3,500 hotel rooms readied as quarantine facilities for Thai returning from abroad

 

 

The Government is preparing about 3,500 private hotel rooms, in Bangkok and in the provinces, to house returning Thais in quarantine once the ban on incoming international flights, imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT), expires.

 

Deputy Defence Minister General Chaicharn Changmongkol and Defence Permanent Secretary General Nath Intharacharoen held a meeting with officials today to discuss preparations.

 

In addition to the quarantine facilities, he said that hospitals will also be prepared to accommodate those who test positive for COVID-19. There will also be medical personnel and guards stationed at the hotels to look after those in quarantine.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/3500-hotel-rooms-readied-as-quarantine-facilities-for-thai-returning-from-abroad/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2020-04-12

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Why, in the name of God, didn't they just take their most vulnerable citizens and put them securely in hotel rooms in the first place, safely away from family and visitors?

Every country should be properly quarantining their vulnerable, and giving them TVs, exercise bikes, deliver all the free food and medicine they want, and give them iPads so they can Facetime or Skype with their families.

Then let the rest of society get on with their jobs and education so that we have the money and skills necessary to deal with this and future emergencies.

What almost every government in the world is doing is just dumb.

What we saw in China and Italy was that the more active members of families were bringing the virus home with them, infecting the older members of their families, and swamping the hospitals.

We could avoid that by focusing our resources on quarantining those most likely to get seriously ill. Real quarantine, not this nonsense we are doing now.

 

Edited April 12, 20206 yr by donnacha

2 minutes ago, donnacha said:

Why, in the name of God, didn't they just take their most vulnerable citizens and put them securely in hotel rooms in the first place, safely away from family and visitors?

Every country should be properly quarantining their vulnerable, and giving them TVs, exercise bikes, deliver all the free food and medicine they want, and give them iPads so they can Facetime or Skype with their families.

Then let the rest of society get on with their jobs and education so that we have the money and skills necessary to deal with this and future emergencies.

What almost every government in the world is doing is just dumb.



 

Who pays for everything you mention?

5 minutes ago, HashBrownHarry said:

Who pays for everything you mention?

The economy that remains productive.

That's the point. The stuff we're doing now is incredibly expensive and productivity has slammed to a halt.

Trust me, the cost of putting the vulnerable in hotels or empty apartment buildings and giving them iPads is peanuts compared to what it costs to enforce a general quarantine.



 

Edited April 12, 20206 yr by donnacha

1 minute ago, donnacha said:

The economy that remains productive.

That's the point. The stuff we're doing now is incredibly expensive and productivity has slammed to a halt.

 

"Why, in the name of God, didn't they just take their most vulnerable citizens and put them securely in hotel rooms in the first place, safely away from family and visitors?"

 

How would they have known when this was?
 

Not strictly related to this, but wanted to have a whine. In a hotel in Mu Si, checked in for a month just before all hotels were closed to new guests AND we were left as the only guests. Yesterday 10 Chinese couples checked in. <deleted>?

1 minute ago, HashBrownHarry said:

 

How would they have known when this was?

Have you not been following this?

Governments had to make decisions. Thailand mostly decided to ignore it and continue on as normal, while hiding the outbreak by making it almost impossible to get a test. Now the problem can no longer be hidden and they have a curfew. They are likely to progress to a partial lockdown and, then, a full lockdown.

I am saying that, once they decided they didn't want to stop the tourists from China during the busiest part of the tourist year, they should have quietly made arrangements to protect their vulnerable. 

They were trying to protect big business and, in a very Thai way, hoped the problem would just disappear. Now it is going to cost them so much more.

 

What will be the cost per night? 

6 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Not strictly related to this, but wanted to have a whine. In a hotel in Mu Si, checked in for a month just before all hotels were closed to new guests AND we were left as the only guests. Yesterday 10 Chinese couples checked in. <deleted>?

Just to make you feel a little better, some folks staying in hotels that were almost empty have now been told the government has booked out all the other rooms to house hundreds of frontline medical workers for the field hospitals they are building all over the country.

  

4 minutes ago, donnacha said:

Have you not been following this?

Governments had to make decisions. Thailand mostly decided to ignore it and continue on as normal, while hiding the outbreak by making it almost impossible to get a test. Now the problem can no longer be hidden and they have a curfew. They are likely to progress to a partial lockdown and, then, a full lockdown.

I am saying that, once they decided they didn't want to stop the tourists from China during the busiest part of the tourist year, they should have quietly made arrangements to protect their vulnerable. 

They were trying to protect big business and, in a very Thai way, hoped the problem would just disappear. Now it is going to cost them so much more.

 

I wish i could 'not follow' this.

 

 

9 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Not strictly related to this, but wanted to have a whine. In a hotel in Mu Si, checked in for a month just before all hotels were closed to new guests AND we were left as the only guests. Yesterday 10 Chinese couples checked in. <deleted>?

