American teacher in Thailand: 'An attitude of unity' with masks helps schools return amid COVID-19

Bennett Haeberle

 

 

Thailand was one of the first countries outside China to record a coronavirus infection.

 

Yet, somehow the country’s COVID-19 numbers show a nation that has largely avoided becoming overrun by the disease.

 

The latest figures from Johns Hopkins University show the country has recorded – with limited testing - fewer than 3,500 coronavirus infections and just 58 deaths.

 

Recent COVID-19 cases, reported there within the last week, were associated with people who had left the country and returned, various news outlets reported.

 

Full story: https://www.10tv.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/an-attitude-of-unity-with-masks-helps-schools-return-amid-covid-19/530-b64467ad-f263-4628-8924-c3a9eb66b608

 

10 WBNS: 20-08-16

Having a miniscule infection rate (0.005%) probably helps?

 

Mask usage seems to have fallen off dramatically, other than were they are required. 

4 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

has recorded – with limited testing - fewer than 3,500 coronavirus infections and just 58 deaths.

You can't count them as true figures if you rarely test anyone !

The Thai returning to Japan, is a classic case, not tested here, but tested positive on arrival there !

Two further tests on the  8th August were negative. 

3 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

You can't count them as true figures if you rarely test anyone !

The Thai returning to Japan, is a classic case, not tested here, but tested positive on arrival there !

You spotted that too.. limited testing.

Yeh and my wife rings me today with Thai news reporting that there is an out break in a sandwich company in U.K. They make sandwiches for M&S. Basically all the workers have been tested and a few found positive. That’s the thing tested . All tested! Not sure why this is news in Thailand . Prob pushed by Winnie the Pooh.

9 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

The Thai returning to Japan, is a classic case, not tested here, but tested positive on arrival there !

Wrong. They were false positives. According to the Japanese health authority, the second and third PCR tests (the saliva tests were used at the airport) confirmed those two suspects were in fact negative for covid 19.

Edited August 16, 20205 yr by macleans

10 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Having a miniscule infection rate (0.005%) probably helps?

 

Mask usage seems to have fallen off dramatically, other than were they are required. 

The majority of people still wear them in Bangkok - certainly when trying to enter shops. Not so much upcountry though..

34 minutes ago, macleans said:

Wrong. They were false positives. According to the Japanese health authority, the second and third PCR tests (the saliva tests were used at the airport) confirmed those two suspects were in fact negative for covid 19.

Infection spreads quickly -  symptomatic cases will appear quickly and spread rapidly, as seen in New Zealand. They appear t have contained it somewhat, with a lockdown of Auckland. Had those cases really been positive in Thailand, I would suggest symptomatic cases would have appeared quickly. 

5 minutes ago, DavisH said:

Infection spreads quickly -  symptomatic cases will appear quickly and spread rapidly, as seen in New Zealand. They appear t have contained it somewhat, with a lockdown of Auckland. Had those cases really been positive in Thailand, I would suggest symptomatic cases would have appeared quickly. 

That's exactly what I've been thinking. This virus's highly contagious. If there were an outbreak, there would be many of both asymptomatic and symptomatic cases, and the latter group would definitely emerge.

 

Having said that I think the Thai government realises there're risks for future outbreaks in Thailand as the authority can't completely control illegal border crossing. That's why they're still actively encouraging people to keep wearing face masks.

The only thing I take away from this story is that Westerners will not necessarily be less gullible than their Thai peers.