Thai Prime Minister reassures public after most severe COVID-19 wave

[Mike k]

2 hours ago, VBF said:

Well it CAN be done...... https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations 

Focus on 20th March 

 

And yes, I AM proud of UK for achieving that - despite the earlier clusterf*cks! 

 

But this ain't the UK they probably got more people with brains 

[VBF]

1 minute ago, Mike k said:

But this ain't the UK they probably got more people with brains 

That was pretty much my point!   But I'll take the compliment, thank you ????

[Sean60]

Over one year of no income and total damage to the economy with no relief package. 

3000 cases a day and this guy is reassuring us?

Incompetent and full of BS.

[Dogmatix]

8 hours ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Yes...and what point are you trying to make I'm not clear. I also tend to compare Thailand's numbers to France or Italy as the population numbers are more similar but of course there are lots of dissimilarities as well. 

 

France 31k yesterday 

Italy 15k

Thailand 3k.

 

It seems hard for Thailand to avoid getting up to the same level of new daily cases as France and Italy now.  Having broken 2,000 it has usually gone up rapidly to 20,000.  The problem is that France and Italy had much better medical facilities and capacity to begin with and, having suffered terrible first waves last year, they greatly increased their capacities. Unfortunately the Thai government thought the pandemic had passed it by for good and did very little to prepare for the likelihood of a much worse repeat outbreak.  So the Thai medical system cannot cope with 15,000 to 30,000 cases like France and Italy.  Bangkok will be overwhelmed by emergency cases sometime next week.  

 

Vientiane and other parts of Laos are already locked down.  The government will most likely have to eat its words and lock down and curfew Bangkok, Chonburi, Chiang Mai and maybe other provinces by the end of next week.  It can't just stand idly by and watch the corpses pile up. 

 

The B380bn Prayut referred to is the unspent amount from the B1.9trn stimulus approved by parliament last year.  The governement has unfortunely nearly hit its debt ceiling for this fiscal year with 6 months still to go and is not in a good position to get any new stimulus approved by parliament.  That is why they are extremely reluctant to lock down the economy again.  Tax revenue will dip again and getting parliament to amend to the law to allow for a larger debt ceiling will not be easy.  Government revenue targets for the 2022 fiscal year starting in October look optimiistic now too, which could cause further problems for the debt ceiling next year.  Most likely locking down before Songkran would have been the best financial decision, if they had had the guts to do it then.  

[Dogmatix]

1 hour ago, Mike k said:

But this ain't the UK they probably got more people with brains 

 

The government did a poor job last year but the civil servants are a more competent and resourceful lot than the idle bureaucrats we have here. They mobilised a lot of resources very fast to deal with the pandemic.  Field hospitals that looked a lot better than what they have built here a year later went up very fast.  A lot of retired medical staff were put on standby.  My sister a recently retired GP was put on stand by to man hot lines but in fact they never needed to call her in.  Here they just let the phones ring and ring and ring with a pathetic excuse that they are manned by doctors and nurses in their break times.  Thailand can only vaccinate 3,000 a day at the moment which will take them 27.5 years to vaccinate the entire population.  The UK initially faced a shortage of trained people to give the injections but they managed to solve that problem very fast.   

Edited April 24, 2021 by Dogmatix

[Andycoops]

His autocratic government has failed the nation.

Resign.

[ukrules]

3 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

Thailand can only vaccinate 3,000 a day at the moment which will take them 27.5 years to vaccinate the entire population.  The UK initially faced a shortage of trained people to give the injections but they managed to solve that problem very fast.

 

I heard some countries require a vaccination to be performed by a Doctor and only a Doctor is permitted / licensed to inject it.

 

I wonder what the situation is inside Thailand?

 

I went to a clinic to get a medical certificate for a driving license here in Hua Hin a while back and I had to wait nearly an hour to see the Doctor because I believe he was the one doing all the vaccinations, by chance I had turned up on the day when they do some vaccination for kids so I just waited it out.....

[keithkarmann]

22 hours ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

The vast majority of New cases are in over-crowded Bangkok and that's where any new control measures should be focused. Let's wait another 5-7 days post Songkran to see where the numbers settle. Most other countries are still in the tens of thousands of new daily cases (300k for India) and Japan is locking down Tokyo and Osaka so I wouldn't panic over a couple thousand infections.

No mass testing so numbers are much higher.

[Pattaya Spotter]

7 hours ago, Hoppyone said:

Now buying Russian Sputnik vaccine @ 50 per cent success rate ,but no hurry some people could be vaccinated by years end, becoming a true life circus

I guess 50% is the new 92%...