Where the hell did they come from? I thought all hotels could not take anymore guest one place here in Phuket the owners got arrested 

2 minutes ago, donnacha said:

Just to make you feel a little better, some folks staying in hotels that were almost empty have now been told the government has booked out all the other rooms to house hundreds of frontline medical workers for the field hospitals they are building all over the country.

  

Yikes. I did wonder if these Chinese were quarantined . The authorities would have told us surely?????

2 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Where the hell did they come from? I thought all hotels could not take anymore guest one place here in Phuket the owners got arrested 

As they walked up the drive I said to the wife "Where the hell have they come from?". I could be miserable and phone the police, but then I thought the hotel staff are being kept in a job.........Just putting up with it now. Things are very low key here, markets are still open and bustling.

5 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Yikes. I did wonder if these Chinese were quarantined . The authorities would have told us surely?????

This being Thailand, probably not, but they would have had to tell the hotel staff, and most would refuse to accept that risk.

I believe most of those being quarantined are being held in makeshift facilities. 

 

Just now, donnacha said:

This being Thailand, probably not, but they would have had to tell the hotel staff, and most would refuse to accept that risk.

I believe most of those being quarantined are being held in makeshift facilities. 

 

Hope you are right. Should check I guess.

4 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

but then I thought the hotel staff are being kept in a job.........Just putting up with it now.

If you are in a risk group, just be aware that the 2m social distancing and hand hygiene advice is wildly insufficient. You can pick it up from droplets left hanging in the air by someone who left the room 30 minutes ago. Avoid enclosed spaces such as elevators.

If you are not in a risk group, I wouldn't worry about it too much, you will probably catch it eventually anyway.

 

4 minutes ago, donnacha said:

If you are in a risk group, just be aware that the 2m social distancing and hand hygiene advice is wildly insufficient. You can pick it up from droplets left hanging in the air by someone who left the room 30 minutes ago. Avoid enclosed spaces such as elevators.

If you are not in a risk group, I wouldn't worry about it too much, you will probably catch it eventually anyway.

 

Mmmmm. Fit and healthy, but 64!

1 hour ago, HashBrownHarry said:

Who pays for everything you mention?

You. Me. The government gets brown envelopes to ensure the right hotels are selected. It just goes on and on. Once you get used to the ways in which many Thais are corrupt, you get so you can see the opportunities everywhere.

 

Love of money before love of principles, that's the Thai way. Watching how the 'higher-ups' behave and how it makes them rich teaches quickly.

 

 

39 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Not strictly related to this, but wanted to have a whine. In a hotel in Mu Si, checked in for a month just before all hotels were closed to new guests AND we were left as the only guests. Yesterday 10 Chinese couples checked in. <deleted>?

And where may these new guests have come from.  Are they part of those that are still stuck here, or did they just teleport in since the airports are closed?

2 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

And where may these new guests have come from.  Are they part of those that are still stuck here, or did they just teleport in since the airports are closed?

Must have driven here. New cars in the car park. Maybe hire cars, as the wife says they all have Bangkok registrations. Maybe live in Bangkok and just decided to escape for a holiday!!!!!!! and negotiated with the hotel to give them a deal.

The accomodation appears far better than Buriram Stadium, in a tent, with 38C degree heat and no fans, that I remember reading about. Perhaps something to do with the type of clientele now arrriving and the 'little ghosts' previous overseas work.... https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1152808-covid-19-phee-noi-back-from-korea-complain-about-their-quarantine-think-they-might-contract-virus-in-thailand/

Edited April 12, 20206 yr by rbkk
added link

Hopefully Short time rooms...

200 per day; stay 14 days, so my math says 200@14 = 2800 rooms is enough. Two hundred income everyday and two hundred out go every 15th day; maybe 3000 rooms would be enough. OK, a bit extra to give the maids a turn around period for each vacating room.

10 hours ago, donnacha said:

Why, in the name of God, didn't they just take their most vulnerable citizens and put them securely in hotel rooms in the first place, safely away from family and visitors?

Every country should be properly quarantining their vulnerable, and giving them TVs, exercise bikes, deliver all the free food and medicine they want, and give them iPads so they can Facetime or Skype with their families.

Then let the rest of society get on with their jobs and education so that we have the money and skills necessary to deal with this and future emergencies.

What almost every government in the world is doing is just dumb.

What we saw in China and Italy was that the more active members of families were bringing the virus home with them, infecting the older members of their families, and swamping the hospitals.

We could avoid that by focusing our resources on quarantining those most likely to get seriously ill. Real quarantine, not this nonsense we are doing now.

