Thailand is red-lighted in UK for quarantine purposes alongside Brazil, China and US, inexplicable move

[Expat Tom]

I think that there might be two issues at play. 1) If a country has limited testing, it will show no CCP virus cases. Following that logic, North Korea and Ethiopia would be the safest countries in the world. How much honest testing has Thailand done??? 2) The CCP Wuhan, China Coronavirus came from CHINA! Duh! If the Thais want to welcome Chinese back with open arms then the Brits are wise enough to know that "if you sleep with dogs, you will get fleas". 

 

The whole world is inning up against the CCP (Chinese Communists Party) but Thailand will try to straddle the fence just like in WWII. There has to be huge money at stake for the elites in BKK to sell out the country so easily.  

[herfiehandbag]

3 minutes ago, Matzzon said:

And perhaps the rest of the world sees Thailand as a country with one of the best results. The problem seems to be that UK don´t get that. Of course, there is another explanation. That is that the rest of the world like EU and other organisations like UN and WHO have been totally blinded and fooled by the Thai figures. Now it´s up to the UK that understands everything and sees with clear eyes to take a stand. What do you think seems most credible?

Perhaps, but then the UN and the WHO, themselves paragons of rapid decision making (unaffected by any political influence of course) do not have the authority to enforce quarantine in a third country. As for the EU, or more properly its member states, have they yet made any decisions? Arrangements for travellers from Thailand may be some way down their list of priorities. There again maybe they are just not as nasty as Mr Shapps?

[Kadilo]

When Shapps was later asked why Thailand was in the red group he confirmed that his green colouring in pen had run out. 

[Griffo63]

All the comments about reciprocal  arrangements don't stack up.  Several countries including Australia and New Zealand do not allow UK citizens (or indeed any others) to enter their countries but they are on the UK green list 

[jimn]

13 minutes ago, Snow Leopard said:

I just laugh at the sanctamonious idiots running the UK. They made a complete mess of their own lockdown and now think that they actually have it under control. What a load of nonsense. 

 

So i can visit the UK if i am from Oz or NZ. Last time i looked i didnt see that there was a direct flight from either country to the UK. So at some point the plane must land in the likes of Singapore, LA, Dubai or Doha. What then? 

I thought that. However I am not sure if stopping for 2 or 3 hours and changing flights in one of those countries actually counts. Whilst in transit you are airside and dont actually enter the country. Some clarification is needed.

[Trillian]

26 minutes ago, JCP108 said:

Maybe the UK policy makers looked at the Thailand DOPH data that was used to write this article?

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html

 

Even if we were to take those stats. on face value, 1,700 excess deaths seems quite low as a percentage of population, or expected deaths or by comparison, does it not?

[SkyFax]

1 hour ago, theoldgit said:

5 hours ago, SkyFax said:

My guess it is a matter of reciprocity: UK citizens cannot enter Thailand without a 14-day quarantine if they can enter at all.

 

Vietnam is on the list and has similar restrictions for foreigners.

True. Maybe this has something to do with it:

 

"Currently, about 300,000 Britons visit (Vietnam) each year."

November 08, 2019 

https://www.prweek.com/article/1665108/exclusive-vietnam-tourism-books-uk-agency-major-tourism-drive

 

"British nationals make over one million visits to Thailand every year"

Still current at 6 July 2020

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/thailand
 

[Matzzon]

9 minutes ago, herfiehandbag said:

Perhaps, but then the UN and the WHO, themselves paragons of rapid decision making (unaffected by any political influence of course) do not have the authority to enforce quarantine in a third country. As for the EU, or more properly its member states, have they yet made any decisions? Arrangements for travellers from Thailand may be some way down their list of priorities. There again maybe they are just not as nasty as Mr Shapps?

Yep, UK is the oracle of knowledge to make the right decisions based on their Covid-19 statistics, of course. Now, when we have that out of the fog, how is your overloaded patriotic gene handling it?

[spiekerjozef]

Another bad decision from the UK.

They have quite a few (lot) of them lately.

Of course we can always fly to Greece first.

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by spiekerjozef

[Sheryl]

No more inexplicable than Thailands's continued refusal to open its land borders with Cambodia and Laos at least to nationals of those countries.

