2 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Praying that the New Years parties on the rooftop venues do not get canceled.  I have my reservations made just like last year where you can see 360 degrees from the rooftop as the fireworks go off.  However, if BKK starts to have cases popping up then I would envision that they will close-up the venues so that no mass gatherings occur. 

There might be no fireworks if cases spike, so you won't miss a thing.

1 hour ago, jackdd said:

 

Somebody should teach the people in Samut Sakhon what social distancing means.

Leave phone with social media apps at home?

cluster count up to 689 now including yesterdays number

src: MoPH

 Shocking 25,000 new infections in Germany, authorities report 502 deaths

8:55 p.m.: The number of new infections with the corona virus remains at a high level in Germany. From Friday to Saturday, the 16 federal states reported a total of 25,711 new infections (as of December 19, 8:45 p.m.) - 2443 more than last Saturday.

From Friday to Saturday, 502 people in Germany died with the corona virus - an unusually high value for the weekend. 397 people had died on Saturday the previous week. However, there are several special effects in the case of today's Saturday: In Hessen, Hamburg and Thuringia, the number of deaths rose sharply in the model used by FOCUS Online, which indicates late reports from the responsible health authorities. Such late registrations are not uncommon, especially on weekends. The corona hotspot Saxony, on the other hand, still does not report any new numbers at the weekend, which also distorts the statistics.

1 hour ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

What effort exactly are you missing? What is it specifically that you’re criticizing?
 

Thailand took one of the most drastic measures by closing its borders, affecting a whole industry that makes a whopping 20% of its GDP. As a result though, amid a worldwide pandemic we are able to live a pretty normal life here. Everyone I’m talking to is either jealous because they’re not living here or extremely grateful because they’re living here. I really don’t understand this criticism. 
 

Let us see how this outbreak now is being handled. Let us hope it can be contained. 

 

As Covid cases are spiking in Myanmar, an extraordinary amount of vigilance, and manpower should have been employed to make sure the borders are sealed tight as a drum. That is obviously not happening. There were virtually no cases that were reported there, before early September, so initially it was at least partly about luck. Since then they are averaging over 1,000 new cases a day there.

 

Cause for concern, even for advocates of the administration, would you not admit?

 

I do agree much has gone right, and much has been well done here, up until now. Is the army and this administration up for the task at hand, now? We shall see. 

Why are the numbers of hospitalized people at 806, compared to the relatively few cases found positive the last 14 days 

 

Did they put all the new cases in hospitals or what even 

 If they have no symptoms? 

3 hours ago, TSF said:

Keeping a close eye on this. If it starts spreading into BKK and other provinces there will be a nation wide lockdown with alcohol bans like we saw earlier. So if it starts spreading fast time to hit Lotus and stock up before the bans come in. 

Oh nooooooo! An alcohol ban that might last - god forbid! - for a couple of weeks or even a month - and will bring about the end of the world as we know it.

 

I really like to drink. I really do. But you know what? I can survive a few weeks without the stuff. But, judging from their constant whining and worrying, that seems to be an impossibility for a lot of fellow expats in this country.

 

The top worry they apparently have when crisis hits (or elections are held) is whether they might be forced to stop drinking for a few days. None of these hardened boozers ever panics about potential supply bottlenecks of drinking water, staple foods and the like. Noooo, it's stocking up on beer and liquor that solely occupies their minds.

 

Tragic but true. 

5 minutes ago, Virt said:

Why are the numbers of hospitalized people at 806, compared to the relatively few cases found positive the last 14 days 

 

Did they put all the new cases in hospitals or what even 

 If they have no symptoms? 

Because Thailand hospitalizes all cases whether asymptomatic or of more severity.  Get ready for those hospitalized numbers to increase possible exponentially in the next few days. 

11 minutes ago, teacherclaire said:

 Shocking 25,000 new infections in Germany, authorities report 502 deaths

8:55 p.m.: The number of new infections with the corona virus remains at a high level in Germany. From Friday to Saturday, the 16 federal states reported a total of 25,711 new infections (as of December 19, 8:45 p.m.) - 2443 more than last Saturday.

From Friday to Saturday, 502 people in Germany died with the corona virus - an unusually high value for the weekend. 397 people had died on Saturday the previous week. However, there are several special effects in the case of today's Saturday: In Hessen, Hamburg and Thuringia, the number of deaths rose sharply in the model used by FOCUS Online, which indicates late reports from the responsible health authorities. Such late registrations are not uncommon, especially on weekends. The corona hotspot Saxony, on the other hand, still does not report any new numbers at the weekend, which also distorts the statistics.

I don't feel so bad now.

1 minute ago, ThailandRyan said:

Because Thailand hospitalizes all cases whether asymptomatic or of more severity.  Get ready for those hospitalized numbers to increase possible exponentially in the next few days. 

 Thanks. 

