All smiles in Phuket but Thailand's darkest day yet reveals the reality of ongoing Covid crisis

[webfact]

 

Thai Rath printed a great swathe of separate stories and observations on the day that the much heralded Phuket Sandbox opening to foreign tourism happened. 

 

It was meant to be a day of smiles. A day when the Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha could revel in the mother of all international photo-ops as he welcomed foreign tourists back.

 

But the reality behind the messages of hope and songs for the future was entirely different. 

 

The country suffered its worst number of Covid-19 cases AND deaths in a single day. The pandemic was out of control, by some accounts.

 

A deputy at the public health ministry said Bangkok was in crisis and more doctors were needed to save lives. 

 

A north eastern Thailand MP reported they had been hospitalized with a blood clot after vaccination as the PM was slammed for importing sub-standard vaccine. 

 

Then just when it looked like it could not get worse for the government, the new Digital Economy and Society minister has had to quarantine after being on a flight with an infected person. 

 

Guess where he had flown into - yes, Phuket.

 

Thai Rath - easily the country's most influential media - juxtaposed the back slapping bonhomie of the politicians against the stark reality on the ground. 

 

There was no hiding that Thailand's day of optimism coincided with their greatest day of crisis. 

 

Down on the southern Thai island of Phuket Prayuth arrived all smiles in the morning for a big day that culminated in the late afternoon with the welcome of 51 tourists on Singapore Airlines SQ736. 

 

He was proud of the Phuket people. "This was the day everyone had been waiting for". We had to take a risk for the good of the nation, he expounded as everyone nodded.

 

There were selfies with the excited arrivals clearly thrilled to have a prime minister greet them. 

 

Tourism minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn - one again revealed as hopelessly out of his depth - muttered something about waiting 15 days to see if there was more infection. He was largely ignored by the media who had bigger fish to fry.

 

"Hug Thais Hug Phuket" was the slogan of the day. Prayuth even found time to hug some turtles down at the beach. 

 

There the environment minister Varavut Silpa-archa had arrived early to pick up 806 kilos of trash that had blown in. Of course it was "pristine" when the PM arrived - a fine example of the window dressing that was the order of the day. 

 

But it was window dressing that could not conceal the reality.

 

It was announced there had been 5,533 new Covid-19 cases, a new daily record. 

 

There was also another grim record - 57 deaths. 

 

It was a far cry from a year ago when Rayong virtually shut down because one person had Covid. 

 

As Prayuth sung songs of hope deputy at the MoPH Dr Sura Wisetsak further rained on his parade. He was outlining the reality in Bangkok, the Thai capital, that he said was in the grip of a major crisis. 

 

He said:

 

There are no beds left.

 

They can't control the new variant.

 

More doctors - even the recently qualified - are needed to save lives NOW.

 

Much of the capital is in lockdown in all but name. Thai Rath quoted the chief of the nightime entertainment industry as saying "open now or we're all dead". He appeared to mean this metaphorically as the economy is destroyed. 

 

As Prayuth tried to put a brave face on the mess with a Facebook post outlining a "Better Today" further bad news hit.

 

Kalasin Pheu Thai opposition MP Pheerapetch Sirikin said he was hospitalized with a blood clot after being jabbed with AstraZeneca - the great hope that is the locally produced vaccine. 

 

He needed emergency care. 

 

The PM was criticized for importing sub-standard vaccine and not caring about the Thai people.

 

Then came a final nail in a day that will go down in history.

 

Digital Environment and Society minister Chaiwut Thanakhamanusorn who had traveled on Vietjet VZ 314 from Suvarnabhumi to Phuket was forced to go into 14 day quarantine on the island after being close to someone who tested positive for Covid.

 

The minister only recently took up his post after the previous incumbent was drummed out after a court convicted him of sedition charges.

 

July 1st was billed as D-Day.

 

No one told the government that "D" stood for disaster.  

 

-- © Copyright ASEAN NOW 2021-07-02

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

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[NanaSomchai]

No one told the government that "D" stood for disaster.

 

That's all the Junta and the self-elected coup leader PM will ever be remembered for.

 

A disaster.

Edited July 2, 2021 by NanaSomchai

[Snig27]

And his week got worse today looking at those numbers. To be honest, I doubt he really cares that 6000 people were positive yesterday and 61 died. His only job is to ensure that the money continues to flow upward - that's the whole point of feudalism. If he cared, the road toll would have been addressed years back. 

