Thailand had the world's first coronavirus case outside China. Here's how it avoided disaster

By South-East Asia correspondent Amy Bainbridge and Supattra Vimonsuknopparat

 

Despite having the first confirmed COVID-19 case outside China, Thailand has managed to flatten its curve, with only just over 3,000 infections.(REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun)

 

Thailand is emerging as another success story in the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

It is all the more remarkable considering the country was the first outside of China to detect a case of COVID-19 back in January.

At the time, there was intense speculation the virus could ravage South-East Asia.

 

But Thailand — along with Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam — have all had low case numbers despite dense populations and many direct flights to China.

 

Tanarak Plipat, who is the deputy-director general of the Department of Disease Control and has been at the forefront of Thailand's response to the coronavirus, says the country was considered high risk because of travel from China.

 

"Put it this way, we know that there were a lot of travellers from China — especially from Hubei Province and at the beginning of the epidemic," Dr Plipat told the ABC.

 

"They thought we were the highest-risk country because of how many tourists from Hubei province travel to Thailand."

 

Full story: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-22/thailand-defies-odds-to-successfully-manage-coronavirus-pandemic/12359632

 

-- ABC NEWS 2020 06-23

The simple answer is they have only done 468,175 tests @ 6,708 per 1 million population .

This in a country of just under 70 million IMO is rather pathetic .

You can thank the humid weather and Thais having good vitamin D levels due to being exposed to the sun, which makes me wonder, has anyone taken down the statistics of those who were exposed to CV-19, e.g. male 50 years old, white from BKK, or male 50 years old brown skin from Issan ?

 

That's my take on it, besides I can't wait for Anutin to take his first jab when Thailand produces it's first cocktail, I mean vaccine, I hope it's a BIG one.......and it goes in his rear end !

Clearly, the alcohol ban was the deciding factor here. Who ever came up with the idea should be in the running for this years Nobel prize. 

5 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

You can thank the humid weather and Thais having good vitamin D levels due to being exposed to the sun, which makes me wonder, has anyone taken down the statistics of those who were exposed to CV-19, e.g. male 50 years old, white from BKK, or male 50 years old brown skin from Issan ?

 

That's my take on it, besides I can't wait for Anutin to take his first jab when Thailand produces it's first cocktail, I mean vaccine, I hope it's a BIG one.......and it goes in his rear end !

Strange that indonesia has countless infections. That rules out climate. The hash lockdown is what saved us. 

 

I

It avoided disaster by not testing thus maintaining the illusion that Thailand was Covid-free?
Are there more Covid-19 cases in Thailand then being reported?  Probably.  But epidemiological data shows that most infected people are asymptomatic.  And those mostly elderly with co-morbidity persons who did die of this seasonal SARS-flu were most likely conservatively (accurately) reported.

Thailand has skin in the game to keep the numbers down which actually shows the true lethality of this flu in tropical counties.
They want Thailand spun up and Covid-free which benefits it economically.  I can't blame them.  It's a good strategy.  Commerce, manufacturing, and tourism will boost this economy eventually  while other countries who have wreaked their economies (US, UK, etc) while maintaining that "Covid-19 will kill us all" may never fully recover.
Bad for the Thai baht though.  Currency rates probably will explode to the upside as money flows into the relative safe haven Thailand offers (Covid-free ya know!).
Although I've been critical, I also believe that Thailand will weather this storm better than most countries economical as long as they are smart enough to loosen up the reins on their own citizens.  Time will tell.

14 minutes ago, robblok said:

Strange that indonesia has countless infections. That rules out climate. The hash lockdown is what saved us. 

 

I

Shhhhhh.......you're not allowed to say that on here.  The lockdown was all about asserting control and dominance, remember?

 

5 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

{snipped}

That's my take on it, besides I can't wait for Anutin to take his first jab when Thailand produces it's first cocktail, I mean vaccine, I hope it's a BIG one.......and it goes in his rear end !

I hadn't realised A-nut-in-government had moved from ai ferang to <deleted>?

I see Japanese Slipper is a cocktail.

 

(Yes, I knew it was a misprit, I couldn't resist it)

 

They never did antibody tests. The virus has probably been here since October, making Thailand one of the superspreader hubs thanks to it's connection to China. 

 

And now they try to spin it with these daily Xinhua sponsored propaganda pieces.

