Toilet turnstile blamed for 867 COVID-19 infections found in a week at Simummuang market

[Wiggy]

8 hours ago, bluesofa said:

A year ago scientists were trying to find out different ways covid could be transmitted.

A medical journal in the US published data that the covid virus could survive for up to 72 hours on plastic and 48 hours on stainless steel.

 

source: https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/20/sars-cov-2-survive-on-surfaces/   

You’ve missed the point. It’s the lack of cleaning/awareness that’s to blame, not the turnstile.

[asiacurious]

Ugh.  There is very little science behind anything you read in the Thai press.  If the toilets were a source for the spread - and that is certainly possible - it is much more likely it was from aerosol transmission. 

 

Apologies if someone already posted this link, but.... 

 

Probable Evidence of Fecal Aerosol Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a High-Rise Building

The presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in fecal material has raised the possibility of viral transmission via a fecal–oral route. This study investigated whether SARS-CoV-2 transmission via fecal aerosols in the drainage pipe system may have been the cause of COVID-19 infection in a cluster of 3 families living in a high-rise building in China.

SOURCE

 

 

In the case of the mall, the pipes weren't needed.  If an infected person uses a public toilet to poop, that would be enough for aerosols to remain suspended in the air for the next few hours.  And since people seem to enjoy using their phones while they sit for extended times - even in public restrooms (which is disgusting).....

 

Covid's a good reason to - if you have to use a public toilet - go in, do your business, and get out as quickly as possible.

[Jeffr2]

16 hours ago, Snig27 said:

Has someone told the US CDC this? They said there are zero known cases of surface transfer. Amazing Thailand and its medical advances. 

That's misinformation.  You can still get CV19 from surface transfers.  As shown here.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/surface-transmission.html

 

Quote

 

It is possible for people to be infected through contact with contaminated surfaces or objects (fomites), but the risk is generally considered to be low.

 

On porous surfaces, studies report inability to detect viable virus within minutes to hours; on non-porous surfaces, viable virus can be detected for days to weeks.

 

Data from surface survival studies indicate that a 99% reduction in infectious SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses can be expected under typical indoor environmental conditions within 3 days (72 hours) on common non-porous surfaces like stainless steel, plastic, and glass ^{10, 11, 12, 13, 15}.

 

 

 

 

[Khun P]

So they didn’t wash their hands after using the toilet? 

[Maejo Man]

Good to see a turnstile got the blame for this instead of the grubby foreigner!

[mrfill]

Why have these turnstiles not been sent to a field hospital? Two weeks there and then deport them.....

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, Snig27 said:

Has someone told the US CDC this? They said there are zero known cases of surface transfer. Amazing Thailand and its medical advances. 

And world renowned hygiene levels.

Will this tarnish their image more?

[khunjeff]

18 hours ago, cclub75 said:

last but not least : surface contamination... is real.

 

There is certainly a theoretical possibility for Covid to be spread via surface contamination, but hundreds of people contracting it from the same turnstile beggars belief. 

[bluesofa]

9 hours ago, Wiggy said:

You’ve missed the point. It’s the lack of cleaning/awareness that’s to blame, not the turnstile.

I agree about that.

I was responding to a comment that seemed to be questioning how it could occur. While toilets in department stores are usually very clean, many other establishments often don't take hygiene seriously.

[bluesofa]

8 minutes ago, khunjeff said:

 

There is certainly a theoretical possibility for Covid to be spread via surface contamination, but hundreds of people contracting it from the same turnstile beggars belief. 

That's true. There could be a host of other surfaces elsewhere causing the same problem. We don't know why the health officials narrowed the blame down to this one area.

[Trujillo]

"...suspected source of most infections...appearing to have come from touching the turnstile...."

 

Since we know that contact transmission is rare (A year into the pandemic, the evidence is now clear. The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted predominantly through the air — by people talking and breathing out large droplets and small particles called aerosols. Catching the virus from surfaces — although plausible — seems to be rare (E. Goldman Lancet Infect. Dis. 20, 892–893; 2020). I am skeptical about this alleged source here. Not impossible but the article from the OP has nothing supporting this claim. 

