Thai policy of hospitalization after positive Covid test prompts change after stress on system

[Danderman123]

3 minutes ago, Blumpie said:

Ha ha ha.  Remove this requirement and the cases could skyrocket.  The only way I'd go in for a test is if I was dying.  

Who in their right mind would want to sleep on a cardboard box a foot away from a fellow covid patient puking their guts out?  

 

Field hospitals are for people who test positive, but are asymptomatic.

[Danderman123]

52 minutes ago, OKF said:

 

Thank you for not answering my question.

 

...and I am not worried...but a field hospital in the proposed layout is everything but helpful for a number of reasons and would achieve the opposite of what should be achieved

Except that the field hospitals are used to remove infected individuals from the community to reduce spread of the virus. 

[scubascuba3]

14 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

Nope.

 

T Cells do not generate false positives for RT-PCR tests.

 

You May be confused by an antibody test - if you were previously infected, the test will be positive (at least for a few months after your recovery). But, if you are recently infected, the antibody test may identify antibodies, as well. 

I was just listening to a specialist talking about it on the Mike Graham show on Talk Radio, check it if you like, he said there were 4 reasons why people are asymptomatic, one can be because someone has alredy had covid but are immune, check the show if you don't understand it

[unblocktheplanet]

Of course, nobody wants to show up to be tested &, if positive, get thrown in quarantine for 14 days. So instead, they roam around & infect the rest of us. Govt should be paying people to quarantine.

[scaldedfummy]

2 hours ago, hotchilli said:

There was talk down in Phuket that hospital beds or field hospital beds were short, some may go home to self isolate

There may me some areas, like in other countries. This may be the case.

[Mark Nothing]

Yesterday I personally visited 3 private hospitals, 2 government hospitals, and 2 small doctors clinics to get a preflight covid test before going home.

 

Denied. 

 

Only Bangkok Hospital Pattaya offers the preflight test and they were booked for a week.  No walkins. When I mentioned my overseas flight was in 5 days they very rudely suggested I cancel flight and rebook at a later date.

 

The doctors clinics were ghost towns with no patients anywhere. The private hospitals and government hospitals were very quiet.  

 

One man in my condo building was in the hospital for a medical service and the doctor asked him if he wanted a corona test.  He followed the doctor's advice.   Positive.   Locked in a hospital room at 14,000 baht per day. 210,000 baht total for 15 days.  He had to wire transfer cash to Thailand.

 

Be aware.

[mrfill]

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

I was just listening to a specialist talking about it on the Mike Graham show on Talk Radio, check it if you like, he said there were 4 reasons why people are asymptomatic, one can be because someone has alredy had covid but are immune, check the show if you don't understand it

If you are asymptomatic it means you get infected without symptoms.

If you are immune, you don't get infected.

You cannot be immune and asymptomatic at the same time.

[Danderman123]

26 minutes ago, mrfill said:

If you are asymptomatic it means you get infected without symptoms.

If you are immune, you don't get infected.

You cannot be immune and asymptomatic at the same time.

I am amazed that nobody has been proven to have 100% natural immunity. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

With more than 1,000 COVID patients in critical condition hospitalized in Thailand right now, per the government's latest report, one problem they have is that they're running out of available real hospital beds to treat the seriously ill patients.

 

So I'm not sure if this OP article (a translation from Thai news) is getting at the same change or not... But in the past day, I was reading Ministry of Public Health info that said they are basically changing the way they determine who gets "hospitalized" where....

 

The gist of the change is -- originally, the field hospitals were meant for people who basically didn't have any symptoms, and those with symptoms were being assigned to real hospitals. Now, supposedly, they've begun shifting people with lesser symptoms to the field hospitals as well, to try to free up more regular hospital beds.

 

[thequietman]

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

There was talk down in Phuket that hospital beds or field hospital beds were short

Just put some blocks under each leg. That should make them taller.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, Mark Nothing said:

He followed the doctor's advice.   Positive.   Locked in a hospital room at 14,000 baht per day. 210,000 baht total for 15 days.  He had to wire transfer cash to Thailand.

What if he'd refused to pay, or was incapable of paying?

Just wondering.

[HappyinNE]

4 hours ago, cclub75 said:

 

Brillant.