[grain]

Is that photo at Phuket airport and them welcoming the first group of sandbox tourists? If so that woman giving the wai is Thai, the man standing behind her looks Thai as well. There was a report yesterday that one of the passengers on the flight was unvaccinated. There's no way an unvaccinated farang got on that flight, so it was a returning Thai. I suspect all these sandbox tourists were returning Thais and expats with wives/partners/homes in Thailand. Were there any bona fide tourists at all? 

[Justgrazing]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

He was largely ignored by the media who had bigger fish to fry

 

Eel get over it I'm sure .. 

[sapson]

Hope the new branding continues with articles nearer the truth, quite refreshing! 

 

But sadly the situation is very serious as it is and has been for most countries, unfortunately Pinocchios policy for covid was to create the ludicrous illusion of a virtually pandemic free Thailand for over a year and steer well clear of normal testing policies which would have made the reality quite evident.

 

The consequences of such an absurd, negligent, flawed, strategy are now becoming apparent as the carnage unfolds, .yet opening sandboxes to tourists seems to take priority over protecting the people of the country.

 

But what we can expect from people who spend billions on obsolete submarines for a country not under the slightest maritime threat with the motivation being purely fiscal gain for the few whilst of zero benefit to 99.9% of the population.

 

 

 

 

[zzzzz]

phuket sandbox is not exclusively for tourists but for everyone>and of course there are many thais and expats that have not made it back or didn't want do 2 weeks in a hotel room that will take advantage of the sand box> 
Its to simulate the economy of phuket.. tourists, thais, expat, their baht is all the same
no idea why people still harp on classifying them as Tourists arriving..

Edited July 2, 2021 by zzzzz

[bamukloy]

Quite frankly, I would be very angry if a tourist and being heralded in front of a bunch of politicians from

Bangkok, that being a Covid hotspot.

So a tourist has had to jump all sorts of hoops, yet these politicians have probably not even went through any precautions, just flew in to Phuket on the day to rub shoulders with tourists. lol

 

Its near comical.

 

Imagine some dude approaching you to fit you with a tracking bracelet and wondering if they have Covid or just came from Bkk.

[RichardColeman]

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Down on the southern Thai island of Phuket Prayuth arrived all smiles in the morning for a big day that culminated in the late afternoon with the welcome of 51 tourists on Singapore Airlines SQ736

51 ? Anyone know if 51 people would cover the airline flight costs of the carrier ? 

[pagallim]

1 hour ago, grain said:

Is that photo at Phuket airport and them welcoming the first group of sandbox tourists? If so that woman giving the wai is Thai, the man standing behind her looks Thai as well. There was a report yesterday that one of the passengers on the flight was unvaccinated. There's no way an unvaccinated farang got on that flight, so it was a returning Thai. I suspect all these sandbox tourists were returning Thais and expats with wives/partners/homes in Thailand. Were there any bona fide tourists at all? 

 

That's the flight from Singapore, the last arriving of the four flights yesterday.   Yes, there were real tourists during the day, some of whom were interviewed.    Many were foreignors with Thai partners visiting family.   Meanwhile, no bad reports so far of the routine on the island itself, and it appears most got their first test results early this morning, before breakfast in some cases.   Obviously then able to get out and about freely anywhere on the island, have a drink with a meal in a restaurant etc.   Apparently, free SIM cards are being given to arrivals from today.

[ThailandRyan]

Well just Wai me a River General.  Rome is burning, well Bangkok for that matter, and yet your concern now is mass tourism with at least one unvaccinated arrival.  Nice way to ensure the spread of the Delta Variant gets around and you can make some money off of those hospitalized after testing positive.  Bravo I say, Good Job and please pat Anutin on the back for enjoying a fine beachfront meeting without wearing masks like most of your entourage.

[rheinwiese]

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

 

51 ? Anyone know if 51 people would cover the airline flight costs of the carrier ? 

Nope, it won't. Big airlines require a load factor for a break-even flight between 72.5% and 79.0% .

[Cake Monster]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

There were selfies with the excited arrivals clearly thrilled to have a prime minister greet them. 

Looks as if in the above Photo, the Tourists have been told to line up a Meter or so apart, shuffle along , Wia to the Pm and the other Goons and then are directed away from them by the Minion on the left of them.

Pretty sick really when the PM should be directing effort at controlling the Outbreak instead of a Photo Op on a crazy brained idea for Phuket.

[colinneil]

Looking at the photo in the OP, it appear the loonies are lined up and saying welcome to the asylum.