[Snow Leopard]

2 minutes ago, jimn said:

I thought that. However I am not sure if stopping for 2 or 3 hours and changing flights in one of those countries actually counts. Whilst in transit you are airside and dont actually enter the country. Some clarification is needed.

It must count Jimn?? The staff airside would need to be tested every day to be sure. Because the staff airside still circulate in the general population of the country once their shift is over. 

 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

29

Belgium

61,909

+71

9,771

17,091

35,047

32

5,341

843

1,284,605

110,834

11,590,339

 

Belgium has the highest death toll per 1M of population (843) in the world but get the green light from the UK Government when they had +71 new cases yesterday. I guess they need to get on with Brexit talks. Total nonsense. 

 

[Airbagwill]

I think it would be hard to suggest that the UK government's  decision  is based on anything more than an ignorant patronising racist attitude.

 

If  they wanted to justify it this call, they could cite Thailands low testing figures.... just like the UK.

 

One  thing to bear in mind though is the big test for Thailand will be in the coming months.

Will there be a second wave now the wet season is here?

I'm quite sure this isn't  in the UK government's list of reasons after the thought.

[Logosone]

Thailand has not tested 99% of its population.

 

So nobody knows the extent of the virus in Thailand.

 

The British would have to be fools to let Thais in.

[spiekerjozef]

1 minute ago, Snow Leopard said:

I guess they need to get on with Brexit talks.

I thought brexit happened already 4 years ago?

[spiekerjozef]

1 minute ago, Logosone said:

Thailand has not tested 99% of its population.

 

So nobody knows the extent of the virus in Thailand.

 

The British would have to be fools to let Thais in.

Who wants to go to a country where people day and night moan about everything.

[SkyFax]

40 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

5 hours ago, SkyFax said:

My guess it is a matter of reciprocity: UK citizens cannot enter Thailand without a 14-day quarantine if they can enter at all.

If that’s the case how come Greeks can enter U.K. but not vice versa. ? 

Maybe this has something to do with it:

 

Greek visitors to UK 250,185 (2019) 

https://www.visitbritain.org/markets/greece 

 

UK visitors to Greece  2,397,169 (2015)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Greece#Arrivals_by_country

[Logosone]

2 minutes ago, spiekerjozef said:

Who wants to go to a country where people day and night moan about everything.

About 37 million people every year. The UK is one of the world's top ten tourist destinations.

 

The Brits don't moan that much, btw, most continentals from the north are much worse. 

[Duckster]

Som nom na

[Snow Leopard]

3 minutes ago, Logosone said:

Thailand has not tested 99% of its population.

 

So nobody knows the extent of the virus in Thailand.

 

The British would have to be fools to let Thais in.

I disagree on the testing issue. If the virus were alive and kicking in the general population then the hospitals would be full of patients with infections. Either that or Thailand developed herd immunity very quickly. An old lady in my Soi developed respiratory issues a few months ago. Full haz team and medics showed up to check her out. There would be 1000's of ongoing calls if the virus was still very much at large here. Plus Thai social media would be all over it that were the case. 

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, SkyFax said:

My guess it is a matter of reciprocity: UK citizens cannot enter Thailand without a 14-day quarantine if they can enter at all.

The bubble just burst !

[namatjira]

We have certainly been no Wuhan or New York, where are the sick from covid ? Thailand is not raging with the virus.....how many older farang are on respiration in the hospitals due to virus......exactly why nobody knows but Thailand has been spared, to put Thailand in the red light countries is plainly wrong and ill advised.......it does little to garner good will between the countries when the U.K. should know better........where’s their brains ?

[aussiexpat]

Happy that Thailand has a red light from UK after the stupid $100k covid insurance and Covid free certificate requirement that does not exist. Hope Australia does the same. Can anyone explain why Thailand only reports Hospital cases of 3000 and not the 300,000 PUI (persons under investigation)

[Traubert]

Grant Schapps couldn't find his backside with both hands.

 

No more to be said.