 

Here we only put people in hospitals when they need care. Otherwise it's self isolation, which about 10 % breaks, so maybe forced hospitalization is a good way to do it, when the health care system is not overburdened, to keep people properly isolated. 

 

It wouldn't work in Europe though. To many people are beeing tested. 

 

Here in Denmark we're testing more people than most countries do each day pr million people. 

We're at about 125,000 tests each day of a population of 5,8 million. 

Atm we have approx 3000-4000 positives pr day because of such mass testing, so our hospitals would break down in 2 days if we had to hospitalize everyone. 

 

I remain pretty convinced that COVID will not be widespread inside Thailand mainly due to the combination of high humidity and temperature. The most vulnerable point will be the 2 to 3 weeks between the end of December and mid January.

 

So that's between right now and mid January.

 

During the summer most places around the world saw a large reduction in transmission between people.

 

With social distancing measures in place and masks being worn along with large gatherings of people being restricted (boxing stadium incident, etc) they can control it in this hot and humid environment.

 

What's happening here is similar to what happened in Singapore where around 50% of their migrant workers became infected, they were mostly younger and either very few or none of them (the migrants) died. Living conditions have been blamed and hardly any Singaporeans were infected.

 

The cold areas of the world will be ravaged by COVID during the winter which is only just beginning right now and there's nothing they can do to stop it until mass vaccination has been completed.

 

The western governments already know this which is why they have to revert to lockdowns.

 

China faces the same fate in all regions which are in the 'temperate zone'......

 

Several countries are heading into a third wave with lockdowns.

Thailand really never had any significant first wave add Bangkok being one of the most densely populated cities in Asia 

So sorry, after almost a year of this the true first wave may be not far off.

3 minutes ago, ukrules said:

I remain pretty convinced that COVID will not be widespread inside Thailand mainly due to the combination of high humidity and temperature. The most vulnerable point will be the 2 to 3 weeks between the end of December and mid January.

 

So that's between right now and mid January.

 

During the summer most places around the world saw a large reduction in transmission between people.

 

With social distancing measures in place and masks being worn along with large gatherings of people being restricted (boxing stadium incident, etc) they can control it in this hot and humid environment.

 

What's happening here is similar to what happened in Singapore where around 50% of their migrant workers became infected, they were mostly younger and either very few or none of them (the migrants) died. Living conditions have been blamed and hardly any Singaporeans were infected.

 

The cold areas of the world will be ravaged by COVID during the winter which is only just beginning right now and there's nothing they can do to stop it until mass vaccination has been completed.

 

The western governments already know this which is why they have to revert to lockdowns.

 

China faces the same fate in all regions which are in the 'temperate zone'......

 

 

Ultimately, who knows how it plays out, here. All you can do is be careful, play it as safe as you can, and hope those in charge have a plan. All of us are in the hand of fate.

30 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

As Covid cases are spiking in Myanmar, an extraordinary amount of vigilance, and manpower should have been employed to make sure the borders are sealed tight as a drum.

Exactly. They even had a warning with the border crossings up north - first question should have been "where else might this happen?"

 

Anyway it's done now, important thing is where they go from here.

 

What were the numbers like when they brought in the restrictions last time round?

3 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Several countries are heading into a third wave with lockdowns.

Thailand really never had any significant first wave add Bangkok being one of the most densely populated cities in Asia 

So sorry, after almost a year of this the true first wave may be not far off.

 

That's what we thought last spring. This time, there are far fewer foreigners in Thailand. Whatever the source this time, it can't be as bad as last time, when the country had tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Chinese. 

3 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Not welcome news for sure. I am concerned that I have not heard of any containment of people moving around. Right now people may be leaving the area and it could be all over the place very quickly. I guess it was inevitable that Covid would find its way back in sooner or later and you would hope some plans for that day have been made.

I wonder how much a vaccine jab is going to cost?

Here are the prices for governments in Europe:

 

 

Flipboard

7 minutes ago, hanuman2543 said:

Here are the prices for governments in Europe:

 

 

Flipboard 4.15 MB · 4 downloads

publish it in a popular format; else rather than being helpful it is waste of time

10 minutes ago, JHicks said:

Exactly. They even had a warning with the border crossings up north - first question should have been "where else might this happen?"

 

Anyway it's done now, important thing is where they go from here.

 

What were the numbers like when they brought in the restrictions last time round?

How do you know it was brought into he country by a migrant worker is a serious question.  Is it known for sure or is it just from what the idiot Health MP Anutin has stated.  Could it have been a hand me down from a Thai who had come back from Myanmar and never surfaced to admit entering illegally and was asymptomatic and passed it on again and then again.  No one will ever know the cause of this cluster, so stop slamming migrants and making unsubstantiated accusations.

13 minutes ago, John Drake said:

 

That's what we thought last spring. This time, there are far fewer foreigners in Thailand. Whatever the source this time, it can't be as bad as last time, when the country had tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Chinese. 

