. But I was slammed for saying it wasn't a good look by many people on here. 

[miamiman123]

The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing...nothing new it’s Thailand sadly 

[otherstuff1957]

I generally don't go for conspiracy theories, but here is a study from Harvard U. that casts doubt on the official numbers from Thailand and several other SE Asian Counties:

 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.04.20020495v1.full.pdf

 

It's now more than a month out of date, but it's an interesting read, especially this graph:

 

If we extrapolate from this data, we can see that Thailand should have at least 4x as many cases as Singapore. Yet current figures are 130 for Singapore and only 48 for Thailand.  I suspect that 130 x 4, or 520, is probably closer to reality than the official figure.

 

BTW, other Harvard studies lauded Singapore as having the best organized response to Covid-19 of almost any county in the world, so their figures are probably more accurate than most.

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by otherstuff1957

[Essaybloke]

5 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Have the lackluster Thai government been shamed into actually doing something because of the virility of posters on Thai Visa I  wonder???

probably not..... ????

[kwak250]

I like it when they say "Deep Clean"

 

So they go over with a mop slightly harder?

[brianthainess]

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

and in the northern Gyeongsang province, to comply strictly with the 14-day self-quarantine measure, otherwise they will be sent to state facilities for confinement.

 

To ensure strict compliance, he made clear that the returnees from South Korea will not be allowed to confine themselves at home, but at locations in the vicinity of their homes and under the supervision of health volunteers and local officials.

That's perfectly clear then....????  jump in a mini bus go home but don't go home and tomorrow????

[IamNoone88]

"A stitch in time, saves nine". The Government never lost control simply because it was never in control. However, they had an opportunity to slow and control this virus, learning best practices from other countries, now this will cost them Hundreds of Billion of Thai Baht .... more than the measly Chinese tourist revenue ever contributed. When the general population starts to suffer - sickness, job losses, etc, it might even cost them an election. Let's see how this rolls as it going to get ugly.

[christophe75]

2 more cases... snap.... 2 Thai coming back from... Italy.

 

Too bad.

 

Total (do not laugh) : 50 (even Malaysia, a very cold country, tops us with 83 cases)

 

Thailand su su !

[MikeyScars]

My Japanese friend just sent me an article (it's in Japanese, so use google translate although it's not a perfect translation) which was dated March 4th, 2020.  

 

The main point was that AOT has sent 3 individuals of having a Wuhan virus symptoms to the hospital directly from the airport.

 

1.) Indian man arriving at Don Mueang Airport from Narita.  He had 37.7 degrees. 

2.) German man arriving at Phuket Airport from Singapore.  He had 38.6 degrees with cough and a runny nose.

3.) Japanese woman who was scheduled to depart from Suavarnabhumi Airport back to Japan.  She had 37.1 degrees with cough and a runny nose.  

 

My guess is that they are under the famous PUI.  

 

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20200304-00000006-nna_kyodo-asia

[Aussiepeter]

I think it's unlikely the bloke who came back to Oz from a trip to LOS caught the virus in Soi 6 - he is 81 y.o. (that being said, my dad is 98 and still likes to get his leg-over occasionally). Two deaths now in Oz. Worse, an idiot doctor aged 73 came back from USA with what he "thought was the flu" and went back to work and treated over 70 patients in a posh suburban clinic in Melbourne, before it was confirmed he had the 'big' virus.  Another health care worker has infected patients in a nursing home - all old folks. Somehow, I suspect the Thai govt is not being completely honest about the real numbers in LOS !

[FarFlungFalang]

17 minutes ago, MikeyScars said:

My guess is that they are under the famous PUI. 

Where they will be tested in three weeks when they've recovered.There is a long queue for testing.

[CGW]

44 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

I like it when they say "Deep Clean"

This is a term that has found its way into the English language in recent years, it's an excuse for not cleaning properly, when you complain to "cleaners" they state they will "deep clean" instead of just doing the job properly in the first place! I had to deal with a few companies who were fond of this "term"

[Isaan sailor]

If it’s fair to assume Wuhan Lab virus (aka COVID-19) has governments worldwide underreporting mild cases, then one can also surmise the WHO’s stated mortality rate of 3.4% is also inaccurate.   And China controls all of their virus data.  So we can only guess at these numbers.