 

Too be honest, I'm in that 'vulnerable citizens' age range and I'd personally prefer to live out in the open.  Sicknesses come and go.  Some get it; some don't.  Some die; most don't.
When it's time to go, it's time to go. Eventually, everybody dies.  Until then, I'd prefer to live my life on my feet then die on my knees subjugated under house arrest. 
Vulnerable citizens should be free to choose how they wish to live their lives, and for that matter, what risks they wish to take that may eventually lead to their deaths.  In fact, everyone should.  On a long enough time line the survival rate of everyone drops to zero.  For the fearful, try embracing your own morality with acceptance.  Life will be that much sweeter.  And then get off your knees and live!

1 hour ago, connda said:

Too be honest, I'm in that 'vulnerable citizens' age range and I'd personally prefer to live out in the open.  Sicknesses come and go.  Some get it; some don't.  Some die; most don't.
When it's time to go, it's time to go. Eventually, everybody dies.  Until then, I'd prefer to live my life on my feet then die on my knees subjugated under house arrest. 

 

I can understand that. The problem is that, if you get it and go downhill, you will require a significant amount of care, including equipment that is scarce and experienced staff with specific skills that are in short supply.

 

No matter how dismissive you may feel about the possibility now, the chances are that, when it came down to it, you would desperately want them to save your life. You would probably not just stoically accept that you made a mistake and stay at home, drowning to death from the inside.

 

The simple reality is that, unlike China, our societies are not structured to either hide or openly allow that many people to just die without at least trying to save them.

 

So, we end up in this paralysis, locking everyone down in a crude attempt to regulate the flow of people into intensive care.

 

So, for now, those who are vulnerable (age, weight, diabetes etc) need to remain locked down, but I'm saying that those who can continue to work should do so, so that we can pay for all this.

 

 

I suspect there'll be a lot of jiggy jiggy going on in these quarantine hotels.

12 hours ago, donnacha said:

That's the point. The stuff we're doing now is incredibly expensive and productivity has slammed to a halt.

I was reading an article that was putting a value of every life saved - a price society can't afford!

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/485110-covid-19-lockdown-deaths/

Edited April 12, 20206 yr by CGW

15 hours ago, donnacha said:

Why, in the name of God, didn't they just take their most vulnerable citizens and put them securely in hotel rooms in the first place, safely away from family and visitors?

Every country should be properly quarantining their vulnerable, and giving them TVs, exercise bikes, deliver all the free food and medicine they want, and give them iPads so they can Facetime or Skype with their families.

Then let the rest of society get on with their jobs and education so that we have the money and skills necessary to deal with this and future emergencies.

What almost every government in the world is doing is just dumb.

What we saw in China and Italy was that the more active members of families were bringing the virus home with them, infecting the older members of their families, and swamping the hospitals.

We could avoid that by focusing our resources on quarantining those most likely to get seriously ill. Real quarantine, not this nonsense we are doing now.

Precisely what @Yinn was advocating one month ago here:

 

 

and she was ridiculed. I thought she was showing the same spirit of those that stormed the beaches of Normandy, and I was impressed. Obviously, it is a complex operation, but something I think has merit.

 

And you are right @donnacha the cost of this may have paled compared to the cost of this shutdown and the stimulus and support checks being cut to everyone unemployed and businesses destroyed.

4 hours ago, connda said:

Too be honest, I'm in that 'vulnerable citizens' age range and I'd personally prefer to live out in the open.  Sicknesses come and go.  Some get it; some don't.  Some die; most don't.
When it's time to go, it's time to go. Eventually, everybody dies.  Until then, I'd prefer to live my life on my feet then die on my knees subjugated under house arrest. 
Vulnerable citizens should be free to choose how they wish to live their lives, and for that matter, what risks they wish to take that may eventually lead to their deaths.  In fact, everyone should.  On a long enough time line the survival rate of everyone drops to zero.  For the fearful, try embracing your own morality with acceptance.  Life will be that much sweeter.  And then get off your knees and live!

It's attitudes and thinking like this that have helped the spread of the virus, and put not nly yourself but OTHERS lives at risk.

SAD!

32 minutes ago, timendres said:

I thought she was showing the same spirit of those that stormed the beaches of Normandy, and I was impressed.

My willingness to be impressed by anything Yinn writes is somewhat reduced by the fact that she is clearly a fictional character, written by a native English speaking male member of staff with the express purpose of stirring up controversy, partially fueled by misogyny, and maximizing page views.

The whole Yinn fiction is deeply unethical and plays the members of this forum for fools. You can see the cynical goal of generating controversy in the way that post was worded, literally saying, to a forum of mostly older guys, that the old and weak are the problem.

The correct way to present the idea is to point out that you are devoting your resources to protecting the old and vulnerable from a virus that they will otherwise end up getting, because a badly managed general lockdown is not going to protect them, only slightly delay the inevitable.

From the very beginning, when I was nervously watching development in Wuhan in January, I thought it would be obvious to everyone that a lockdown focused on those most at risk is the only approach that makes any sense at all. I was astonished when it became clear, over the following months, that this was not, in fact, obvious to those in government around the world.

 

Edited April 12, 20206 yr by donnacha