[Chelseafan]

4 hours ago, Mops59 said:

Ofcourse. I was told Thai citizens were welcome in The Netherlands because of an independent decision of.the Dutch government.  It stroke me as  Dutchman that this decision wasn't reciprocated. So Dutch people aren't allowed into Thailand even with a visa, a house to live in and the will to state quarantine. So when UK decides to refuse Thai people without quarantine it is possible because of the decline of Brittisch people entering Thailand with or without quarantine. 

 

 

Yes, for sure. It's politicial !
There's no other reason.

 

[aussiexpat]

What is the 315k PUI?

[TexasRanger]

It is fair. Thailand has made it almost impossible for people stranded abroad to return so why should they not have a taste of their own medicine 

[Logosone]

46 minutes ago, Snow Leopard said:

I disagree on the testing issue. If the virus were alive and kicking in the general population then the hospitals would be full of patients with infections. Either that or Thailand developed herd immunity very quickly. An old lady in my Soi developed respiratory issues a few months ago. Full haz team and medics showed up to check her out. There would be 1000's of ongoing calls if the virus was still very much at large here. Plus Thai social media would be all over it that were the case. 

It's not actually the case that the virus would necessarily cause a huge overload of patients in hospitals. It was thought for a long time that that would happen automatically because of the experience of some countries. It happened in some countries, but it has not happened in most countries. In fact hospitalisation rate for Covid19 is incredibly low. It is 0.1% in one of the most affected areas.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html

 

I very much doubt a full Hazmat team and medics would show up in the remote villages where many Bangkok workers returned to after the closures.

 

The thing is most people would be extremely reluctant to go to hospital at this time, for fear of forcible quarantine, for fear of catching the virus. 

 

And nobody can go on social media and say their relative has Covid19 if they were never tested for Covid19. 

 

I have had an email exchange with another poster on here who has done an excellent survey of annual death figures in Thailand from 2015 to 2020 and he confirms reports by the BBC that Thailand has a large number of excess deaths.

 

Quite clearly the 58 deaths figure in Thailand is a total joke. And not a good one.

[Chivas]

6 hours ago, SkyFax said:

My guess it is a matter of reciprocity: UK citizens cannot enter Thailand without a 14-day quarantine if they can enter at all.

They wont be entering at all for the forseeable and there wont be any need for tit for tat here.

 

I think some are coming around to my opinion that it wont be until 2022 that Brits will be arriving at Suvarnabhumbi again.....leaving aside all the requirements that will red card 98% of Brits the Thais request for documentation involving Doctors and Thai Embassies in the final 72 hours will ensure the final 2% abort....its just not doable in the British Health system

This is entirely linked to the hapless inept incompetent British Government as lockdown was over the day Dominic Cummings went on Safari to Durham castle to check his peepers were all in order

 

As for Thais into quarantine inbound to UK its clear the UK dont trust the numbers coming out of Thailand. There can be no other reasoning

 

[herfiehandbag]

1 hour ago, Matzzon said:

Yep, UK is the oracle of knowledge to make the right decisions based on their Covid-19 statistics, of course. Now, when we have that out of the fog, how is your overloaded patriotic gene handling it?

There is little point continuing this discussion. You open with the entirely superficial point that the minister in charge of the department which makes such decisions doesn't look like a very nice person - a point which you attempt (and totally fail) to reinforce with a couple of childish jibes at what is a very ordinary English name. When I suggest that there may be other factors in play you fall back on good old fashioned nationalist prejudice, leavened with a touch of abuse (overloaded patriotic genes). At no point have I suggested that the UK has in any way acted from any sort of racially or nationally superior stance. You rather remind of the French castle garrison from Monty Python's knights of the Holy Grail - "Your father was a hamster and your mother smelt of elderberries!" You may not be familiar with it, but look it up, it is readily available on YouTube.

[pantsonfire]

1 hour ago, Snow Leopard said:

I disagree on the testing issue. If the virus were alive and kicking in the general population then the hospitals would be full of patients with infections. Either that or Thailand developed herd immunity very quickly. An old lady in my Soi developed respiratory issues a few months ago. Full haz team and medics showed up to check her out. There would be 1000's of ongoing calls if the virus was still very much at large here. Plus Thai social media would be all over it that were the case. 

Even with minor symptons, would Thais pay xxxx baht to pay for a test when they are barely surviving with their salary reduced etc.