 

You sure know the thai psyche.

 

But I would like to add a little twist ????

 

The lab will ask the patient for tea money (rather Covid money)... before to destroy the record and send him home.

Just do not get tested.  I am not planning on being tested either for the possible result if really have Virus or a False Positive

[impulse]

2 hours ago, scaldedfummy said:

5 hours ago, hotchilli said:

There was talk down in Phuket that hospital beds or field hospital beds were short, some may go home to self isolate

There may me some areas, like in other countries. This may be the case.

 

Taken to the next step, some of them were later fetched from home when a bed freed up.  Not sure that happened in Phuket, though. 

 

Being "sent home" doesn't mean "out of the woods"

 

[Mark Nothing]

25 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

What if he'd refused to pay, or was incapable of paying?

Just wondering.

Your guess is as good as mine.

 

But a couple of years back another foreign man with loans outstanding all around town was in a motorbike accident, went to the Government hospital on soi buakow and had 55,000 baht services provided.  No cash to pay.  He walked out, and was promptly arrested and sent to jail.  Nobody would help him as he burned everyone who loaned him money.  He died in prison 3 months later at 60.  His sister came to claim body and the authorities asked for large money and froze her passport.  I heard this second hand so take it with a grain of salt.

[Moonlover]

Never say never! There was an article in the Bangkok Post on the 21st April saying that home isolation was an option under serious consideration if there was a serious lack of beds.

[Bkk Brian]

2 hours ago, Mark Nothing said:

Yesterday I personally visited 3 private hospitals, 2 government hospitals, and 2 small doctors clinics to get a preflight covid test before going home.

 

Denied. 

 

Only Bangkok Hospital Pattaya offers the preflight test and they were booked for a week.  No walkins. When I mentioned my overseas flight was in 5 days they very rudely suggested I cancel flight and rebook at a later date.

 

The doctors clinics were ghost towns with no patients anywhere. The private hospitals and government hospitals were very quiet.  

 

One man in my condo building was in the hospital for a medical service and the doctor asked him if he wanted a corona test.  He followed the doctor's advice.   Positive.   Locked in a hospital room at 14,000 baht per day. 210,000 baht total for 15 days.  He had to wire transfer cash to Thailand.

 

Be aware.

Some labs stop testing because of hospital bed shortages, over a dozen hospitals stop testing a couple of weeks ago because of a shortage of beds, other unregistered labs not reporting their positive cases to MopH and your experience above does not paint a pretty picture. The difficulty getting tested is getting more problematic and difficult meaning under reporting and a longer wait to get tested, which could mean you spread the virus further.

[Soikhaonoiken]

Was a crazy idea in the 1st place to admit any body who tested positive. 

[Bkk Brian]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The gist of the change is -- originally, the field hospitals were meant for people who basically didn't have any symptoms, and those with symptoms were being assigned to real hospitals. Now, supposedly, they've begun shifting people with lesser symptoms to the field hospitals as well, to try to free up more regular hospital beds.

 

They're at the stage of ICU Field Hospitals now..............

 

 

 

[mancub]

3 hours ago, Mark Nothing said:

 

The doctors clinics were ghost towns with no patients anywhere. The private hospitals and government hospitals were very quiet.  

One man in my condo building was in the hospital for a medical service and the doctor asked him if he wanted a corona test.  He followed the doctor's advice.   Positive.   Locked in a hospital room at 14,000 baht per day. 210,000 baht total for 15 days.  He had to wire transfer cash to Thailand.

 

Be aware.

And which procedures were taken regarding others in the condo who may have been in contact with him.....if any ?

[scorecard]

9 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

 

And some people here actually believe the daily case numbers mean something

 

I'm doubting there's any value in sending positive people to the now many 'field hospitals'.

 

Many photos show the rows and rows of beds in these 'field hospitals', but none show any form of equipment.

 

 

[ericthai]

5 hours ago, connda said:

I've probably made 20 posts predicting this.  Hospitalize every asymptomatic case like they are presently doing and wreak the hospitals and health care's ability to function.
Asymptomatic cases should be mandated to self-quarantine at home and if found outside before the end of the quarantine period, fined and shipped off to a Covid Concentration Camp after which shipped off for a stay in jail for being an a*s.

