New cases, concert, foreign troops, spark virus surge warning

By The Nation

 

 

Authorities warned Thailand may have to fight a second wave of Covid-19 infections, after seven more returnees tested positive for the virus on Wednesday.

 

"The pandemic – including in some countries that have controlled the outbreak – has returned in second- and third-wave outbreaks, which is a lesson that Thailand may have to fight the disease again,” said Panprapa Yongtrakul, spokeswoman for the government’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), on Wednesday.

 

“Thais, the CCSA, and the Public Health Ministry must corporate to reduce the risk as much as possible", she added.

 

The seven new cases were found in state quarantine and brought total confirmed infections since the outbreak began to 3,328, with 94.47 per cent or 3,144 having recovered and returned home.

 

Of the new cases, a 34-year-old female masseur who returned from the UAE on July 29 was found infected in Chonburi quarantine on August 2 after two others on the same flight previously tested positive. Meanwhile five students – four males and a female – tested positive on August 4 after returning from Egypt on July 30, joining a 26-year-old American teacher who arrived on July 31 and was tested positive in alternative state quarantine on August 3.

 

Panprapa also revealed details of two Covid-19 scares.

 

Some 617 people who attended a crowded luk thung concert in Nakhon Si Thammarat on July 25 have tested negative for Covid-19. Organisers of the Ratchanok “Janey” Suwannaket concert were charged with packing out the venue but failing to impose disease controls such as mask-wearing. Results of tests on about 2,400 other concertgoers will be issued within 2-3 days.

 

Meanwhile, 130 US soldiers who are in Thailand for joint military training are undergoing tests following Covid-19 outbreaks at their bases in Guam and Japan. The 71 US troops from Guam have tested negative in alternative state quarantine at Bangkok’s Conrad Hotel, while 39 US soldiers from Japan are waiting for test results in quarantine at the Anantara Siam Riverside Hotel.

 

The Public Health Ministry said the foreign troops will be quarantined for the full 14-day period and has assigned officials to monitor them.

 

Army chief Gen Apirat Kongsompong said yesterday the military training would take place in a safe location, adding that the US was paying for the 110 soldiers to stay in alternative quarantine hotels.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30392504

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-08-06

 

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22 minutes ago, webfact said:

Authorities warned Thailand may have to fight a second wave of Covid-19 infections, after seven more returnees tested positive for the virus on Wednesday

These people are sent to quarantine, so, technically, should not be a threat in starting the second "ripple".

I think they should be far more concerned about foreign nationals, who appear to cross the porous borders with ease, with having such a large amount of border with neighbouring countries, as was proved a few days ago, with the 18 chinese caught crossing the Mekong river at Chiang Rai.

At least the GIs get to stay in some nice digs during quarantine: Conrad and Anantara! I'm sure they are not complaining. 

 

 

G.I.’s are very easy to screen. They get orders to be tested, say “yes sir” and get tested. Quite Simple. They’re the least of your worries K. Prayut.

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The Public Health Ministry said the foreign troops will be quarantined for the full 14-day period and has assigned officials to monitor them.

Then kicked out.

7 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The Public Health Ministry said the foreign troops will be quarantined for the full 14-day period and has assigned officials to monitor them.

 

7 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Then kicked out.

Why? The Thai quarantine system has been proven to be very effective, with not a single infection being passed into the local community.

 

Thailand should and have been commended for this.

5 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

These people are sent to quarantine, so, technically, should not be a threat in starting the second "ripple".

I think they should be far more concerned about foreign nationals, who appear to cross the porous borders with ease, with having such a large amount of border with neighbouring countries, as was proved a few days ago, with the 18 chinese caught crossing the Mekong river at Chiang Rai.

 

I think they were referring to future arrivals.

5 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

These people are sent to quarantine, so, technically, should not be a threat in starting the second "ripple".

I think they should be far more concerned about foreign nationals, who appear to cross the porous borders with ease, with having such a large amount of border with neighbouring countries, as was proved a few days ago, with the 18 chinese caught crossing the Mekong river at Chiang Rai.

Not very nice i be more concerned with thais crossing boarders with the stolen children drugs and cash these illegal acts will be thailands down fall and for greed can't even secure your airports

second wave? oh no, another 60 death in 6 months predicted ? oh wait, that is the daily road deaths

What we need  is a lockdown and article  44

Some 617 people who attended a crowded luk thung concert in Nakhon Si Thammarat on July 25 have tested negative for Covid-19. Organisers of the Ratchanok “Janey” Suwannaket concert were charged with packing out the venue but failing to impose disease controls such as mask-wearing. Results of tests on about 2,400 other concertgoers will be issued within 2-3 days.

 

Wait a moment... let that sink in for a while and re-read it again.

