1 hour ago, John Drake said:

Better to see fewer new cases than a new all time high.

Exactly !New cases are going down, why not point that  out ?

1 minute ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Why wouldn't they cap testing at zero if this was the case?

Well, good question. Because that's what they have been doing since March last year.

 

Perhaps they came to the conclusion that people need to be somewhat aware there is covid in Thailand to get a vaccine, and for borders to reopen.

 

Maintaining the covid free image has some minuses as well.

That's good theres only been 4 deaths out of thousands of cases. They were most likely people in terrible health about to drop dead anyway. I always thought trying to lockdown Thais would be difficult. The whole country will have herd immunity shortly, while us Aussies will be hiding under our beds everytime someone sneezes for years to come ????

18 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

A second day of no increase in cases (wonder how the "exponential growth" members will spin this) and a 25% decline in new daily infections from the recent highs. Maybe exponential decline?

It's been an exponential growth since yesterday after a day of exponential decay!The exponential growth of the virus is continuing exponential testing growth seems to lacking,you can't blame exponential growth for the lack of exponential testing.You may also note the exponential growth of the use of the word exponential in my post,so now you know how us exponential types will keep the exponential growth spin in an upwardly exponential spin.

Thailand says has enough hospital space amid new coronavirus wave

 

FILE PHOTO: People queue to be tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as the country deals with a fresh wave of infections after tackling earlier outbreaks, in Bangkok, Thailand April 16, 2021. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai health authorities on Tuesday assured the public there were sufficient hospital beds for the rising number of coronavirus patients, amid a new wave of infections this month that has spread fast across the country.

 

Thailand's policy of hospitalising all those who test positive for COVID-19, even those without symptoms, has prompted concern about its capacity in the event of a surge in the number of patients with severe symptoms.

 

Authorities reported 1,443 new coronavirus cases and 4 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing total infections to 45,185 with 108 fatalities overall. Thailand has been credited for its swift containment of earlier outbreaks, but has yet to start mass vaccinations.

 

The current wave includes the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant, which has been blamed for big jumps in infections in many countries, including the Philippines, where hospitals are struggling.

 

Of the more than 15,000 Thai cases this month, 223 have severe symptoms and 55 of those were using ventilators, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government's COVID-19 taskforce.

 

The health ministry has asked all hospitals to increase by 50% or double their intensive care capacity to prepare for a possible rise in more severe cases.

 

There are currently more than 9,000 hospital beds available nationwide, up from 7,000 last week, officials said. Thailand saw record cases on most days last week.

 

Authorities are also drawing up a plan to allow patients with less serious symptoms to self-quarantine at home, but said this would not be implemented immediately.

 

The government is currently sending those with mild symptom to field hospitals and hotels that are being converted into care facilities.

 

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Martin Petty)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-04-20

 

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18 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Why wouldn't they cap testing at zero if this was the case?

That was plan "A" but Thailand went with the limited testing and have adopted this approach as plan "B".

26 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

A second day of no increase in cases (wonder how the "exponential growth" members will spin this) and a 25% decline in new daily infections from the recent highs. Maybe exponential decline?

 

A bit too early to draw any conclusions from the daily numbers. However, given trends from previous waves in Thailand and others places, if the numbers flatline over the next couple of days, we can be cautiously optimistic that daily cases may slowly decline. 

 

One advantage of hospitalising every positive case, including asymptomatic ones, is that you're taking a potential spreader, however low a chance they may have in spreading the virus, out of the community. It ensures the patient's ability to generate new cases falls to zero, or at least only to hospital staff who are regularly tested. 

2 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thailand says has enough hospital space amid new coronavirus wave

Notice the change to"space" from "beds" even when they say 600 patients will quarantine at home because there are not enough beds they still say they have enough "space".Lucky there are enough excavators on hand to help with digging the hole they are digging with their press releases.

Just saw on BP that an old woman that died tested positive whilst asymptomatic then developed symptoms. This is pre-symtomatic. Asymptomatic do not develop symptoms. 

29 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Why wouldn't they cap testing at zero if this was the case?

They are audacious but not THAT audacious.

18 minutes ago, Sydneydave said:

The whole country will have herd immunity shortly

Really?! Only need 30+ million more infected Thai citizen!

14 minutes ago, Sydneydave said:

That's good theres only been 4 deaths out of thousands of cases. They were most likely people in terrible health about to drop dead anyway. I always thought trying to lockdown Thais would be difficult. The whole country will have herd immunity shortly, while us Aussies will be hiding under our beds everytime someone sneezes for years to come ????

Deaths usually lag about 4-5 weeks after a spike in positive cases and hospitalization.

We are hardly lying under our beds afraid of sneezes. we probably have more freedom than most countries at the moment. We also no longer have to deal with the constant Covid rhetoric. 
Which countries do you think have it better than Australia atm ? 

Just now, Marvin Hagler said:

They are audacious but NOT audacious.

 

5 minutes ago, Osthos said:

 

A bit too early to draw any conclusions from the daily numbers. However, given trends from previous waves in Thailand and others places, if the numbers flatline over the next couple of days, we can be cautiously optimistic that daily cases may slowly decline. 