I agree with you, but the issue is getting those people to actually stay home. Giving a fine if out is difficult as You can’t go testing everyone on the street.
 

Don’t know what the answer is but trusting people to stay home doesn’t work in Thailand.  Too many “ the rules don’t apply to me”. 

[connda]

5 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

If your immune then you won't test positive.

Depending on the PCR cycle count.  As Kerry Mullis stated, given a high enough cycle count you can find anything you're look for.
Cycle counts are not globally standardized - so...................

[connda]

30 minutes ago, ericthai said:

I agree with you, but the issue is getting those people to actually stay home. Giving a fine if out is difficult as You can’t go testing everyone on the street.
 

Don’t know what the answer is but trusting people to stay home doesn’t work in Thailand.  Too many “ the rules don’t apply to me”. 

Forcefully incarcerating non-criminals based on a PCR test is ludicrous. 
If you are advocating for that, you are essentially promoting the absolute trashing of human rights - like the right of not being exposed to potentially lethal disease conditions that could kill you when you yourself are either mildly ill or not ill at all.  Anyone promoting that sort of eugenicist garbage is a monster as far as I'm concerned.  There are better ways to handle the situation and they should be used. 
This is why people are avoiding testing.  Then where are you? Just because The Elitists can't trust the Commoners. Something will break and it's more than likely the entire healthcare system at the cost of human lives purposefully place in jeopardy for no good reason other than elitist monsters who are too da*med lazy to design a smarter system of containment an enforcement.  Nope.  One size fits all for the commoners and "too bad, so sad" if the little-people die.  "It's their own fault!!!", they'll say, "The commoners can't be trusted!!!"
You'll never see a minister, upper-level bureaucrat, or any connected people forced into the Concentration Camp conditions they have set out for the rest of the common-folk - and you and me.  Well...unless YOU are connected.  Why?  They understand they may die in those conditions. 

Have you ever considered why it works in the West?  Enforcement and organization.  Maybe it's time for the elite "leaders" to step up and get a grip on the situation instead of basking in their own sick ineptitude. 
Personally given the dire conditions in forced Covid incarceration camps, I'll avoid being tested at just about any cost - as will a large segment of the Thai population.  And I can't blame them one iota.
The problem isn't the people and average citizens.  The problem is with incompetent leadership.  Always has been, always will be.

[richard_smith237]

11 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

Yeah, they do.

 

it’s pretty clear that the numbers in Chonburi are realistic. The hospitals are not swamped, ambulances are not driving people around looking for hospital beds, there aren’t round the clock funerals, etc.

 

 

Anyone live in a village with a dozen or more COVID deaths?

 

When you look at the numbers the argument ‘ambulances are not driving people around’ etc.. seem flawed.. 

 

Imagine 50,000 people in Thailand had died of covid-19... If it wasn’t reported a ‘Big news’ would it even be noticeable? 

 

 

People say, bodies would be lining the streets... but no, they wouldn’t. Round the clock funerals? Run the numbers vs population and normal mortality rates.....   I don’t think excess deaths would be noticed. 

 

 

Take Chonburi... 1,535,000 population (provincial population). 2.2% of the Population of Thailand. 

Mortality rate for Thailand: 7.746 per 1000 people (in any one year / pre-covid). 

 

Thus: it would normally be expected that 11,890 people in Chonburi die each year. 

 

IF Thailand had ‘huge' Covid-19 deaths, i.e. 50,000 people per year...   and 2.2% for Chonburi (proportion of Thai population in Chonburi) is 1102 excess deaths in the year.

 

In a province which has 11,890 deaths in a year would an extra 1102 be notable ? noticeable? of note? even recognisable ????

 

 

There are 1318 hospitals in Thailand (across 77 provinces) assuming Chonburi being one of the more populace provinces has higher than average 25 hospitals (equal divide which would be 17)... 

 

Thats an average increase of 3.7 deaths per month per hospital... Noticeable ???  not individually per hospital and perhaps not by amphur... 

 

IMO, the only way any excess deaths would be noticeable would be if the excess were astronomical or if Thailand had an exceptional census recording system and there was a central database with someone carefully monitoring the figures reported on a weekly basis. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

5 hours ago, Mark Nothing said:

Yesterday I personally visited 3 private hospitals, 2 government hospitals, and 2 small doctors clinics to get a preflight covid test before going home.