Isnt it absolutely pathetic seeing photos like that, plonkers claiming to be running/ruining this once lovely country, have to line up to greet a handful of tourists, who have probably had their tickets paid for, by the above loonies just to make things look good.????

[BritManToo]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

"Hug Thais Hug Phuket" was the slogan of the day. Prayuth even found time to hug some turtles down at the beach. 

I'd be OK hugging Ploy and Plean ...... but not so keen on hugging Prayut.

[sapson]

2 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Bravo I say, Good Job and please pat Anutin on the back for enjoying a fine beachfront meeting without wearing masks like most of your entourage.

 

Doctors have to take the Hippocratic Oath,.......... whilst Uncle Tu and his gang are sworn to hypocrisy !

[ArcticFox]

Come on man!  Don't be shy you dog-faced pony soldiers.  Lock it all back down and close everything (well except for the malls and Big C of course!).

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by ArcticFox

[brommers]

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

 

51 ? Anyone know if 51 people would cover the airline flight costs of the carrier ? 

As an ex airline executive I can state that 51 pax on an A320 does not cover the fuel charges let alone the cost of the aircraft, maintenance, flight deck crew, cabin crew, landing fees etc etc etc. All the aircraft that arrived yesterday lost buckets of money as will every TG flight coming from Europe in the next few days. Expect reductions in frequency ar even route cancellations in the coming weeks.

[Salerno]

6 minutes ago, brommers said:

All the aircraft that arrived yesterday lost buckets of money as will every TG flight coming from Europe in the next few days.

 

What about freight; saw it mentioned since the start, is that actually feasible?

[ArcticFox]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Then just when it looked like it could not get worse for the government, the new Digital Economy and Society minister has had to quarantine after being on a flight with an infected person. 

 

Guess where he had flown into - yes, Phuket.

[bamukloy]

23 minutes ago, brommers said:

As an ex airline executive I can state that 51 pax on an A320 does not cover the fuel charges let alone the cost of the aircraft, maintenance, flight deck crew, cabin crew, landing fees etc etc etc. All the aircraft that arrived yesterday lost buckets of money as will every TG flight coming from Europe in the next few days. Expect reductions in frequency ar even route cancellations in the coming weeks.

 

You don't think the airlines would have compensated that by very high fares for the few that did travel? 

A lot of people from those areas do have big money and have probably not much else to spend it on lately.

 

Maybe all of these passengers are paying 1st class fares or higher.

 

[Golden Triangle]

Be interesting to see how Rooster spins this on Sunday, lol 

[rebo]

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

 

51 ? Anyone know if 51 people would cover the airline flight costs of the carrier ? 

Depends on what they paid for the flight …

[unblocktheplanet]

347 vaccinees arrive for 14-day Phuket sandbox. 6000+ new Covid infections, 61 dead. A general with no priorities.

[ThailandRyan]

Just now, unblocktheplanet said:

347 vaccinees arrive for 14-day Phuket sandbox. 6000+ new Covid infections, 61 dead. A general with no priorities.

And soon to come 10k cases a day plus 100's of dead as stated by the CCSA, but hey tourism is more important than getting vaccines in people's arms.

[Destiny1990]

The only thing that i am seeing is a tumbling deck of cards. ????????

[HashBrownHarry]

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

 

51 ? Anyone know if 51 people would cover the airline flight costs of the carrier ? 

No idea but i flew BKK - DOH March and we had 29 people on that flight.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

A read the news flow thru the day on Friday.

 

In the end, the volume of news reports about record numbers of COVID cases and deaths, patients being unable to find hospital beds, protests and calls for Prayut to resign and similar ended up totally overwhelming coverage of the Phuket sandbox.

 

And what probably got the most attention coming out of Phuket on Friday was the backlash over the scenes of Prayut and his ministers having a beachfront lunch without any social distancing and most not wearing masks...  That was the loudest Phuket news of the day.

 

[3NUMBAS]

bleak post apocolyptic scene welcomes tourists

[Tropicalevo]

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Down on the southern Thai island of Phuket Prayuth arrived all smiles in the morning for a big day that culminated in the late afternoon with the welcome of 51 tourists on Singapore Airlines SQ736

So, Uncle Tu was there all day. Four flights arrived whilst he was there and he would only meet the flight from Singapore. The last flight.

Main ethnicity of Singaporeans - Chinese.

Look after your 'family' Uncle Tu.

Never mind the Thais that die at home waiting for a hospital bed.