 

"2,400 concertgoers" did you say? And yet they are "concerned" about a few dozens foreign fathers waiting to be reunited with their Thai wifes/partners/children?

 

Need I say more?

 

Thailand has not had a first wave yet.

 

Its nonsense to talk of second wave............a second wave occurs after a city has had a first wave.  London and New York had a 1st wave and so far not any second wave.

 

Thailand, Vietnam, Australia etc... have not had a first wave at all - therefore they will continue to be at risk of a 1st wave for ever more until they have one - or a vaccine comes out in 1 year, or 5 years, or never.

 

Countries like the UK and USA and Sweden and Italy who had a real 1st wave - should now see the virus disappear in due course - more cases but less and less deaths until there are no deaths at all.  Herd immunity in place.

 

Countries who stopped themselves from having a 1st wave.......will live in fear, locked off from the world for ever more - if there is no vaccine.

 

 

There is no scientific data that there ever will be herd immunity.   Please post of you are aware of any.    

 

You say they go to 14 day quarantine do no worry but they are in a room  at a hotel.   What about the room next door.  The bus driver, taxi driver, airport  contacts?   What about room service or  maintenance  staff at the hotel.  I hope  Thailand doesn't ever get a real 1st wave of the bad strain ot all you naysayers are going to  be eating your words.  What is your motivation  to throw  caution to the wind?

 

14 minutes ago, RR2020 said:

Countries like the UK and USA and Sweden and Italy who had a real 1st wave - should now see the virus disappear in due course - more cases but less and less deaths until there are no deaths at all.  Herd immunity in place.

 

Yeah...only 160,000 dead in US and counting...with daily death tolls increasing 30%......you should do stand up comedy

Tuberculosis kills 2 MILLION people per year..........

 

It is an infectious disease.  There is a vaccine.

 

Yet it kills 2 MILLION every year.

 

Covid (no vaccine) so far has killed less than 1 Million in its first year.................   

 

 

Notice that cases are rising by the millions but deaths are very few now ?????????

 

Want to know why ?

 

Incorrect medical treatment.  The very high death rate at the start was due to doctors incorrectly prescribing STEROIDS and IBUPROFEN.  That killed many people.   Mechanical INTUBATION.........killed many people and is now only last resort.

 

If you actually appreciate where we are now, the virus is nothing special, easily treated and no major threat - now they know how to treat it.

 

Before they made the wrong choices in treatment and many died, now............they know how to treat it.  

 

 

8 minutes ago, Elkski said:

 

 

You say they go to 14 day quarantine do no worry but they are in a room  at a hotel.   What about the room next door.  The bus driver, taxi driver, airport  contacts?   What about room service or  maintenance  staff at the hotel.  I hope  Thailand doesn't ever get a real 1st wave of the bad strain ot all you naysayers are going to  be eating your words.  What is your motivation  to throw  caution to the wind?

 

the evidence so far is that none of those you consider at risk have gotten the virus.

now is the time for evidence-based thinking, not what if thinking.

 

the problem with all these government officials and so-call experts is that they just issue "but what if" or "it could happen that" statements and are not questioned by anyone, i.e. media, about the probability, rather than just the possibility (all things are possible, the issue is how likely is it to happen) when they are doing it.

 

I dont need an expert to tell me that something might happen, tell me the evidence-based probability. T

 

 

7 minutes ago, tonray said:

Yeah...only 160,000 dead in US and counting...with daily death tolls increasing 30%......you should do stand up comedy

 

 

And 160,000 deaths is very normal for respiratory illness in the USA.

 

Here are the figures for deaths in 2017.  Add Flu to lower respiratory diseases and you get around 224,000.  My guess, Covid will this year kill the same 224,000 in the USA.  EG..........nothing changes.   You people act as if death is something that never happens, only just started to happen.  You should work for CNN perhaps ?

 

• Heart disease: 647,457
• Cancer: 599,108
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
• Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
• Diabetes: 83,564
• Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672

Perhaps preparing to extend the Emergency Decree again so spread some fear in advance?
Yesterday it was used to arrest Protest Leaders for breaking the Emergency Decree.
If there is another outbreak I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't from the Army but
In the worst case I am confident Thailand can handle an outbreak.
 

7 hours ago, webfact said:

New cases, concert, foreign troops, spark virus surge warning

Great job well done .If they keep this up putting All people Entering Los in Quarantine (make it 3 weeks) than we don't Have to worry about the Virus. 

They just Must be sure that they Keep the borders Closed so  No one can Sneak in like a couple days ago. 

One more thing , Why haven't the people that Return to Los  being Made to get a Fit to Fly/Travel Health Certificate? 