?, the 2 day numbers are far greater just from this cluster and the spread into BKK now.  There never was a reported larger set of daily cases if my memory serves me correctly.

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

The more I think about it, the more angry I get. The Thai army is getting hundreds of billions of baht a year from the people. The very least the people can expect in return, is protection of some sort. With hundreds of thousands of soldiers, what on earth are these guys doing with their time, if not patrolling the borders, the rivers, and the seas, during a pandemic the neighbors are dealing with? Fishing boats should be randomly stopped, and checked. Borders should be locked down. Something seems very fishy here.

 

Are we looking at gross incompetence? Are we looking at total indifference? Corruption? Laziness? Total derelicton of duty, on the part of Prayuth, Anutin, and the entire leadership?

 

If so, Prayuth needs to resign immediately, and the people, and especially the youth, should demand that. 

Totaaly agree that you are correct on all points.

10 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

?, the 2 day numbers are far greater just from this cluster and the spread into BKK now.  There never was a reported larger set of daily cases if my memory serves me correctly.

I estimate the country had 1.5 to 2 million different foreigners per month, November through February. Many from China. Many likely Covid positive. And yet? 

MoPH officials revised figure up to 689 for this market outbreak.

 

 

People on other boards are saying that they have friends and relatives working in restaurants in parts of Bangkok (like Bang Na), and they're being told to go home as there's a lockdown coming. Just stories at the moment, and obviously I can't post a link, but is anybody on here hearing similar tales?

7 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I estimate the country had 1.5 to 2 million different foreigners per month, November through February. Many from China. Many likely Covid positive. And yet? 

Yet no testing was ever done in-mass, like is currently being done, so we will never know will we.  Many of us including my GF and myself were sick as can be back in January.  It affected my breathing, and impacted my running to the degree I was bedridden for 2 weeks, Went and saw the doctor, was given antibiotics, diagnosed with viral pneumonia and given an inhaler.  Did not work and went back 1 week later and was given stronger antibiotics as well as a different inhaler and again sent home as it was not bad enough to be hospitalized.  I always get a flu vaccination every year, and it was not the flu.  Never tested for Covid as it was prior to them developing the standards for testing here.  Many others I know were sent back home with medicines and told to return if it worsened.  My GF had a lighter case of it and was up and about within 10 days, while it took me almost a month to recover.  Once they started testing, I asked about getting tested, but was told that unless I had the symptoms the MOPH wanted to see then they would not test me.  I asked again in August to see if I could be tested to see If I might have the antibodies, again was told No.  

4 hours ago, TSF said:

Keeping a close eye on this. If it starts spreading into BKK and other provinces there will be a nation wide lockdown with alcohol bans like we saw earlier. So if it starts spreading fast time to hit Lotus and stock up before the bans come in. 

yes..all you alcoholics better start to panic

4 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

I asked again in August to see if I could be tested to see If I might have the antibodies, again was told No. 

 

This is really what I would like to know, too. Because I suspect at had it as well a year ago. But I fear the testing process here as well as the forced hospitalization at my own cost. Are any of the properties of the vaccine helpful once you've been infected with Covid?

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Cause for concern, even for advocates of the administration, would you not admit?

I found it concerning that those girls were able to cross the border without quarantine. I find it concerning that there is an outbreak now. That being said, I’m neither an advocate of the administration, nor do I have enough knowledge about how to seal a land border tight. I doubt you can just build a wall, whether a concrete one or by deploying enough soldiers there. 
 

 

 

 

38 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

How do you know it was brought into he country by a migrant worker is a serious question.  Is it known for sure or is it just from what the idiot Health MP Anutin has stated.  Could it have been a hand me down from a Thai who had come back from Myanmar and never surfaced to admit entering illegally and was asymptomatic and passed it on again and then again.  No one will ever know the cause of this cluster, so stop slamming migrants and making unsubstantiated accusations.

I don't think anyone knows that for sure. It doesn't matter where this outbreak came from - they need to shut the door on possible routes of entry from countries that have higher incidence, whether you're talking about tourists from richer countries or migrants who have no option but to work in the grey economy (and probably nowhere to turn if they're sick). That's not slamming anybody, and it's not accusing anybody of being a carrier as if that was some sort of sin - it's just recognising the risks and the practical steps that can and should be taken to keep everybody safe.

3 hours ago, jackdd said:

 

Somebody should teach the people in Samut Sakhon what social distancing means.

they are from Myanmar, they don't understand Thai..... 555

4 minutes ago, John Drake said:

 

This is really what I would like to know, too. Because I suspect at had it as well a year ago. But I fear the testing process here as well as the forced hospitalization at my own cost. Are any of the properties of the vaccine helpful once you've been infected with Covid?

I had an antigen test because I thought I might have been exposed last February - the doctor thought it was unlikely there would be any antibodies even if I had been, but we did the test anyway and it was negative. The consensus seems to be that the antibodies don't hang around long but the important thing is that your system is geared up to produce more if need be.