‘Patient Under Investigation’ criteria stretched to cover more people

By The Nation

 

 

The Public Health Ministry has expanded the definition of “Patient Under Investigation” (PUI) to four cases where free tests will be administered, Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman of the government's Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said on Wednesday (April 8).

 

1. Passengers screened by international communicable disease control will become PUI if they display any of the following symptoms – body temperature of 37.3 degrees Celsius or more, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing – together with risk factors including a recent history of travel abroad.

 

2. Patients in hospitals divided into two sub-cases:

 

Patients with body temperature above 37.5C or cough, runny nose, sore throat, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing.

 

Patients with pneumonia combined with other risk factors. Risk factors include a history of travel to an at-risk Covid-19 area in the 14 days before the onset of illness, a job dealing with tourists, visiting crowded places or having contact with many people, joining large gatherings such as at flea markets, shopping malls, hospitals or public transport, and having contact with Covid-19 patients.

 

3. Medical and public health personnel with a temperature of 37.5C or more, recent fever or any of the following respiratory symptoms – coughing, mucus, sore throat, shortness or difficulty in breathing, or pneumonia – and contact with Covid-19 patients/suspects.

 

4. Cluster pneumonia patients who test negative for influenza. Medical personnel who pass the Covid-19 examination in a department where three or more medical personnel (or five or more patients) get infected during the same week.

 

“We can now easily test up to 20,000 examples in Bangkok and other provinces,” Dr Taweesin said. “All tests will be paid for by the government. The measures will help to control the disease,” he added.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30385620

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-04-08

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8 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

“We can now easily test up to 20,000 examples in Bangkok and other provinces,” Dr Taweesin said. “All tests will be paid for by the government. The measures will help to control the disease,” he added.

Yet this afternoon I read in another News source that testing is expensive.

 

https://www.thaienquirer.com/10901/thailand-says-focused-testing-more-important-than-mass-testing-mass-testing-very-expensive/

 

 

Sounds like they are taking testing seriously now, before places charging up to 26k was ridiculous

South Korea also charge for a test but if the person is positive they get a refund. Makes sense to me, avoids all those hypochondriacs

Why not just make one category of those suffering Covid 19 symptoms if they can test 20,000 a day?Or better yet any one who wants to be tested to get a better picture of the outbreak and how to really deal with it?

Just now, scubascuba3 said:

Sounds like they are taking testing seriously now, before places charging up to 26k was ridiculous

How serious as in another article they are saying it is not cost effective to do mass testing.

21 minutes ago, totally thaied up said:

Yet this afternoon I read in another News source that testing is expensive.

 

https://www.thaienquirer.com/10901/thailand-says-focused-testing-more-important-than-mass-testing-mass-testing-very-expensive/

 

 

Very interesting article which seems to clearly explain that Thailand puts money before the lives of it's citizens and flattening the curve.They are concentrating on a less expensive way to deal with the outbreak so why bother with the expensive shutting down of the economy and instead just go hell for leather for herd immunity and drop the shutdown leave borders open and keep the planes flying and let people survive without any support,surely that would be cheaper?Why bother with any tests?Just imagine the few extra baht they could put in their pockets on top of the gynormous stimulus money already destined for overseas bank accounts.So there you DrTuner  your have your answers.It's too expensive to test and nothing more.

Edited April 8, 20206 yr by FarFlungFalang

clear as mud

 

speaking of mud - still no sign of the DPM Health Minister we all love so much

 

I'm off for a shower - 2 days early but the mere thought of that man makes me feel really dirty 

 

... guess finally one of his bossmen told that vomitinducer ????  to keep his fishmouth shut for a while, can't say I miss him much ... 

 

37.5 ????????????, i reach 40+ degrees soon as i step of the plane.

55 minutes ago, smedly said:

clear as mud

 

speaking of mud - still no sign of the DPM Health Minister we all love so much

 

I'm off for a shower - 2 days early but the mere thought of that man makes me feel really dirty 

I have a shower once a week whether I need it not

On 5 April 2020 at 18:00, Thailand announced that 597 additional people met the criteria for PUI, raising the total to 25,071 PUI, as shown in Table 1.

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

Sounds like they are taking testing seriously now, before places charging up to 26k was ridiculous

Was offered 25 covid-19 tests by a Chinese seller I dealt with before, for 212 dollars total. That's 8.50 dollars (280 baht) each. Surely the 'government' can afford this for their citizens!

 

The tests are only 90% assurance rate, but, it is a start.

12 minutes ago, thequietman said:

Was offered 25 covid-19 tests by a Chinese seller I dealt with before, for 212 dollars total. That's 8.50 dollars (280 baht) each. Surely the 'government' can afford this for their citizens!

 

The tests are only 90% assurance rate, but, it is a start.

Did you buy them and what type of test were they

 

1 hour ago, offset said:

Did you buy them and what type of test were they

 

No - they were .....................

 

COVID-19 tests, with ISO, CE certificate, approved by Chinese government, >90% accuracy.

A box of reagents can test 25 people, 25 test papers, 1 bottle of reagents, 25pcs blood sampling needles.

USD218 per box.

 

They also offered N95 masks for 2.30 dollars a piece.

17 hours ago, totally thaied up said:

How serious as in another article they are saying it is not cost effective to do mass testing.

Don't confuse what's the best thing to do with what's cost effective.

I don't see any change to the criteria before.

 

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/eng/file/guidelines/g_cpc.pdf

 

You still have to have pneumonia if you're not in the other special groups. Common public does not get tested.

17 hours ago, thequietman said:

Was offered 25 covid-19 tests by a Chinese seller I dealt with before, for 212 dollars total. That's 8.50 dollars (280 baht) each. Surely the 'government' can afford this for their citizens!

 

The tests are only 90% assurance rate, but, it is a start.

be careful, they may be from the same batch sent to Ireland, Spain and Czech Republic, only 30% reliable/assurance rate

17 hours ago, offset said:

Did you buy them and what type of test were they

 

Many Chinese test kits sent to the West have been rejected by health authorities as unreliable.

17 hours ago, jimmjam said:

37.5 ????????????, i reach 40+ degrees soon as i step of the plane.

Hmm, so they were wrong at the Hospital where I was told a temperature of 38.3C. was the flashing red light, or things might have changed in the last days (37.5 is ridiculous as many ladies go above that during their periods...). Anyone here with more (verified!) info? Thank you! 

They mey be able to test 20,000 people but how many results can be released every day? That's more important in producing accurate figures.