If Every one was Made to get the Certificate than there wouldn't be Any Infected people entering Los .Right? yea right

17 minutes ago, RR2020 said:

Tuberculosis kills 2 MILLION people per year..........

 

It is an infectious disease.  There is a vaccine.

 

Yet it kills 2 MILLION every year.

 

Covid (no vaccine) so far has killed less than 1 Million in its first year.................   

 

 

Notice that cases are rising by the millions but deaths are very few now ?????????

 

Want to know why ?

 

Incorrect medical treatment.  The very high death rate at the start was due to doctors incorrectly prescribing STEROIDS and IBUPROFEN.  That killed many people.   Mechanical INTUBATION.........killed many people and is now only last resort.

 

If you actually appreciate where we are now, the virus is nothing special, easily treated and no major threat - now they know how to treat it.

 

Before they made the wrong choices in treatment and many died, now............they know how to treat it.  

 

 

According to to HDC so far this year TB has killed 1500 people in Thailand but no one cares about it.
It's estimated 4 million people are infected and 1 in 4 Taxi drivers have it so yes continue wearing a mask even after COVID-19 unless you had the Vaccine Jab of course.

Panprapa also revealed details of two Covid-19 scares.

 

And is used daily to keep a ld on the impending mob ????

1 hour ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

second wave? oh no, another 60 death in 6 months predicted ? oh wait, that is the daily road deaths

There wont be any 2nd wave, the thai population is allready immunized.

50% of some populations were allready immunized BEFORE the covid-19 and if you are infected once then you are immunized forever (cf. memory of your "T Cells").

This is not "conspiracy", that publication came 2 days ago from a really serious institute: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/04/science.abd3871/tab-pdf

 

I really believe that's true, just relax and take a look:

- That covid-19 killed really few people in China and nearby countries (because population have allready contracted same local covids = high immunization of the people)

Quote

Deaths per countries:

China = 4,634

South Korea = 301

Malaysia = 125

Thailand = 58

Vietnam = 8

Taiwan = 7

Myanmar = 6

Cambodia = 0

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

- The further you move away from China (or the northern hemisphere of Asia), the more severe and fatal the cases of covid-19 will have been. Conversely, the further we move away from it, the more the virus will have killed: Europe <USA <South America

6 minutes ago, Spellforce said:

There wont be any 2nd wave, the thai population is allready immunized.

50% of some populations were allready immunized BEFORE the covid-19 and if you are infected once then you are immunized forever (cf. memory of your "T Cells").

This is not "conspiracy", that publication came 2 days ago from a really serious institute: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/04/science.abd3871/tab-pdf

 

I really believe that's true, just relax and take a look:

- That covid-19 killed really few people in China and nearby countries (because population have allready contracted same local covids = high immunization of the people)

- The further you move away from China (or the northern hemisphere of Asia), the more severe and fatal the cases of covid-19 will have been. Conversely, the further we move away from it, the more the virus will have killed: Europe <USA <South America

Others say there is no guaranteed immunity or that it isn't long lasting. That is one of the reasons that making a vaccine is so difficult.

 

There are numerous researches done on this and no one knows for sure yet.

https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/immunity-passports-in-the-context-of-covid-19?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIh6T099yF6wIVGiUrCh0dEg2qEAAYASAAEgKSnvD_BwE

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632893-700-can-we-become-immune-to-the-coronavirus-what-the-evidence-says-so-far/

Sorry. you need to subscribe to read the whole article. It's a little expensive, but if you really are interested you can share the subscription with a couple of friends as we do.

 

14 minutes ago, Spellforce said:

There wont be any 2nd wave, the thai population is allready immunized.

50% of some populations were allready immunized BEFORE the covid-19 and if you are infected once then you are immunized forever (cf. memory of your "T Cells").

This is not "conspiracy", that publication came 2 days ago from a really serious institute: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/04/science.abd3871/tab-pdf

 

I really believe that's true, just relax and take a look:

- That covid-19 killed really few people in China and nearby countries (because population have allready contracted same local covids = high immunization of the people)

- The further you move away from China (or the northern hemisphere of Asia), the more severe and fatal the cases of covid-19 will have been. Conversely, the further we move away from it, the more the virus will have killed: Europe <USA <South America

 

 

The article you quote does not say these things.

 

It says nothing whatsoever about Thailand specifically, and to my knowledge there is no data anywhere on possible cross-immunity ti COVID among Thais.

 

There is no data anywhere that I have seen to support the idea that potential cross-immunity decreases the further one gets from China. On the country, one study of blood samples in the US found 40-60% T cell response to COVID-19.

 

The actual conclusion of the study you quote is: " it is plausible to hypothesize that pre-existing cross-reactive HCoV CD4⁺ T cell memory in some donors could be a contributing factor to variations in COVID-19 patient disease outcomes, but this is at present highly speculative"

 

Hypothesize...could be..in some donors....speculative.