[Sheryl]

3 hours ago, smedly said:

Thais being tested free was introduced this week when it was added to the free healthcare plan and to qualify you must be in your home province

 

OK not 0 but very low 

 

There was a graph posted on TVF about 10 days ago showing VP cases over the last 8 weeks - it went from being very low to a sudden exponential rise in numbers to over 3000 over about 3 weeks time period

 

Link? I do nto think that was a graph showing all the cases of viral pneumonia in the country. More likely a graph of cases under investigation for COVID-19.

 

Note that changes in # cases under investigation can be due to changes in investigative criteria, to interpret them you need to know if the criteria have remained constant or changed.

 

Even number of confirmed cases can suddenly seem to spike due to a change in diagnostic criteria, as happened in China when the adjusted the requirements to allow based on CT alone. the sudden apparent spike in cases included many old cases that were retroactively classified as COVID=19.

[emptypockets]

1 hour ago, kwak250 said:

I like it when they say "Deep Clean"

 

So they go over with a mop slightly harder?

Seems to be the new buzzword.

[emptypockets]

48 minutes ago, MikeyScars said:

My Japanese friend just sent me an article (it's in Japanese, so use google translate although it's not a perfect translation) which was dated March 4th, 2020.  

 

The main point was that AOT has sent 3 individuals of having a Wuhan virus symptoms to the hospital directly from the airport.

 

1.) Indian man arriving at Don Mueang Airport from Narita.  He had 37.7 degrees. 

2.) German man arriving at Phuket Airport from Singapore.  He had 38.6 degrees with cough and a runny nose.

3.) Japanese woman who was scheduled to depart from Suavarnabhumi Airport back to Japan.  She had 37.1 degrees with cough and a runny nose.  

 

My guess is that they are under the famous PUI.  

 

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20200304-00000006-nna_kyodo-asia

I thought a runny nose was not an indication of this particular viral infection. 

[Skallywag]

Article clearly says "testing" says nothing about "confirmed cases"

WHO (world health organization) has thailand at 47 confirmed cases people. 

Chill out

North America went from 2- 220 on the WHO website in 3 days

Thailand has gained maybe 10 cases in 2 weeks. 

No outbreak here

Enjoy your life

 

Life goes on (until it doesn't)

Peace ✌️

Live long and prosper

[xkkpafi]

On 11/24/2019 at 9:45 AM, ubonjoe said:

Why would it include insurance. It is not required for an extension of stay based upon marriage.

 

4 hours ago, christophe75 said:

 

Obviously Thailand has decided to go another way, like USA.

Apparently Vice President Pence's solution is to pray. At least Thailand is not that stupid.

[Millcx]

6 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Have the lackluster Thai government been shamed into actually doing something because of the virility of posters on Thai Visa I  wonder???

Not sure about that because TV omitted posts when we were pointing out what actual numbers should have been ... 34 on an 8 week cycle when borders were open and flocks of Chinese etc were in and out of the country ... unreal

[scorecard]

1 hour ago, kwak250 said:

I like it when they say "Deep Clean"

 

So they go over with a mop slightly harder?

 And the reality is that mops achieve very little just spread whatever across the floor, nothing more.

[Yorkshire Tea]

6 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 And the reality is that mops achieve very little just spread whatever across the floor, nothing more.

Dip the mop in bleach?

[rabas]

PUI testing explained?

 

Before March 3 they were reporting only the number of PUI and 'confirmed' cases ~45.

On March 3, they started reporting how many a) tested negative, and b) were 'awaiting test results'.

 

As of March 6 there are 4234 PUI persons under investigation:

  -- Recovered, returned home  = 2442

  -- Hospitalized, being treated  = 1726

Testing:

   Test result is negative = 2411

   Awaiting test results  =  1775

 

Why, is the number of 'awaiting test results' almost equal the number begin treated, and negative results equal to those cured? Why are there so many awaiting results now that they have fast PCR testing?

 

They don't release hospitalized patients until they test negative, so probably they don't report the test results until a patient is cured. When all is done they 'report' the final negative result. That's Thai style, why report something unnecessary?

 

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/situation.php

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/eng/situation.php (English)

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by rabas