1 hour ago, robblok said:

Strange that indonesia has countless infections. That rules out climate. The hash lockdown is what saved us. 

 

I

 

Couldn't agree more man, the hash lockdown saved me 4 shua ... 

 

 

I think that the real reason that Thailand has not had many cases is because Thais don't hug, kiss, and shake hands. They give a Wai instead. It cuts down on contact and prevent infection in that manner. Am I wrong, or just simple minded?

 

10 minutes ago, ehs818 said:

I think that the real reason that Thailand has not had many cases is because Thais don't hug, kiss, and shake hands. They give a Wai instead. It cuts down on contact and prevent infection in that manner. Am I wrong, or just simple minded?

 

I think that's one of the reasons but the no public hugs and kisses thing goes for most, if not all, of Asia so there must be additional factors.

2 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

You can thank the humid weather and Thais having good vitamin D levels due to being exposed to the sun

You might find reading the statistics on Pneumonia cases and deaths since January interesting reading. 

 

I know a married couple (Thai & English) who both caught a virus whilst visiting Thailand earlier this year.  The English guy was pretty bad and was hospitalised in Pattaya - his symptoms point strongly towards Covid 19, yet neither were tested. All that was recorded was a Respiratory Infection.  I'm just one person who knows 2 that are very likley to have had Covid whilst in Thailand - how many more are there?

2 hours ago, keith101 said:

The simple answer is they have only done 468,175 tests @ 6,708 per 1 million population .

This in a country of just under 70 million IMO is rather pathetic .

What in the world does testing prove, if most positive testees are asymptomatic and thus MAYBE can't spread the virus, nor ever be hospitalized with advanced progression....?

Quote

World Health Organization official clarified on Tuesday that scientists have not determined yet how frequently people with asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 pass the disease on to others, a day after suggesting that such spread is “very rare.”

So, it seems we don't know what we're looking for with all this testing: Do we quarantine all those who test positive, even tho' some, many, most will never develop full blow symptoms? Or, as WHO has said, we don't know if these folks spread the virus -- thus, maybe they need not be locked up......

 

So, back to Thailand, where maybe testing hasn't been robust.... But, the true count of the spread is, how many new cases are being hospitalized -- and it looks like Thailand is well ahead of the curve. And, this is probably not due to testing, which may have kept some folks off the streets and prevented their spreading -- but we're not sure if this applies to asymptomatic positive testees....

 

No, Thailand is doing something right, plus being lucky that Thais seems less prone to the virus. Testing may have kept a few spreaders off the streets, or just quarantined for no reason asymptomatic non spreaders...  The jury is still out with WHO -- whose main problem now if finding replacement funding lost from the US. Goat rope, folks.

2 hours ago, robblok said:

Strange that indonesia has countless infections. That rules out climate. The hash lockdown is what saved us. 

 

I

MUSLIM country, covered from head to toe...

 

and when it is hot and you can stay indoors ... you don't get UV sun

So what about Brazil ? Dark skin, hot and tropic clima, not many Chinese... but f""" to the max.

The clima cannot be the explanation. My guess is the Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand 1st of all have a huge carpet where things have been swiped under ( all of them are not transparent ), did very little testing only and have been extremely lucky. So no cases for a month, remove all restrictions if borders are closed or what is a good reason keeping them in place?

3 hours ago, robblok said:

Strange that indonesia has countless infections. That rules out climate. The hash lockdown is what saved us. 

 

I

I give you it is strange but the lockdowns have very little to do with it the amount of people close together at the bus stop was enough too in theory be fare greater than lompini the boxing stadium. 

But nothing happened. 

On top of this 2 month +before lockdown after 1 case in thailand. 

The question is why but all the incompetence they show off has nothing to do with it. 

I believe we had the 1 case in Dec 2019 but nobody knew about coronavirus at this stage. 

In some way it past over our heads for some reason. 

Not as coronavirus is a deadly virus you can't really say that. 

In some cases it can spread very fast and in others not at all. 

But the government has nothing to do with the luck we had with the virus it would have been enough with distance and mask and clean. 

But don't fool yourself the question still stands why. 

 

4 hours ago, keith101 said:

The simple answer is they have only done 468,175 tests @ 6,708 per 1 million population .

This in a country of just under 70 million IMO is rather pathetic .

