Thailand has only carried out 749,000 tests

[AndrewMciver]

Watching the news this morning regarding covid in Thailand. 

 

To my surprise, it stated Thailand has only carried 749,000 covid tests. For international comparisons :

 

THAILAND population - 69 million - 749,000 tests

UK population - 68 million - 19,200,000 tests

UAE population - 9 million - 8,000,000 tests 

SINGAPORE population - 5 million - 2,280,000 tests 

 

There is the added threat in Thailand that if you test positive you will be taken to a quarantine centre, which is also making people reluctant to go to hospital for mild cases. 

 

Thoughts on such low testing ? Thailand has one of the lowest testing rates in the world. 

[2 is 1]

Finland have take 789500 test and have 5.5 million people! So why not here find covid!? Only trop from sky to footballer and DJ!

Edited September 13, 2020 by 2 is 1

[Gumballl]

My thoughts... UAE wasted a lot of resources.

 

A person should only get tested if they are ill, or have come in contact with someone that is infected.

 

Simply testing for the sake of testing is pure stupid. A person may test negative, and in the 24 hours or so while waiting for this result, they could catch the virus.

[AndrewMciver]

2 minutes ago, Gumballl said:

My thoughts... UAE wasted a lot of resources.

 

A person should only get tested if they are ill, or have come in contact with someone that is infected.

 

Simply testing for the sake of testing is pure stupid. A person may test negative, and in the 24 hours or so while waiting for this result, they could catch the virus.

 

ASYMPTOMATIC. Carrier can pass the virus on, without the carrier having any symptoms. 

 

Although totally agree the UAE system is haphazard. Mass testing, yet open borders to the world - no surprise it has one of the highest rates in the world of covid infection. 

[2 is 1]

32 minutes ago, Gumballl said:

My thoughts... UAE wasted a lot of resources.

 

A person should only get tested if they are ill, or have come in contact with someone that is infected.

 

Simply testing for the sake of testing is pure stupid. A person may test negative, and in the 24 hours or so while waiting for this result, they could catch the virus.

In Finland they not even test if have been contact in sick person! They put you in home quarantine! If you get symtoms then test.

Edited September 13, 2020 by 2 is 1

[asiacurious]

I don't know the answer to this, so I'm asking.  Is Thailand still doing random testing?  That's the only way to know if the virus is out among the general population.  (I would guess that they are NOT.)

 

If the online sample size calculators I used are right (I checked using two separate sites), then with a population of 69,000,000 Thailand would need to randomly test about 1850 people to be 99% sure the virus is not active in the country (with a 3% margin of error).  Or they could test 16,700 people to be 99% sure with a 1% margin of error. 

 

This article from May says they were not doing random testing at that time: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-thailand/thailand-to-expand-coronavirus-testing-as-new-cases-dwindle-idUSKBN22J0HG     This article from June says they started doing random testing: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-06/08/c_139124225.htm

[Poet]

Bear in mind that, until they got called out on it, all tests in Thailand were being interpreted using rules designed to disproportionately return negative results.

It was almost as if they were reluctant to find infections.

 

[AndrewMciver]

There also seems to be an enviromnment of fear of getting a positive test. You are essentially threatening people with a quarantining in a hospital, leaving work, if they come down with the virus. In that sort of environment you are more likely to have people reluctant to get a test. 

[Don Chance]

If you are sick you are going to want to know what it is. 10% of people who catch covid will have breathing problems so they will go to the hospital.

15 minutes ago, AndrewMciver said:

There also seems to be an enviromnment of fear of getting a positive test. You are essentially threatening people with a quarantining in a hospital, leaving work, if they come down with the virus. In that sort of environment you are more likely to have people reluctant to get a test. 

 

[samsensam]

 

if the government is remotely interested in having tourists in thailand before a vaccine is available they need to create an environment whereby they can detect and manage any infections. this means an effective test and trace system and wide spread testing. they have the opportunity now to get these basic initiatives in place now.  are they?

[Hi Tea]

3 hours ago, AndrewMciver said:

Watching the news this morning regarding covid in Thailand. 

 

To my surprise, it stated Thailand has only carried 749,000 covid tests. For international comparisons :

 

THAILAND population - 69 million - 749,000 tests

UK population - 68 million - 19,200,000 tests

UAE population - 9 million - 8,000,000 tests 

SINGAPORE population - 5 million - 2,280,000 tests 

 

There is the added threat in Thailand that if you test positive you will be taken to a quarantine centre, which is also making people reluctant to go to hospital for mild cases. 

 

Thoughts on such low testing ? Thailand has one of the lowest testing rates in the world. 

It's the number of deaths that matter, not the number of tests!

[torturedsole]

3 minutes ago, Hi Tea said:

It's the number of deaths that matter, not the number of tests!

Surely one can't determine cause of death without testing.

 

Please elaborate as you've confused the heck out of me.  

[Bkk Brian]

Lets face it, nobody wants to go to a government hospital for 2 weeks minimum in quarantine if you test positive and have little symptoms. Its a strong incentive to not get a test and just hope you'll be ok if you think you have it. Self medicate unless you get severe symptoms.

[AndrewMciver]

4 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Lets face it, nobody wants to go to a government hospital for 2 weeks minimum in quarantine if you test positive and have little symptoms. Its a strong incentive to not get a test and just hope you'll be ok if you think you have it. Self medicate unless you get severe symptoms.

 

Pretty much. 

 

[Hi Tea]

10 hours ago, torturedsole said:

10 hours ago, Hi Tea said:

It's the number of deaths that matter, not the number of tests!

Surely one can't determine cause of death without testing.

 

Please elaborate as you've confused the heck out of me.  

Autopsy, postmortem, is how cause of death is determined, not Covid-19 testing before the virus has been confirmed in a person.

[moose7117]

Hmmmmm 

Australia population 20 odd million over 7 million tests.

 

Thailand 70 0dd million under 750 k tests.

 

looks like someone isn't looking too hard.

no wonder there is no covid in Thailand.

[dabhand]

Don't believe that figure of 749k tests has changed for quite some time. Even from before the recent trace testing following from the Egypt airman / Bangkok DJ / Uzbek footballer incidents. So, the actual number of tests are either well hidden or considered as a state secret for some reason.

 

Even based on a probable under reporting of tests, the Thailand numbers, on a test/million basis, are not that dissimilar to other regional countries such as Japan / Taiwan / Vietnam / Indonesia / Cambodia / Laos / Myanmar.

[treetops]

19 hours ago, AndrewMciver said:

Although totally agree the UAE system is haphazard. Mass testing, yet open borders to the world - no surprise it has one of the highest rates in the world of covid infection.

You can't enter the UAE without a Covid test.

and the same at Abu Dhabi.  Currently 8,000 cases per million population so not particularily high at 38th in the league table.