Phuket lockdown starts in 3 hours.

[jackdd]

I just came across this news and it looks like it isn't here on Thaivisa yet (or i just didn't see it)

We will probably soon have an official news thread about it and this thread will be closed, but i thought i share it with you as long as you could still leave or enter.

Starting in 3 hours Phuket will be in lockdown for one month, no more in or out by land or water (freight transports are of course exempt), the only way to enter or leave Phuket will be by air, and looking at all the cancelled flights...

https://www.khaosod.co.th/covid-19/news_3847375

[hydraides]

I heard about this too, probably a smart move.

 

We should be one of the first in thailand along with other islands to reduce infections to 0'

 

Its hot, humid and ultraviolet light is at its strongest here. I think we will be in a better position than most places

 

I doubt they will ban flights out (hopefully). Its not like we have Wuhan style of infections rates.

[Kopitiam]

Its reported in the 2 local English newspapers online.

[hydraides]

Only a few hours notice is not exactly good management

 

There are probably a fair few tourists departing from BKK next week and hoping to drive out/get coaches....They will be in full panic mode

[ThailandRyan]

1 minute ago, hydraides said:

Only a few hours notice is not exactly good management

 

There are probably a fair few tourists departing from BKK next week and hoping to drive out/get coaches....They will be in full panic mode

Why would there still be tourists milling about....really

[hydraides]

Not just tourista, any foreign national even working here is probably hoping to get home but flight price the last few days have been £700+ one way to UK/America so they might have booked for next week when they were cheaper

[NCC1701A]

5 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Why would there still be tourists milling about....really

well a lot of tourists came to Thailand in the last two weeks from the west to specificity ride out the pandemic. 

 

but they might be OK with being locked on the island.

Edited March 29, 2020 by NCC1701A

[jackdd]

3 minutes ago, hydraides said:

Only a few hours notice is not exactly good management

 

There are probably a fair few tourists departing from BKK next week and hoping to drive out/get coaches....They will be in full panic mode

I can of course understand that it sucks for the affected people, and i would hate if this happened to me.

But actually it's good management, this is how it has to be done to prevent spreading of the virus.

Bad management is what happened in Bangkok. They closed everything without locking down the city, which caused thousands or maybe millions of potentially infected people to travel across the country and spread the virus everywhere.

[NCC1701A]

URGENT: If you are a tourist in Khao Lak or anywhere in Phang Nga and you plan to leave #Thailand from Phuket Airport, you should immediately pack your bags, check out of your hotel and head for Phuket. The island will be in lockdown one minute after midnight tonight #COVID19

 

from Richard Barrow just now.

[Felt 35]

they could have give people at least 24 hours to prepare. However can we still fly domestic, Thai Airways to Bangkok?

Thanks

Felt

[bearpolar]

5 minutes ago, Felt 35 said:

they could have give people at least 24 hours to prepare. However can we still fly domestic, Thai Airways to Bangkok?

Thanks

Felt

The flights im checking from phuket out of the country, that go through bkk, are 700$ usd for the phuket-bkk part

[fforest1]

26 minutes ago, hydraides said:

I heard about this too, probably a smart move.

 

We should be one of the first in thailand along with other islands to reduce infections to 0'

 

Its hot, humid and ultraviolet light is at its strongest here. I think we will be in a better position than most places

 

I doubt they will ban flights out (hopefully). Its not like we have Wuhan style of infections rates.

This is getting crazy....Hey lets just lock everyone up in iron and chains 23 hours a day...Hey good idea if it helps slow down virus......

 

Doctor Says........Yes the operation was very successful, but unfortunately the patient died...

[Felt 35]

10 minutes ago, jackdd said:

I can of course understand that it sucks for the affected people, and i would hate if this happened to me.

But actually it's good management, this is how it has to be done to prevent spreading of the virus.

Bad management is what happened in Bangkok. They closed everything without locking down the city, which caused thousands or maybe millions of potentially infected people to travel across the country and spread the virus everywhere.

Sorry but how can you call it good management when they had the option to block the Chi from flying in here two months ago.  Greed its what this is about but now the season is over anyway so let the numbers roll. Btw, Its said by people who know more about the situation than most of us that there are and underreporting on at least 20000 cases in Thailand, and counting.

Felt

[NCC1701A]

English lock down order from Richard Barrow:

[Felt 35]

5 minutes ago, bearpolar said:

The flights im checking from phuket out of the country, that go through bkk, are 700$ usd for the phuket-bkk part

Domestic to Bangkok I think was Thb 2780,- ????

[Felt 35]

12 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

This is getting crazy....Hey lets just lock everyone up in iron and chains 23 hours a day

 …...but let them shop online and eat and drink to they get sick then we at least make money at hour shopping centers and hospitals.

[hydraides]

It still says on skyscannerTHAI/ Vietjet air/ Thai Smile are still operating flights HKT>BKK next week  (I thought all these airlines closed down there operations)

 

What a fcking mess!!!

[mike787]

everything has gone world war Z mode....

[GeorgeCross]

i'm thinking those young dudes on the beach are gonna be frantically setting up gofundme pages tomorrow

 

[tropo]

15 minutes ago, Felt 35 said:

Sorry but how can you call it good management when they had the option to block the Chi from flying in here two months ago.  Greed its what this is about but now the season is over anyway so let the numbers roll. Btw, Its said by people who know more about the situation than most of us that there are and underreporting on at least 20000 cases in Thailand, and counting.

Felt

Do you mean there's 20,000 who have the virus that haven't been tested? It's not underreporting, just under testing. If that is true, then that's very good news as it would mean the mortality rate is minuscule. With only 7 deaths so far from 1388 confirmed infections, if that was 7 deaths from 21,388 cases, the mortality rate would be 0.033%,

[OJAS]

Is it a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't if you need to make a trip to the local immigration office for (e.g.) an extension of stay?