You sould like Trump now. The testing is adequate for the number of positive cases being found. Compare that to Brazil where half of the tests are returning positive. 

49 minutes ago, Deli said:

So what about Brazil ? Dark skin, hot and tropic clima, not many Chinese... but f""" to the max.

The clima cannot be the explanation. My guess is the Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand 1st of all have a huge carpet where things have been swiped under ( all of them are not transparent ), did very little testing only and have been extremely lucky. So no cases for a month, remove all restrictions if borders are closed or what is a good reason keeping them in place?

Yes the bodies are piling up at the crematoriums..didn't you see them? It's all over the news. Hospitals are full to the brim, with bidies just being thrown into trucks out the back of the hospital. You missed that too? It's all a massive coverup, especially by those nearby commie countries. 

4 hours ago, robblok said:

Strange that indonesia has countless infections. That rules out climate. The hash lockdown is what saved us. 

 

I

Is that the same harsh lock down that did not come into effect until 21 st of March, despite the first reported case being in January.

What tosh

2 hours ago, Phoenix Rising said:

I think that's one of the reasons but the no public hugs and kisses thing goes for most, if not all, of Asia so there must be additional factors.

1.2 million volunteer health officers were doing a lot of contact tracing to ensure the original clusters were reduced. 

+ early widespread use of masks/sanitisers - which continues to this day in Bangkok. 

4 hours ago, robblok said:

Strange that indonesia has countless infections. That rules out climate. The hash lockdown is what saved us. 

 

I

 

Yep. All the preventative actions especially sensible lockdown, and closing the borders.

They've done a good job in controlling the virus by harsh provincial lockdown measures and closing the borders. But at a huge cost to the economy and the many of country's citizens

 

The issue now is how good a job will they do in reopening the country, hence jump-starting the economic recovery?

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand had the world's first coronavirus case outside China. Here's how it avoided disaster

 

4 hours ago, DrTuner said:

They never did antibody tests. The virus has probably been here since October, making Thailand one of the superspreader hubs thanks to it's connection to China. 

 

And now they try to spin it with these daily Xinhua sponsored propaganda pieces.

If so, every port of arrival from Thailand should have statistic about that!? Sholdnt they? 
 

Anyway, its a mystery how Thailand did not get hit harder. Lockdown isolated the virus her? I doubt it, been here, seen it, and know how it have been practiced, it is pure luck if so! 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

It is all the more remarkable considering the country was the first outside of China to detect a case of COVID-19 back in January.

They found it in sewage samples taken in November 2019, in Europe.

 

It's been all around the world, long before anyone knew it existed.

 

How? At that time it was probably milder and easily diagnosed as a bad cold.

 

 

6 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Thais having good vitamin D levels due to being exposed to the sun

Quite the opposite, Thailand has a very large percentage of people who are Vitamin D deficient.

 

It seems that they don't like going out in the sun for some unknown reason.

 

 

3 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

I'm just one person who knows 2 that are very likley to have had Covid whilst in Thailand - how many more are there?

Probably hundreds of thousands.

 

6 hours ago, keith101 said:

The simple answer is they have only done 468,175 tests @ 6,708 per 1 million population .

This in a country of just under 70 million IMO is rather pathetic .

They also didn't claim people how died from a hear attack as a COVID death. People got sick and stayed at home like they usually would do when they have a cold or flu. If they wanted medicine someone went and got it, no prescription required.

1 hour ago, DavisH said:

Yes the bodies are piling up at the crematoriums..didn't you see them? It's all over the news. 

Well, yeah.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53073046

 

And that's been going on since .. before the chart starts. 1-1.5k/month. Yet no red blaring alarm went off in the TVF social media gurus ultra sensitive network.

3 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

You might find reading the statistics on Pneumonia cases and deaths since January interesting reading.

Apologise, I forgot to mention that, yes, If we believe the statistics, 3,000 plus, and 58 dead, 1st country outside of China with a heavy presence of Chinese in and out of Thailand at that time.

 

Yes, the warm humid weather and Thai's having a strong immune system due to lots of sun, e.g. vitamin D, kept the numbers down, there is no other explanation, unless you look for it, as you stated.

 

Quote

But Thailand — along with Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam — have all had low case numbers despite dense populations and many direct flights to China.

They had low case numbers, did they? And not a word about testing figures for those countries. Are Australian journalists really that stupid?