Opening up Thailand to tourists a "potential catastrophe", wait six months urges Chula doctor

 

Picture: ThaiPBS

 

A leading doctor in Thailand has urged the Thai authorities to put the brakes on opening up the country to tourism.

 

Dr Thira Woratanarat, head of Chulalongkorn University hospital's medical faculty, said that the country should wait six months to avoid a potential catastrophe. 

 

In recent days the gung-ho tourism minister and more cautious prime minister have appeared at odds over plans to open Thailand.

 

Pipat Ratchakitprakarn at tourism and sports has been pushing his "Phuket Model" plans along with other ministries. 

 

Prayuth Chan-ocha, mindful that it is his government's reputation that is on the line, has expressed cautious concern.

 

Thrown into the mix is the pressing need for the economy to be kick started and the acceptance that the tourism sector is a large part of that. 

And that Thai domestic tourism is not and will not be able to fill the large gap left by the absence of foreigners.

 

Dr Thira's comments are likely to stoke the fire further. 

 

He said on his personal Facebook page Thursday that there were another 370,000 coronavirus cases worldwide and more than 6,000 deaths in a single day. He said there were one thousand deaths in the US, 47,000 new cases in Brazil and 1,000 deaths every day in India. 

 

He said that the Thais need to look at the situation in the outside world and understand that opening up the economy by accepting large numbers of foreign tourists at this time could be a potential disaster.

 

Despite all the health measures in place some infected foreigners would slip through the net, he said.

 

He said that if Thailand allows in 100,000 tourists it was likely that 500 of these would be infected with the virus. 

 

He reckoned that out of these 65 would slip through the net potentially infecting people in Thailand.

 

He urged caution and waiting a further six months before opening the country to foreign tourists.

 

This would mean that the 2020/21 high season would be obliterated whether or not one believes that tourists are actually likely to want to come in the first place, notes Thaivisa. 

 

A Thai PBS report outlined the issues that are a pressing dilemma for Thailand.

 

That could well be an understatement.through the net. 

 

Source: ThaiPBS

 

 

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3 minutes ago, webfact said:

Prayuth Chan-ocha, mindful that it is his government's reputation that is on the line,

Government reputation on the line ?

That went pear shaped 6 years ago, and has gone steadily downhill !

8 minutes ago, webfact said:

This would mean that the 2020/21 high season would be obliterated whether or not one believes that tourists are actually likely to want to come in the first place, notes Thaivisa. 

That was a forgone conclusion awhile ago. Maybe Songkran will be the deciding factor. Definitely not Chinese New Year.

16 minutes ago, webfact said:

He said that if Thailand allows in 100,000 tourists it was likely that 500 of these would be infected with the virus. 

 

He reckoned that out of these 65 would slip through the net potentially infecting people in Thailand.

So out of the 500 "infected" , 65 would slip through the net? More than 10%? Are the covid contaminated foreigners particularly slippery? 

Edited August 28, 20206 yr by RotBenz8888

It Seems that the threat of economy meltdown and losses of trillions of baht in tourists revenues trump the risk of a reoccuring of the covid 19, the premise is the thailand has come to the conclusion that it can afford itself to sacrifice a bunch of sic and fatality in an efforts to save the economy... 

this is what happens when borders open to tourists:

 

source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/france/

 

17 minutes ago, webfact said:

He said that the Thais need to look at the situation in the outside world and understand that opening up the economy by accepting large numbers of foreign tourists at this time could be a potential disaster.

the economic disaster about to unfold will make corona look like a common cold. there will be more thai who kill themselves than the covis. 

9 minutes ago, GeorgeCross said:

this is what happens when borders open to tourists:

 

source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/france/

 

Go ahead and post the number of daily deaths while you are at it.  

I went ahead and posted daily deaths for you.

Time to look for N95 masks again as long as they are available. 

The top 1% would like to carry this on for a bit, it's in their interest that the middle-class will be erased. 

5 minutes ago, Shuya said:

The top 1% would like to carry this on for a bit, it's in their interest that the middle-class will be erased. 

Wasn't that the Plan from the very beginning.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

He reckoned that out of these 65 would slip through the net potentially infecting people in Thailand.