[Aomelia]

18 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

I have seen many a Thai and others never washing their hands entering or exiting toilets, suffice to say, touching anything, including ones private parts, must start with washing hands before and after, anything less than that is just plan dirty !!!

 

I have been to a Macro store toilet where they have a yellow fly/insect screen which is in strips, where you have to fight your way to get in and out, walking in and out backwards using your back does help.

I’ve seen them go from toilet to shop and I alerted the manager at a grocery store , I followed him right to the fruit dept , I love the Thai 2 finger under running water , never see soSo used and wipe on their pants leg as they go by the paper dispensers 

[Cake Monster]

Well ! This is a first.

Covid being spread due to a Turnstile on a Crapper.

These people fool nobody with their " track and Trace " rubbish, they have all the power and Intelligence to find a single Turnstile responsible for over 800 Covid Infections , yet, they only close 2 of the 10 Zones only at this Market.

Duhhh

[CALSinCM]

22 hours ago, webfact said:

867 out of 10,480 vendors and workers at the Simummuang fruit and vegetable market in Pathum Thani province screened for COVID-19 by health officials, or 8%, tested positive for the virus, with most infections appearing to have come from touching the turnstile at the coin-operated public toilets in the market.

That sort of flies in the fact of current science as the CDC et.al., have now stated via numerous supporting studies that SARS-Cov-2 transmission vectors are primarily via the air and not from touching surfaces, although surface infection is not impossible is it very low (1 in 10,000 to 5 in 10,000) - but the surface borne infection hyperbole will probably never die in Thailand as well as many other places in the world.  "Shhhhh".  Hand sanitizer and alcohol sales will suffer and installing paranoia of touching surfaces and engaging in personal contact is useful in controlling a fearful public.  But it doesn't hold up to scientific scrutiny at the end of the day (see links below from CDC and Pubmed)

"People can be infected with SARS-CoV-2 through contact with surfaces. However, based on available epidemiological data and studies of environmental transmission factors, surface transmission is not the main route by which SARS-CoV-2 spreads, and the risk is considered to be low. The principal mode by which people are infected with SARS-CoV-2 is through exposure to respiratory droplets carrying infectious virus."

-- www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/surface-transmission.html#ref7

 

"Environmental surveillance of surface contamination is an unexplored tool for understanding transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in community settings. We conducted longitudinal swab sampling of high-touch non-porous surfaces in a Massachusetts town during a COVID-19 outbreak from April to June 2020. Twenty-nine of 348 (8.3 %) surface samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2, including crosswalk buttons, trash can handles, and door handles of essential business entrances (grocery store, liquor store, bank, and gas station). The estimated risk of infection from touching a contaminated surface was low (less than 5 in 10,000), suggesting fomites play a minimal role in SARS-CoV-2 community transmission. The weekly percentage of positive samples (out of n=33 unique surfaces per week) best predicted variation in city-level COVID-19 cases using a 7-day lead time. Environmental surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on high-touch surfaces could be a useful tool to provide early warning of COVID-19 case trends."
--Longitudinal monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on high-touch surfaces in a community setting, Pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

More likely of a scenario is that the restrooms are places where people are placed in very close physical proximity, and are places where virual infected body waste is aerosolized when toilets are flushed. (yuck).

[natway09]

So the cleaners charged with discinfecting the toilets & turnstiles every hour could not be bothered 

[MrJ2U]

Filthy bathrooms at these markets.  The one in Akat Annuai, Sakon Nakhon at 5 baht a person is so bad we drive to Tesco 5 kilometers away if we need to use the bathroom.  I've never seen these food markets with soap in the toilets.  There's more than Covid-19 here.

Disgusting.

[Krabi King]

Some people are posting old articles here to prove their point. I see 2019 and 2020 article. Science evolves! The latest studies show that surface transmission risk is low. It is very unlikely that the turnstile infected that many people. 

The media is, as always, screaming fear.

 

Here's a 2021 piece from a renowned magazine:

www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4

[Ty Hareways]

Ahh, Thailand: the gift that keeps giving.

Have to admit the 'detective' who sussed out where the virus came from makes Hercule Poirot look an amateur! 
I love waking up to your stories TV, always at least one will have me chuckling????