 

Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine gives around 92% protection against Covid-19, late stage trial results published in The Lancet reveal

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55900622

[Pattaya Spotter]

6 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

 

It seems hard for Thailand to avoid getting up to the same level of new daily cases as France and Italy now.  Having broken 2,000 it has usually gone up rapidly to 20,000.  The problem is that France and Italy had much better medical facilities and capacity to begin with and, having suffered terrible first waves last year, they greatly increased their capacities. Unfortunately the Thai government thought the pandemic had passed it by for good and did very little to prepare for the likelihood of a much worse repeat outbreak.  So the Thai medical system cannot cope with 15,000 to 30,000 cases like France and Italy.  Bangkok will be overwhelmed by emergency cases sometime next week.  

 

Vientiane and other parts of Laos are already locked down.  The government will most likely have to eat its words and lock down and curfew Bangkok, Chonburi, Chiang Mai and maybe other provinces by the end of next week.  It can't just stand idly by and watch the corpses pile up. 

 

The B380bn Prayut referred to is the unspent amount from the B1.9trn stimulus approved by parliament last year.  The governement has unfortunely nearly hit its debt ceiling for this fiscal year with 6 months still to go and is not in a good position to get any new stimulus approved by parliament.  That is why they are extremely reluctant to lock down the economy again.  Tax revenue will dip again and getting parliament to amend to the law to allow for a larger debt ceiling will not be easy.  Government revenue targets for the 2022 fiscal year starting in October look optimiistic now too, which could cause further problems for the debt ceiling next year.  Most likely locking down before Songkran would have been the best financial decision, if they had had the guts to do it then.  

All interesting and good points. I think many people were lulled into a bit of complacency by Thailands initial success in containing the virus (a natural reaction to months of very few cases and deaths). A lower income country like Thailand also is resource constrained in how much and how fast they can increase medical capacity...I think they have done the best with the resources available (but I'm no expert in this...just from what I see in the media). We will just have to see how effective this 2 week lockdown lite is in slowing down  transmission and new infections and then decide on the appropriate next steps.

[Percy P]

23 hours ago, colinneil said:

Just more of his usual pathetic  BS, truth is he is way over his head, has absolutely no idea.

All he cares about is himself, no one else, time for him to pack his bags and p off.

What are your suggestions as to what should be done. 

[brianthainess]

On 4/24/2021 at 6:12 AM, Jonathan Fairfield said:

 

"The government and I will do everything possible to ensure that we all will persevere through this crisis."

And the rest of you can take a hike.

[Percy P]

5 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

And the rest of you can take a hike.

But what's your suggestion as to what should be done.

[Bkk Brian]

9 minutes ago, Percy P said:

But what's your suggestion as to what should be done.

I think we all know what needs to be done, its been repeated many times already.

[Jimbo2014]

Wonder how that vaccine production is going from the company awarded the contract that has never produced a vaccine before.  All our hopes were pinned on it.  We were going to be a hub of vaccine production, love was going to pour forth from neighboring countries, $$$ were going to flow into our coffers, our glorious dictator was to be praised. ????

[johnarth]

are all these people really going to die from covid 19 in the next few days, I see someone in India is showing dead people all over the place, and what of China who started this say they doing well and work is back to before panic days, China needs to be very careful nobody believes their story that American people started the virus when things calm down there could be more than finger pointing

[hotchilli]

On 4/24/2021 at 6:12 AM, Jonathan Fairfield said:

"The government and I will do everything possible to ensure that we all will persevere through this crisis."

A crisis they have made.

[Amused]

About 2 years ago under a different user ID I posted on TV.com, on more than one occasion, my concerns advising those that could to get out of TH asap because in my opinion the bubble would burst. Now looking back my prediction turned out to be correct!

 

Thankfully I got out of TH...

 

In my opinion the status-quo in TH is on the brink of civil war. 

 

I'm not a believer of this Covid sxxt and feel there is an alterie agenda ( chemical warfare) behind this BS.

 

The past year has highlighted how TH has told BS lies to the rest of the world.

 

Perfect Thailand HAS had the so called Covid ( deliberate chemical warfare) since before 2020, but claimed to have had no  victims from the outset!

 

What ever! Can't be honest and lose face. 

 

Never forget that foreigners in TH have next to

NO RIGHTS! Foreign people are viewed in general as scum. FACT!

 

Be safe and be prepared!

 

Most foreign Consulates / Embassies do not give a fxxx about their citizens...

 

 

THAT IS THE STARK REALITY!

 

 

 

 

[GroveHillWanderer]

18 hours ago, sambum said:

 

It would appear that Worldometer have got their facts seriously wrong! :- 

 

 

2. India Total cases 16,610,481 New cases +8,025  Total deaths  189,549

That is not a full day's total, it's partial figure not covering a full 24 hours. India has not had a full day's case total of less than 300,000 for several days now.