 

One advantage of hospitalising every positive case, including asymptomatic ones, is that you're taking a potential spreader, however low a chance they may have in spreading the virus, out of the community. It ensures the patient's ability to generate new cases falls to zero, or at least only to hospital staff who are regularly tested. 

As we have seen from every country around the world, if you want to reduce case numbers then you need a hard lockdown and it takes weeks to see the effects of the lockdown.

 

There has been no lockdown and only a few days since any measures have been implemented and those measures were extremely weak compared to a full lockdown. To think numbers would go down at this stage due to measures taken in the last few days seems completely incorrect to me.

 

I am not advocating a lockdown, just saying a severe lockdown brings down the numbers and not a half art lockdown..this has been shown in pretty much every country around the world.

2 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Just saw on BP that an old woman that died tested positive whilst asymptomatic then developed symptoms. This is pre-symtomatic. Asymptomatic do not develop symptoms. 

Maybe she died of something else ie. with Sars Cov 2 but not covid.Covid is the disease, the asymptomatic cases are not classified as covid except by the confused.Without covid symptoms you don't have covid.

8 hours ago, anchadian said:

Yesterday, 35,900 people received their first dose and 11,727 received their second dose. * The official population is 66,186,727.

That's only about 3-4 years vaccine roll out at that rate - for a minute there I was worried

It would be good to know the number of tests performed and positivity rate, or even just the positivity rate per province. 
 

the top line number of cases is relatively meaningless in and of itself.

35 minutes ago, zaZa9 said:

Exactly !New cases are going down, why not point that  out ?

They just went up from yesterday!Which means as of today the numbers are going up,stay tuned for the next episode.

39 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Why wouldn't they cap testing at zero if this was the case?

You have a point, I was just going to have a look at the last few days testing numbers to make a chart and their website is offline ????

https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/situation.php

6 minutes ago, 2 is 1 said:

Really?! Only need 30+ million more infected Thai citizen!

As another 30 to that. Calculations for the more transmissible variants indicate about 90% vaccination rate to achieve herd immunity 

 

 

46 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

A second day of no increase in cases (wonder how the "exponential growth" members will spin this) and a 25% decline in new daily infections from the recent highs. Maybe exponential decline?

Yep, seems to be leveling out very fast, despite an increase in testing which is  a very good sign.
I said from the get go  that Thailand has done an exceptional job containing the virus. But, of course i was constantly ridiculed by some members here. 
 

8 minutes ago, Marvin Hagler said:

There has been no lockdown and only a few days since any measures have been implemented and those measures were extremely weak compared to a full lockdown

You have a point, but you have to remember that Thai people are far more likely to follow the rules and guidelines compared with people in the west. 
In the west you always have groups of people still opening up illegal parties and being generally more defiant 

2 minutes ago, Kaopad999 said:

 

 

Yep, seems to be leveling out very fast, despite an increase in testing which is  a very good sign.
I said from the get go  that Thailand has done an exceptional job containing the virus. But, of course i was constantly ridiculed by some members here. 
 

Where is the data for increased testing ? 

Just now, Swimfan said:

Where is the data for increased testing ? 

Well how do you think they are finding more cases? 
Logic? 

Just now, Swimfan said:

Where is the data for increased testing ? 

LOL I was just going to ask him the same thing

2 minutes ago, Kaopad999 said:

 

 

Yep, seems to be leveling out very fast, despite an increase in testing which is  a very good sign.
I said from the get go  that Thailand has done an exceptional job containing the virus. But, of course i was constantly ridiculed by some members here. 
 

Are you saying this latest outbreak is due to exceptional containment?

I have a question. The Thai authorities LOVE their photo opportunities when there is some glory to be claimed.

 

why then haven’t we seen a photo of Prayut and gang at the Covid manufacturing facility on a grand tour??

4 minutes ago, Kaopad999 said:

 

 

Yep, seems to be leveling out very fast, despite an increase in testing which is  a very good sign.
I said from the get go  that Thailand has done an exceptional job containing the virus. But, of course i was constantly ridiculed by some members here. 
 

Where did you get the" increase in testing" info?

Just now, Kaopad999 said:

You have a point, but you have to remember that Thai people are far more likely to follow the rules and guidelines compared with people in the west. 
In the west you always have groups of people still opening up illegal parties and being generally more defiant 

You mean just like they follow the road rules ????

you’re a funny man 

you are talking about a country with one of the top 5 incarceration rates in the world. 
Thais following rules. You must be on a different planet to the rest of us. 

19 minutes ago, FarFlungFalang said:

Maybe she died of something else ie. with Sars Cov 2 but not covid.Covid is the disease, the asymptomatic cases are not classified as covid except by the confused.Without covid symptoms you don't have covid.

What part of "[she] then developed symptoms" did you not understand?

 

Nobody has symptoms immediately on being infected. Symptoms develop over time. You can most certainly have CoVid-19 without showing symptoms (that's the very definition of "asymptomatic infection") but you don't die without developing symptoms. However this woman did develop symptoms, as clearly stated in the report.

2 minutes ago, Kaopad999 said:

Well how do you think they are finding more cases? 
Logic? 

So if the numbers are decreasing then your logic would suggest testing is decreasing.

This testing graph from "world in data" does support this.

 

 

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-testing#how-many-tests-are-performed-each-day