Image: Reuters file photo

 

Thailand on Sunday (May 23) reported 3,382 new COVID-19 cases and 17 more deaths.

 

Health officials said 460 cases were discovered in prisons. 

 

A further 2,131 people were discharged having made a full recovery.

 

Sunday's cases brings the total number of cases during the third wave (from April 1) to 100,637.

 

The news comes as scientists in Thailand on Saturday (May 22) claimed they had detected the first local cases of the coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa.

 

The South African variant, known as B.1.351, carries mutations that threaten the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, several studies have shown.

 

In Thailand, the variant was identified in three test samples from a cluster of infections that could be linked to illegal migration in the south of the country, the COVID-19 Network Investigations Alliance said in a report.

 

Health officials were expected to comment on the discovery of the South African during Sunday's COVID-19 briefing.

 

 

 

 

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After a relatively better day on Saturday, Thailand’s COVID situation deteriorated on Sunday as the country set a pandemic high of 2,922 new cases in the general population and passed the grim 100,000+ total cases mark since the start of April.

 

The 2,922 new cases among the general population, an increase of 475 from the prior day, exceeded the prior single day record of 2,839 cases reached on April 24, and pushed the country’s total cumulative case count to 100,637 since the start of the current third wave outbreak in the country on April 1.

 

Thailand also reported 17 new COVID deaths on Sunday, its lowest number in the past nine days, that nonetheless brought the nation's total official COVID death toll to 776. That compared to the peak of daily deaths of 35 reached on May 18, and the 20+ to 30+ daily death tolls reached on the seven consecutive days prior to Sunday.

 

The new general population cases record came as part of 3,382 total new cases reported Sunday, the fifth highest tally ever, including 2,922 in the general population and 460 new prison cases. Thailand had reached higher single day total case counts four prior times, but in each of those cases the higher totals were spurred by large numbers of prison inmate cases.

 

Thailand’s highest total case counts have been the following: 9,635 on May 17 including 6,853 prison cases, 4,887 on May 13 including 2,835 prison cases, 3,481 on May 21 including 951 prison cases, and 3,394 on May 19 including 1,498 prison cases. Three of those overall highest tallies -- May 17, 21 and 19 -- have come just within the past week.

 

Government officials said the rising number of general population cases are being driven by several factors – continuing outbreaks of new cases at construction worker camp sites and other venues in Bangkok and surrounding provinces, and growing numbers of cluster outbreaks at factories, markets and other venues in outlying provinces.

 

"It appears that the situation of infections in other provinces across the country is on an upward trend. New clusters have been found in Phetchaburi province, in Chonburi, Pathum Thani, Yala and also Maha Sarakham,” said government spokeswoman  Pensom Lertsithichai said.

 

Thailand also reported 2,131 COVID patients being released from hospitals among its current population of about 43,000 active COVID cases being kept in some kind of hospital facility including traditional hospitals, field hospitals and hotel-hospital rooms. But those gains were swamped by the total of 3,382 new cases reported Sunday.

 

As result, total hospitalizations increased from 42,955 to 44,189 during the past day. The numbers of COVID patients in critical condition and the criticals on ventilators both remained basically stable. The number of critical patients declined by six to 1,210 patients. The share of those on ventilators increased by three to 412.

 

 

 

 

2,922 outside in the community. This is the highest yet but still seems low with all the factory, domortory, workers compounds and cluster infections which didn't seem to be in previous days numbers. 

Edited May 23, 20215 yr by dinsdale

1000 in Laksi, 1690 in Phetchaburi, 460 in prisons... 6000 people in Phetchaburi in quarantaine...and than these numbers?? something not right

I am sure there will be one mass listing from the work camps eventually after they have locked all of them into the compounds.

Seven-day rolling average of new daily COVID cases and deaths in Thailand, updated through May 21.

 

 

 

 

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/thailand?country=~THA#what-is-the-daily-number-of-confirmed-cases

 

 

27 minutes ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

The South African variant, known as B.1.351, carries mutations that threaten the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines

vaccines or vaccine ?

 

what variants has Sinovac been tested against ?, it hardly works against vanilla covid 

17 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

I am sure there will be one mass listing from the work camps eventually after they have locked all of them into the compounds.

They tried to cover up the prison numbers what make you think that they'll be intirely honest about this. Personally I have my doubts. They've had a few days now and still nothing. Ok, numbers will, you would hope, come out but the varacity of said numbers is the thing.