Including me

 

why not prop up the economy and the businesses that are struggling for a further 6 months since Thailand claims to have plenty of money, then open up when it is reasonably safe to do so

 

people will not stand for more lockdowns and curfews 

42 minutes ago, steelepulse said:

I went ahead and posted daily deaths for you.

gee thanks bud

 

15 minutes ago, steelepulse said:

I went ahead and posted daily deaths for you.

It need be acknowledged that there is an inevitable lag time for recorded fatalities from an increase in infection rates. No doubt there will those  who will insist that these two graphs "prove" the risk level has been exaggerated  as  opposed to the  reality  only  time  will tell !

With vaccines near  becoming available ( reportedly ! ) the  decision to wait  or open up is not a choice I would  wish on anyone. The  damage done so far could easily be compounded if a significant community infection rate arises for  any reason. Thailand  may be seen as an attractive  destination now because it is  presents low  risk. Tourist arrivals  may be a short lived  boon if that situation changes.

AGreed , Do what Bali is doing 

 

“He said that if Thailand allows in 100,000 tourists it was likely that 500 of these would be infected with the virus. “

1:200  Bull. 

A complicated problem for a tourist - dependent country like thailand with almost no solution! 

2 hours ago, steelepulse said:

I went ahead and posted daily deaths for you.

Life after death around March 20th? 

Easter? Did the Easter bunny resurrect few lucky souls?

When the annual flu season is just kicking-off in the countries that provide most of Thailand's tourists, it's probably not the best time to start opening the borders. The shops, hotels and bars might get a decent month or so of business, but as the virus starts spreading out of control the authorities will have no choice but to impose a lockdown again. The lockdown will seriously hurt most businesses, not just those in the tourism sector. So what do you do, give the tourism industry a brief respite at possibly enormous and unnecessary cost to the non-foreign tourist sector, which makes up 85% of Thailand's GDP remember? That doesn't make any sense to me, why would you risk inflicting great damage on the largest part of your economy just to try and boost a relatively small part of it?

Guess his wife did not tuck him in, so he needed public attention again.   Easy said for somebody with a steady income.

 

To be honest, I am getting sick of the scaremongering.  They have to learn to live with it, so many are asymptomatic and the fallout for the healthy people is in my opinion outweighing the virus.

 

Now I most likely get a few unhappy people with the following statement, but if some people die, so be it. 

 

Too many business / governments have their hidden agendas and it works perfectly, to sell it with covid.

3 hours ago, mr mr said:

the economic disaster about to unfold will make corona look like a common cold. there will be more thai who kill themselves than the covis. 

that's over the top. But in gneral you are right. The economic desaster and its consequences might well surpass those of the covid

3 hours ago, webfact said:

 

A leading doctor in Thailand has urged the Thai authorities to put the brakes on

An' if they don't will it be another case of brake failure .. 

42 minutes ago, mehrdad said:

A complicated problem for a tourist - dependent country like thailand with almost no solution! 

The Thais and many Thai loving expats will have us believe foreign tourism is less than 10% of Thai GDP. 

 

I wonder why the Thais aren't talking about anything other than foreign tourism. It is almost like the whole of Thai economy is tourism with a little bit of industry. Strange 

3 hours ago, GeorgeCross said:

this is what happens when borders open to tourists:

 

source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/france/

 

Don't go Eiffel Tower or Louvre!

The Thai government has always said that tourism is only 7% of the economy. Now we are finding out differently. The Thai government should start treating expats better starting with immigration.

Easy talking for someone who has a guaranteed salary every month whatever happens.

This guy is either fool or got some agenda. 

Coronaviruses are here since forever and are known since 60ties. Its known they couse cold and flu symptoms. German doc call it hoax now. 

With an army buying submarines instead of providing proper aid to Thais in need will FLOOR this whole country for good.

4 hours ago, steelepulse said:

Go ahead and post the number of daily deaths while you are at it.  

There is usually a lag of about 4 weeks after infection rates spike for the death rate to start to increase. in case you haven't noticed after all this time.its not like people just drop like flies after infection, but usually after a sustained attempt to keep people alive in hospital.