[Mapguy]

The party's over so it's one more for my baby and one more for the road.  When and where is the next full moon party?

[Susco]

There is another announcement that Phuket airport will close as well from 10 April

[madmitch]

1 hour ago, NCC1701A said:

URGENT: If you are a tourist in Khao Lak or anywhere in Phang Nga and you plan to leave #Thailand from Phuket Airport, you should immediately pack your bags, check out of your hotel and head for Phuket. The island will be in lockdown one minute after midnight tonight #COVID19

 

from Richard Barrow just now.

This has now been overridden, again according to Richard Barrow. Tourists will be able to get into Phuket for departing flights provided they can show a flight ticket at the checkpoint.

Edited March 29, 2020 by madmitch

[CGW]

1 hour ago, fforest1 said:

This is getting crazy....Hey lets just lock everyone up in iron and chains 23 hours a day...Hey good idea if it helps slow down virus......

Based on the numbers impossible to justify! - which numbers you might ask, the ones that change daily?

Easy to justify if you want people to live in an Orwellian, fascist police state!

It all stinks, nothing adds up, certainly not the "statistics they are using to introduce a fascist world!

Fear makes people very vulnerable and easy to manipulate! - see a trend? Not hard to start a trend when you own & control the media!

This is being introduced by a military government that no one trusted two weeks ago - how times change!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Weird... someone started a thread in the Isaan forum for some reason on the subject of the Phuket curfew... I posted there suggesting the thread be moved to the Phuket subforum... Now that whole thread appears to have disappeared.... 

 

Some of the same info ended up being here:

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2020 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[gearbox]

Interesting that the Phuket Airport arrivals page shows quite a few flights arriving from Russia. Would they be bringing in people or just flying back tourists? If they are bringing in people how that works with the restrictions?

[Agusts]

This is just going a bit over the top, close all beaches,  close the island... ! The Chinese and others were bringing this virus in since January,  don't you recall they occasionally catching a few of them in the airport, while many thousands entering without symptoms, so we had this virus going around for two months here, I personally know a few people who got sick and sure had it, went to hospitals and doctors,  told to go home it's a normal flu... ! No testing...

 

So it's been going around for two months, not caused much havoc or end of the world as they predict, now we are really going crazy about it, even though numbers are so low, and doing all this. Just a couple of weeks of self isolation and stopping those crazy young guys partying on the beach etc. would clear this virus - no need to close the island and beaches till end April, it's nuts if you ask me. And all from local powers too .... people will sure suffer to no end...! 

[gk10002000]

So what happens if a hotel closes or starts price gouging?  Really going to close off the island like the movie 'Escape from New York" or some of those other sci fi films that dealt more specifically with virus outbreaks?

[geriatrickid]

Phuket, especially Patong is now an infection hot zone. The enforced isolation is intended to protect other regions of Thailand and to keep the infected on the island. Many of the Phuket infected have traveled to other regions and are therefore vectors of the infection.

We are beginning to see the growth common to the infection. There are now 53 confirmed infections (though test). 6 were reported in Patong yesterday.  Phuket first announced infections on March 20 with the following confirmations by test;

- 2 male Chinese aged 32 and 35 years old

- 3 Danes; family of  male 48 years old; female 39 years old; and child, 7 years old.

 

Ten days later we are at 53 patients who have been tested.  The disturbing aspect is that 46 are in hospital. 7 are described as recovered but this is not credible. It requires 14 days since last exposure to a  positive case and end of symptoms to be declared recovered. Only 10 days passed.

 

 

4 hours ago, hydraides said:

I heard about this too, probably a smart move.

We should be one of the first in thailand along with other islands to reduce infections to 0'

Its hot, humid and ultraviolet light is at its strongest here. I think we will be in a better position than most places

I doubt they will ban flights out (hopefully). Its not like we have Wuhan style of infections rates.

Your hopes in respect to hot & humid are just that, hopes. Thailand has a humidity level greater than the climates where seasonal flu is more pronounced, and yet the flu persists in Thailand year round. UV light doesn't help in much of Thailand's  air conditioned and covered spaces. We see the virus spread in those spaces because they do not support social distancing.

 

Yes, flights,  except for repatriation and essential service, will be stopped. (Passenger yield is too low.)

 

3 hours ago, tropo said:

Do you mean there's 20,000 who have the virus that haven't been tested? It's not underreporting, just under testing. If that is true, then that's very good news as it would mean the mortality rate is minuscule. With only 7 deaths so far from 1388 confirmed infections, if that was 7 deaths from 21,388 cases, the mortality rate would be 0.033%,

Note that the government has not stated that the deceased are tested for the  presence of the virus. There are not enough resources to allow for the testing. The tests are rationed for the general public. It isn't intended to under report, rather there are not enough resources to do that ( low number of test kits available, PPE, gloves and masks used in testing are being kept for patient care.) This is common practice in most countries because of the limited resources. All emphasis is on saving lives.

 

In plain language it is possible (and likely) that there are  hundreds of deceased due to the  infection, but because no one tested for it, the deaths are attributed to other causes like  pneumonia,  old age, pre-existing disease  etc.

 

1 hour ago, gearbox said:

Interesting that the Phuket Airport arrivals page shows quite a few flights arriving from Russia. Would they be bringing in people or just flying back tourists? If they are bringing in people how that works with the restrictions?

Repatriation flights. Russia is closing its borders and has ordered Russians to return asap.

Edited March 29, 2020 by geriatrickid