1 hour ago, AndrewMciver said:

 

Tell me ONE GOOD THING the government did that saved Thailand from this mess. 

 

During the height of the pandeminc, they were still letting in gallons of Chinese citizens into Thailand. It was only China that put a stop to their citizens leaving. 

 

There was no mass testing, and testing is still very poor.

 

It is by sheer luck and some scientific miracle (that will need to be studied) that they escaped the kinds of mess Europe and the Americas are in. 

This is it right here. Quite likely that this virus has been circulating in China since august. Thailand did not stop inbound arrivals til at least early March, iirc, if Thailand was going to get hit badly by the virus, it would have long since happened. Instead of taking advantage of a fortunate position the powers-that-be decided that they would destroy vast swathes the economy for little benefit. 

 

You need to flatten the curve enough to so health services can deal with the infected, there is no point to any of this otherwise, the virus will always come back until herd immunity is developed, it weakens by itself, or a vaccine is developed.

 

 

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by longway

2 hours ago, AndrewMciver said:

 

Tell me ONE GOOD THING the government did that saved Thailand from this mess. 

 

During the height of the pandeminc, they were still letting in gallons of Chinese citizens into Thailand. It was only China that put a stop to their citizens leaving. 

 

There was no mass testing, and testing is still very poor.

 

It is by sheer luck and some scientific miracle (that will need to be studied) that they escaped the kinds of mess Europe and the Americas are in. 

I do think the masks, temp checks and hand sanitizers are a good thing, as they were in Hong Kong Korea, and Taiwan. Mass testing is not a prerequisite although it is certainly much better to do so. Taiwan didn't do it and was a tremendous success although they did many other things much better than Thailand like contact tracing, travel bans and quarantines. I am not sure how good Thailand's contact tracing was; certainly not as good as Taiwan's. That was what Thailand was attempting to do instead of mass testing.

 

If you read my whole post, I said it seems Thailand got lucky and the real reason for it's success we don't fully know, which seems to be what you are saying. If it followed the viral curves elsewhere the initial lack of reaction would have been a disaster. I didn't say the Thai government saved the Thai people from this mess. Or are you just feeling argumentative today?

8 hours ago, vermin on arrival said:

Thailand using this situation to reset to being a destination for wealthy tourists and to move away from backpackers and tour groups.

I’ve lost count of how many times some idiot has come up with this idea

As long as their goal it to eradicate the virus, which is just silly, they can't let any international travel into Thailand for at least 2 or 3 years.

On 6/19/2020 at 4:20 AM, Berti said:

What a helpless government. It's now 12 days to 1.July and they have absolutely no idea what to do.

Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?

 

They should at least let EVERYONE in who goes into quarantine and is willing to pay for it. This would make for some flights per month.

Because no other country has decided a plan which the Thai government can copy. Nobody expects these buffalos to be capable deciding a desired outcome and producing a plan to achieve it.

 

They are after all, products of their own education system.

Someone needs to make a decision before the situation gets out of hand and they lose control completely, they should be able to run internal tourism and get it up and running before they think about travel bubbles and bridges and that means opening up places that are yet not open in volume such as hotels and bars, reducing 2m to 1m, if Thailand's figures are correct then there is no reason to delay opening up

This whole situation has been an attack on our personal freedoms which have been slowly being eroded over the last decades. There are not many places in the world where you can say what you think without offending someone who feels rather than thinks and too many subjects which cannot be raised today which you could debate without fear some times past.

On 6/19/2020 at 4:36 PM, Patts said:

It's true of most. I had a letter in April from my provider to say any holidays booked after March 30th will not cover Covid. 

 

It's great to see AXA still covering but what's their price compared to a normal one off policy of £30 to £40. Not that we have a choice as still no international flights, hotels, difficult to obtain a medical cert etc etc 

I had a single trip policy for a month in May which unfortunately we couldn't use. It was worldwide and the second highest level(Gold), which covers delays & baggage etc. and was about £90 for the 2 of us.

We were offered an extension on the policy, which was too short to be of any use, or convert it to an annual by paying the difference. With the uncertainty too difficult to make a decision so will just accept the loss. It could be quite a long time before my wife goes to the UK again and if I go on my own I don't normally bother with the insurance.

The extension is about to expire and they sent email offering a discount on a new policy and that is when I noticed they were including covid protection but It looks like it may be age limited at 70.

On 6/19/2020 at 5:29 PM, CLS said:

For Thai residents only.

What part of "no insurance company cover for Covid19 since March" did you find difficult.

After working 8 weeks in Abu Dhabi flying helicopters to the offshore oil platforms, I spend my 4 weeks leave at home in Phuket. Having lived in Phuket for over 20 yrs, I built my home inside one of the local golf courses. I have the Yellow Book Tambian Baan, Thai I.D. and a freshly minted (Oct 2019) 10yr O-X Retirement Visa. Can I go back “home” to Phuket...???  No I can’t. 
 

Now I know why I’m seeing so many homes, villas and condos in Phuket listed on real estate web-sites “For Sale” at 50% Off what they were worth just 6 months ago. It looks like I might have to consider heading back to the B.V.I.......

 

 

Edited June 23, 20206 yr by verticalift
Typo

The first travel bubble will only include China, South Korea and Japan. So don't get your hopes too high.

On 6/19/2020 at 7:43 PM, longway said:

This is it right here. Quite likely that this virus has been circulating in China since august. Thailand did not stop inbound arrivals til at least early March, iirc, if Thailand was going to get hit badly by the virus, it would have long since happened. Instead of taking advantage of a fortunate position the powers-that-be decided that they would destroy vast swathes the economy for little benefit. 

 

 

If virus has been circulating in China since August, other countries would have gotten the virus far earlier.

 

Do you know that there are tons of Chinese tourists coming to Thailand and other SEA countries everyday. In fact, Thailand is the number one destination for Chinese tourists.