 

Denied. 

 

Only Bangkok Hospital Pattaya offers the preflight test and they were booked for a week.  No walkins. When I mentioned my overseas flight was in 5 days they very rudely suggested I cancel flight and rebook at a later date.

 

The doctors clinics were ghost towns with no patients anywhere. The private hospitals and government hospitals were very quiet.  

 

One man in my condo building was in the hospital for a medical service and the doctor asked him if he wanted a corona test.  He followed the doctor's advice.   Positive.   Locked in a hospital room at 14,000 baht per day. 210,000 baht total for 15 days.  He had to wire transfer cash to Thailand.

 

Be aware.

 

 

So.. you can’t get a test, but someone who wasn’t looking for a test got a test....????

 

 

 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

The policy of placing anyone who tests positive in an isolation facility (or hosptial) if they test positive is going to have to change. 

 

What happens when >70% of the population has been vaccinated and some people who have been vaccinated test positive ?????? - place them in hospital ???

 

The whole theory of vaccination is so that the virus won’t impact us (the populace) either through lack of symptoms and herd immunity resulting reduced transmission. 

 

But... the vaccine does not mean people cannot contract the virus and remain asymptomatic, a vaccine simply means any vaccinated person has a higher probably of not being symptomatic after being exposed to the virus.

 

Those exposed to SARS-CoV-2 can still breath it in to their respiratory system and can still test positive for SARS-CoV-2 with an RT PCR test. 

 

Thus: A vaccinated person who tests positive for Covid-19 is the same as an asymptomatic person. So... what happens then???  What of testing then?  Is testing even relevant then ?

 

OR... Is hospital admission more important??? i.e. Admission to hospital for those requiring medical treatment?

 

 

 

 

[daveAustin]

12 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

Yeah, they do.

 

it’s pretty clear that the numbers in Chonburi are realistic. The hospitals are not swamped, ambulances are not driving people around looking for hospital beds, there aren’t round the clock funerals, etc.

 

Anyone live in a village with a dozen or more COVID deaths?

Lol. Well of course they are because they’re not testing! You won’t see deaths everywhere, it’s more subtle than that, but it is clear there is a woeful lack of testing going on. If you think otherwise, whatever. You should probably work for the gov, would fit right in. 

[starky]

11 hours ago, DLock said:

Clearly, a lot of Thai Visa posters received a "F" in English comprehension.

 

There is still no quarantining at home. 

 

Test positive, you are going to hospital. 

 

The only difference is who takes responsibility for finding that hospital bed.

 

Before it was the Lab who tested you. Now it is the people behind the 1668 Hotline who find your a bed and let the Lab do what they should be doing - testing.

 

Seems logical, assuming 1668 Hotline gets answered and has the resources.

Yes English comprehension sadly lacking also generally the need to hurry up and post something before actually reading the whole OP or the connected article before commenting seems quite popular as well.

[starky]

So infection can happen between family members and in domestic situations? Holy covid Batman we need to let the rest of the world know.

[Danderman123]

3 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

The policy of placing anyone who tests positive in an isolation facility (or hosptial) if they test positive is going to have to change. 

 

What happens when >70% of the population has been vaccinated and some people who have been vaccinated test positive ?????? - place them in hospital ???

 

The whole theory of vaccination is so that the virus won’t impact us (the populace) either through lack of symptoms and herd immunity resulting reduced transmission. 

 

But... the vaccine does not mean people cannot contract the virus and remain asymptomatic, a vaccine simply means any vaccinated person has a higher probably of not being symptomatic after being exposed to the virus.

 

Those exposed to SARS-CoV-2 can still breath it in to their respiratory system and can still test positive for SARS-CoV-2 with an RT PCR test. 

 

Thus: A vaccinated person who tests positive for Covid-19 is the same as an asymptomatic person. So... what happens then???  What of testing then?  Is testing even relevant then ?

 

OR... Is hospital admission more important??? i.e. Admission to hospital for those requiring medical treatment?

 

Just because an infected person is vaccinated and asymptomatic won’t  stop the authorities from putting them into a field hospital under the current rules.