 

Today's new cases total (full figure for the previous 24 hours) is over 349,000.

 

[sambum]

22 hours ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

No idea where you're getting that from. The latest daily figure for new cases in India is nearly 350,000, according to Johns Hopkins University's figures.

 

 

Worldometer!

[sambum]

3 hours ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

That is not a full day's total, it's partial figure not covering a full 24 hours. India has not had a full day's case total of less than 300,000 for several days now.

 

Today's new cases total (full figure for the previous 24 hours) is over 349,000.

 

So really, the figures that Worldometer publish would seem to be pointless if that is the case. By the way, I agree with what you and several other posters are saying, but the "New Cases" column in the Worldometer table gives the impression that it is a daily total - the figures quoted therein for Thailand are used regularly by by ThaiVisa and other publications in their reports  - all quoting what one would assume to be a full day's figures. I think that in this case Worldometer has just made a mistake, which I suppose anybody can do, but this one appears to be so glaringly obvious that one would have thought that someone at Worldometer would have picked up on it before publishing the figures! 

(For instance, today is Sunday, and Worldometer (And a well known national newspaper are quoting 2438 new cases for today in Thailand, and  - it is only 4 pm, so once again, I see your point!)

Edited April 25, 2021 by sambum

[Taswegian23]

It isn't over yet. Prayuth will be allowed to claim victory after the current wave subsides a little.

 

Then the next wave will start. And a small brown dog will be able to explain who got fed up with whom.

 

The rich will get richer and nobody will care about the unrich, same as always.

Edited April 25, 2021 by Taswegian23

[GroveHillWanderer]

50 minutes ago, sambum said:

So really, the figures that Worldometer publish would seem to be pointless if that is the case.

No, you just have to be aware that the latest figures they give are almost always only a partial figure for today. In fact for many countries, it will often show today's number as zero.

 

You only get the full figures the following day, so what I always do, is look at yesterday's figures as well, where you know the full 24 hours are included.

[sambum]

39 minutes ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

No, you just have to be aware that the latest figures they give are almost always only a partial figure for today. In fact for many countries, it will often show today's number as zero.

 

You only get the full figures the following day, so what I always do, is look at yesterday's figures as well, where you know the full 24 hours are included.

That's exactly what I mean - pointless if they are only a partial figure for today. The only meaningful thing is that it shows the minimum number for any particular day - you know it's never going to be any less, and the chances are that it's going to more! And I can't see yesterday's figures anywhere on the Worldometer table! Think I'll have to swap to  Johns Hopkins University's figures!

 

[kiwikeith]

On 4/24/2021 at 11:18 AM, colinneil said:

Just more of his usual pathetic  BS, truth is he is way over his head, has absolutely no idea.

All he cares about is himself, no one else, time for him to pack his bags and p off.

BK post reports he has approved the purchase of many different brands of the vaccines, for private hospitals, the government will sign approval letters to the suppliers and take delivery for the private hospitals, this they say will help to fill the gap in the government’s roll out. 

What I'm wondering is what sort of prices they'll charge, quite possibly extensive one's. 

So one multi choice jab for the rich and Sinovac or Astra for the poor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kiwikeith]

On 4/24/2021 at 6:40 PM, BusyB said:

 

The honest headline would have read: ' .... tries to reassure the public...'

 

My Thai friends are scared <deleted>less ...

And we all know they don't have the resources to deal with a serious wave ...

The only thing Thais feel assured of is he won't leave. 

[GroveHillWanderer]

14 hours ago, sambum said:

And I can't see yesterday's figures anywhere on the Worldometer table! Think I'll have to swap to  Johns Hopkins University's figures!

It's right there at the top of the table giving all the statistics. See screen shot below.

 

[EricTh]

All these could have been prevented if someone had put Bangkok in lockdown 1 week before Songkran and banned Songkran.

 

They overestimated themselves.

[sambum]

7 hours ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

It's right there at the top of the table giving all the statistics. See screen shot below.

 

Thank you - I wasn't scrolling far enough up obviously! "I think I got it now, Robbie!" (Neil Young)

 

Referring back to our earlier conversation re the figure being quoted, i.e. "new cases" being not the total for the full day, it would seem that the figure for Thailand of 2048 that is "bandied about" for one day in particular could indeed be well short of the mark!

 

P.S. I've just checked "yesterday's" figures - they do look rather frightening in comparison to "today's"!

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by sambum

[Boedog]

On 4/24/2021 at 8:42 PM, VBF said:

Well it CAN be done...... https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations 

Focus on 20th March 

 

And yes, I AM proud of UK for achieving that - despite the earlier clusterf*cks! 

 

Not in Thailand it can't, run by inept idiots