20 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

I am sure there will be one mass listing from the work camps eventually after they have locked all of them into the compounds.

maybe they just locked them in and threw away the key dropping food parcels over the wall, not much point in testing them since they are likely all infected - no test no data

and then we have unvaccinated masses going to a vaccine center in Pattaya all crowding in and fighting over a space in the line - sounds to me more like a super spreader hot bed 

3 minutes ago, smedly said:

maybe they just locked them in and threw away the key dropping food parcels over the wall, not much point in testing them since they are likely all infected - no test no data

A distinct possibility.

The 100,637 COVID cases Thailand has reported just since April 1 compares to the broader cumulative total of 129,500 now dating back to the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

 

In other words, Thailand has incurred more than three times as many COVID cases just in the past nearly two months as the country did (28,863) in the prior 15 months.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/KhaosodEnglish/posts/4346825472003018

 

Edited May 23, 20215 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

Going in the wrong direction.

 

Why not try a 2 week circuit breaker full lockdown ?

21 minutes ago, smedly said:

vaccines or vaccine ?

 

what variants has Sinovac been tested against ?, it hardly works against vanilla covid 

 

Try again...the only vaccine which is proven useless against the South African variant is AZ.

 

However I've read somewhere that sooner a "booster" version will be available - AZ v2.0, which has been modified to work against the current existing variants.

 

I don't know if the Thai manufacturer can switch immediately to the booster when it is available, or needs new certification.

 

It is likely that the other manufacturers are tweaking their vaccines too.

31 minutes ago, smedly said:

vaccines or vaccine ?

 

what variants has Sinovac been tested against ?, it hardly works against vanilla covid 

Utterly false. Why keep repeating this obviously disprovable falsehood?

34 minutes ago, smedly said:

vaccines or vaccine ?

 

what variants has Sinovac been tested against ?, it hardly works against vanilla covid 

AZ and Sinovac perform very poorly on the South African strain thats very true.

 

Coronavirus: Sinovac vaccine gives 70 per cent less protection against South African variant, but Hongkongers urged to still get jab

 

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3130355/coronavirus-sinovac-vaccine-gives-70-cent-less

 

Indeed a worry as we know AZ only provides minimal protection according to studies. Two doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine were found to have only a 10.4% efficacy against mild-to-moderate infections caused by the B.1.351 South Africa variant. 

17 minutes ago, AnnieSeek said:

Going in the wrong direction.

 

Why not try a 2 week circuit breaker full lockdown ?

This needs more than 2 weeks now, I think 4 weeks would be minimum in Bangkok. New peak today despite the predictions of some that this was all over, very sad situation

3 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Utterly false. Why keep repeating this obviously disprovable falsehood?

really ?

 

do us all a favour and post the data 

4 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Indeed a worry as we know AZ only provides minimal protection according to studies. Two doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine were found to have only a 10.4% efficacy against mild-to-moderate infections caused by the B.1.351 South Africa variant. 

 

I can't keep all the various "efficacy" numbers for the different vaccines and the different virus variants in my brain...

 

But at the bottom line, what matters more is whether any given vaccine works against a virus variant to keep people from dying or requiring hospitalization... moreso than if they end up with some mild to moderate symptoms.

 

The deaths and hospitalizations rate is the FIRST thing I wanna know about any given vaccine and virus variant combination.

 

 

Edited May 23, 20215 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

2 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I can't keep all the various "efficacy" numbers for the different vaccines and the different virus variants in my brain...

 

But at the bottom line, what matters more is whether any given vaccine works against a virus variant to keep people from dying or requiring hospitalization... moreso than if they end up with some mild to moderate symptoms.

 

Absolutely it does not mean we stop taking the vaccines its pointing out the South African strain is a different beast altogether and reduces the efficacy which in turn increases the time it would take to get a pandemic under control

44 minutes ago, smedly said:

vaccines or vaccine ?

 

what variants has Sinovac been tested against ?, it hardly works against vanilla covid 

56-65 percent effective = "hardly works"...I'm smelling anti-Asian racism, with a dash of misinformation ????

 

Comparing the AstraZeneca (British) and Sinovac (Chinese) COVID-19 Vaccines

 

https://www.healthline.com/health/astrazeneca-vs-sinovac

 

 

1 minute ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Asian racism

racism ?

 

really

 

this is a discussion - people have various views on things

 

your opinion/thoughts are just as valid as mine

7 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

56-65 percent effective = "hardly works"...I'm smelling anti-Asian racism, with a dash of misinformation ????