 

Worthy of further research, but definitely not proven or even near to it.  Most importantly all these studies around cross-reactive T cell response/sensitization have been in vitro.  It tells us how T cells in a blood sample respond in the laboratory. It does not tell us how this would affect the clinical course of a living patient. Since severe COVID disease is largely an auto-immune reaction it is even possible that people with prior sensitization of their T cells are more likely to get severe disease than those without. (Similar to what is thought to happen with  the Dengue virus).  In other words, a high level of cross-reactivity cannot be assumed to be a good thing; it might even be a risk factor for death.

 

There is certainly a lot more that needs to be understood about susceptibility to COVID overall and the mechanism for severe COVID disease. 

41 minutes ago, digger70 said:

Great job well done .If they keep this up putting All people Entering Los in Quarantine (make it 3 weeks) than we don't Have to worry about the Virus. 

They just Must be sure that they Keep the borders Closed so  No one can Sneak in like a couple days ago. 

I’m beginning to think that my initial guess of travel returning to normal by 2023 was wildly optimistic. I think some time after 2030 is now more likely, given that strict quarantine of travellers is indisputably the best way of preventing outbreaks, and the general view that even a single death from China virus is unacceptable.

7 minutes ago, petedk said:

Others say there is no guaranteed immunity or that it isn't long lasting. That is one of the reasons that making a vaccine is so difficult.

Your article is from 1st jully and that last study about our T cells has been published only 2 days ago.

The huge different is the past studies: immunization (& vaccines) were based on our antibodies.

 

But TODAY they start to understand that 50% of the population were allready immunized not because of their antobodies BUT their T-cells. They also say that 4 famillies of other covids (animal flues) gives us T cells that immunize us against that covid-19.

4 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

I’m beginning to think that my initial guess of travel returning to normal by 2023 was wildly optimistic. I think some time after 2030 is now more likely, given that strict quarantine of travellers is indisputably the best way of preventing outbreaks, and the general view that even a single death from China virus is unacceptable.

 

It is completely impossible to make predictions that far in advance now.  But I really doubt the effects of this will continue to 2030! Even in the absence of a vaccine, the epidemic would burn out well before then.

 

Continued restrictions on international travel likely in many parts of the world through the end of this year and possibly the first half of 2021, is what I would predict at this stage.

 

2 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Continued restrictions on international travel likely in many parts of the world through the end of this year and possibly the first half of 2021, is what I would predict at this stage.

Now that IS optimistic! Desperately hope you’re right!

4 hours ago, Spellforce said:

Your article is from 1st jully and that last study about our T cells has been published only 2 days ago.

The huge different is the past studies: immunization (& vaccines) were based on our antibodies.

 

But TODAY they start to understand that 50% of the population were allready immunized not because of their antobodies BUT their T-cells. They also say that 4 famillies of other covids (animal flues) gives us T cells that immunize us against that covid-19.

 

Again, the latest studies do not say this.

 

They give a preliminary,  tentative indication of in vitro T cell response response to COVID in some people (there is no data on what percentage of the world's population this would be, the blood samples used are from limited locations and in some cases old samples).

 

In vitro being the operative term. No studies at all to date on how this connects to clinical course of COVID infection and given that severe COVID disease is largely a function of immune system over-reaction it is perfectly possible that such cross-immunity is actually a risk factor for severe COVID disease (as is known to be true of some viral diseases e.g. Dengue).. We just do not know yet.

 

It is a very, very important line of research but should not draw conclusions that the science simply does not support at this time.

17 minutes ago, Spellforce said:

There wont be any 2nd wave, the thai population is allready immunized.

50% of some populations were allready immunized BEFORE the covid-19 and if you are infected once then you are immunized forever (cf. memory of your "T Cells").

This is not "conspiracy", that publication came 2 days ago from a really serious institute: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/04/science.abd3871/tab-pdf

 

I really believe that's true, just relax and take a look:

- That covid-19 killed really few people in China and nearby countries (because population have allready contracted same local covids = high immunization of the people)

- The further you move away from China (or the northern hemisphere of Asia), the more severe and fatal the cases of covid-19 will have been. Conversely, the further we move away from it, the more the virus will have killed: Europe <USA <South America

That's what I thought about for some time now and could explain low Mortality numbers in some South East Asian countries but of course more research evidence is needed.
It's believed the virus originated in Horseshoe Bats which are also in Thailand. They were reported to be testing them for the COVID-19 but there's no conclusion.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-thailand-bats/researchers-in-thailand-testing-horseshoe-bats-for-coronavirus-idUSKBN23K0FR