 

Comparing the AstraZeneca (British) and Sinovac (Chinese) COVID-19 Vaccines

 

https://www.healthline.com/health/astrazeneca-vs-sinovac

 

 

 

 

This is a better recap, I believe, about just what results have come thus far from the Sinovac vaccine, courtesy of Wikipedia:

 

 

But the credibility of the above results are somewhat in question still, because AFAIK, none of their study results thus far have been published in any peer reviewed scientific journal, which is the gold standard for such thing.

 

A post with unsourced and unsubstantiated claims relating to COVID vaccines has been removed, along with a reply.

 

6 minutes ago, smedly said:

really ?

 

do us all a favour and post the data 

China’s Sinovac shot found highly effective in real world study

Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s vaccine is wiping out COVID-19 among health workers in Indonesia, an encouraging sign for the dozens of developing countries reliant on the controversial Chinese shot, which performed far worse than Western vaccines in clinical trials.

Indonesia tracked 25,374 health workers in Jakarta for 28 days after they received their second dose and found that the vaccine protected 100% of them from death and 96% from hospitalization as soon as seven days after, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said in an interview Tuesday. The workers were tracked until late February.

 

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/05/12/asia-pacific/china-sinovac-effective/

 

China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine 67% effective in preventing symptomatic infection - Chile govt report

China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine was 67% effective in preventing symptomatic infection, data from a huge real-world study inChile has shown, a potential boost for the jab which has come under scrutiny over its level of protection against the virus.

The CoronaVac vaccine was 85% effective in preventing hospitalizations and 80% effective in preventing deaths, the Chilean government said in a report, adding that the data should prove a "game changer" from the vaccine more widely.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/chinas-sinovac-covid-19-vaccine-67-effective-preventing-symptomatic-infection-2021-04-16/

 

And there's this from a city in Brazil where 98% of eligible adults were innoculated with Coronavac

A Small Brazilian Town Is Beating Covid-19 Through a Unique Experimen

The experiment in Serrana, a town in Brazil’s sugar-cane-producing savanna, provides hope for countries around the world still battling with coronavirus outbreaks that mass vaccination works. It also offers new evidence of the efficacy of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is being rolled out in dozens of developing nations from Egypt to the Philippines...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/brazilian-towns-mass-vaccination-creates-oasis-of-well-being-11620392401

48 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The 100,637 COVID cases Thailand has reported just since April 1 compares to the broader cumulative total of 129,500 now dating back to the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

 

In other words, Thailand has incurred more than three times as many COVID cases just in the past nearly two months as the country did (28,863) in the prior 15 months.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/KhaosodEnglish/posts/4346825472003018

 

 

Gosh. It only means that if we are silly enough to believe the earlier numbers (or current ones, for that matter) are reasonably accurate. 

6 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

 

This is a better recap, I believe, about just what results have come thus far from the Sinovac vaccine, courtesy of Wikipedia:

 

 

But the credibility of the above results are somewhat in question still, because AFAIK, none of their study results thus far have been published in any peer reviewed scientific journal, which is the gold standard for such thing.

 

 

That's all good on paper, but covid is a moving target, and clinical trials done last year are less and less relevant.

One needs to look at what the South African government is doing in regards to the vaccinations there. In the end that's the home of the South African variant.

They are currently using J&J and Pfizer, with contracts for Sputnik and Sinopharm deliveries subject to satisfactory evaluation.

 

All these vaccines are not available in Thailand.

very difficult to know what to believe, so many contradictory reports from many sources and countries 

Just now, gearbox said:

 

That's all good on paper, but covid is a moving target, and clinical trials done last year are less and less relevant.

One needs to look at what the South African government is doing in regards to the vaccinations there. In the end that's the home of the South African variant.

They are currently using J&J and Pfizer, with contracts for Sputnik and Sinopharm deliveries subject to satisfactory evaluation.

 

All these vaccines are not available in Thailand.

According to the OP the CCSA is updating the public about the South African strain found. Hopefully its just a few cases and they can ring fence the area until they do a complete surge test to ensure there are no more.

 

The important thing is to keep this contained asap.

 

I agree the mRNA vaccines are far more effective in dealing with this strain

It may be different in the future and down the road...

 

But I believe the work of Dr. Yong has indicated that right now, the so-called UK strain remains the prevalent strain in Thailand.

 

So I'd think that's the one to be first concerned about from a vaccines perspective right now, and then see how any given vaccine does against the still rarer mutations.

 

It's not like we're drowning in choices for different COVID vaccines in Thailand right now... It's either Sinovac or AZ for the foreseeable future, and MAYBE Moderna and others much later in the year on a paid basis.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 20215 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK