Phuket on alert after airline passenger from Bangkok found infected with COVID-19

[webfact]

Celebratory sprays of water are splashed over an Etihad Airways airplane arriving from Abu Dhabi carrying passengers for the “Phuket Sandbox” tourism scheme that allows visits by people vaccinated against the Covid-19 coronavirus, at Phuket International Airport in Phuket on July 1, 2021. Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP

 

Phuket is on the alert after a passenger, who arrived on the island aboard a Thai Smile flight from Suvarnabhumi international airport in Bangkok on July 1st, was found to be infected with COVID-19. 

 

All the passengers on board flight WE201, which left Suvarnabhumi international airport at 7.04am on July 1st, have been told to report to their nearest hospital or health office for COVID-19 testing.

 

The provincial administration also issued a statement on Saturday, via its Facebook page, urging those who visited the Central Floresta Phuket and Central Phuket Starbucks branches between June 25th and 29th to report for COVID-19 screening.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/phuket-on-alert-after-airline-passenger-from-bangkok-found-infected-with-covid-19/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-07-05

 

[beano2274]

and foreigner or Thai?  The airline has all the passenger names and probably all their contact details, start using them!!!

[RichardColeman]

The link is interesting. Is about failure to inform people in Phuket about possible infection a week before opening. 

 

Now I wonder why that was held back for 10 days and Phuket opened ? 

[NanaSomchai]

Annnnnnnnnd... there goes your sandbox grand opening.

 

Only a matter of seconds until Anutin and his cronies start blaming it on the "dirty falang" again... 3.... 2... 1...

[smedly]

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

The link is interesting. Is about failure to inform people in Phuket about possible infection a week before opening. 

 

Now I wonder why that was held back for 10 days and Phuket opened ? 

are you suggesting that they are not being totally honest - what are you thinking !!!

[pokerface1]

Just thinking how long it will be before they have to put a lip on the sandbox. This could turn into a sand trap eventually for all those caught inside. lets hope 70% vaccination is high enough to keep people out of hospital once covid starts to spread.

[Albert Zweistein]

44 minutes ago, pokerface1 said:

Just thinking how long it will be before they have to put a lip on the sandbox. This could turn into a sand trap eventually for all those caught inside. lets hope 70% vaccination is high enough to keep people out of hospital once covid starts to spread.

Sand storm ?

[Jingthing]

56 minutes ago, pokerface1 said:

Just thinking how long it will be before they have to put a lip on the sandbox. This could turn into a sand trap eventually for all those caught inside. lets hope 70% vaccination is high enough to keep people out of hospital once covid starts to spread.

My understanding is that's 70 percent with at least ONE dose of the needed TWO. What percentage have both doses? What percentage have only one dose of Sinovac? Unfortunately Sinovac offers very little protection after only one dose.

[Jingthing]

Play in the sandbox and you're gonna get some sand up your bum. 

[pokerface1]

5 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

My understanding is that's 70 percent with at least ONE dose of the needed TWO. What percentage have both doses? What percentage have only one dose of Sinovac? Unfortunately Sinovac offers very little protection after only one dose.

Yes so lets see if just one dose is effective enough to keep people out of hospital if not then the sandbox scheme is history. Rest in Peace dear Sandbox 

[Captain Monday]

A passenger was identified and now they are contact tracing. Isn't this how it should work?  

 

 

[ikke1959]

How is it possible with all the negative tests they have to bring before flying?? 

[mickyr55]

Four days!!!

And so it begins. 

[Excel]

6 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

How is it possible with all the negative tests they have to bring before flying?? 

Money and/or connections can buy you anything

[thajuice4me]

A bit off topic, but does this mean that it's allowed for people to join the sandbox project through Suvarnabhumi Airport? (as a foreigner from outside of the kingdom)

[Orac]

3 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

A passenger was identified and now they are contact tracing. Isn't this how it should work?  

 

 

looks to be two separate incidents as the passenger arrived on a flight several days after the contact tracing dates.

[mjnaus]

5 hours ago, beano2274 said:

and foreigner or Thai?  The airline has all the passenger names and probably all their contact details, start using them!!!

 

Likely Thai, since if it was a foreigner they'd probably put that straight in the title.

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, pokerface1 said:

Just thinking how long it will be before they have to put a lip on the sandbox. This could turn into a sand trap eventually for all those caught inside. lets hope 70% vaccination is high enough to keep people out of hospital once covid starts to spread.

70% herd immunity using Sinovac which doesn't seem to work against the Delta strain which is now 70% of new infections...

what could possibly go wrong?

[pagallim]

2 hours ago, thajuice4me said:

A bit off topic, but does this mean that it's allowed for people to join the sandbox project through Suvarnabhumi Airport? (as a foreigner from outside of the kingdom)

 

No, Sandbox arrivals must be direct into Phuket.   These flights are just regular internal flights and for which domestic prevention measures for Covid are applicable.   Here are today's Phuket arrival flights:   https://www.phuketairportonline.com/flight-status-arrivals-departures/

[FarFlungFalang]

4 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Play in the sandbox and you're gonna get some sand up your bum. 

For a woman it would be called a sandbox?

[MrJ2U]

Total idiocy to want to travel by plane within Thailand at the moment.  Be smarter just to rent a car one way if its urgent.  

[Nanaplaza666]

Wow , and they weren't on alert yet after the infected person on the Vietjet flight few days ago ???? 

[Cake Monster]

This is the second such alert of this kind with flights from BKK to Phuket in just the last few Days.

The first involved a Vietjet Flight and this one is Thai Smile Flight., and both flights were from Swampy.

Something is seriously wrong that 2 Flights from the same Airport have had these incidents.

This kinda makes me wonder how many other flights have departed Swampy with infected people as passengers on board, and where they have landed.

Either the procedures are incorrect, or people are simply not doing their Jobs correctly.

In either scenario, the hopes for the Sandbox in Phuket are hanging on a very slender thread, if this is the best that can be achieved for covid control.

 

 

 

[ericdiam]

6 hours ago, Jingthing said:

My understanding is that's 70 percent with at least ONE dose of the needed TWO. What percentage have both doses? What percentage have only one dose of Sinovac? Unfortunately Sinovac offers very little protection after only one dose.

A test on large scale for Delta in UK found that after one shot of Pfizer Moderna or AZ only protected for 33% for all 3. Only after second shot it went much higher. But still less then for all original covids-19

That why UK reduced time between first and second for AZ from 12 to 8 weeks. And now even when have enough try little earlier. 

[sammieuk1]

7 hours ago, pokerface1 said:

Just thinking how long it will be before they have to put a lip on the sandbox. This could turn into a sand trap eventually for all those caught inside. lets hope 70% vaccination is high enough to keep people out of hospital once covid starts to spread.

You mean a quick sand box

[Speedhump]

10 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

The link is interesting. Is about failure to inform people in Phuket about possible infection a week before opening. 

 

Now I wonder why that was held back for 10 days and Phuket opened ? 

I don't see anything that says they knew about this infection until 1st July? They are now back tracing, that doesn't say they withheld information since June..

 

But you have 9 likes for your comment, so I must be missing something.... 

[mancub]

1 hour ago, Speedhump said:

I don't see anything that says they knew about this infection until 1st July? They are now back tracing, that doesn't say they withheld information since June..

 

But you have 9 likes for your comment, so I must be missing something.... 

Seems that this person travelled from Phuket to Bkk end of June and wasn't tested ( or tested & found positive) until arrival back in Phuket on 1st July.

[Kopitiam]

9 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

A passenger was identified and now they are contact tracing. Isn't this how it should work?  

 

 

Contact tracing only works when once a positive case is identified you immediately contact those who are in close contact with this case.  Not after 1 week and via the media asking those who have visited places the positive case patient have been to.  Similarly, its a joke that the authority doesn't know who was sitting next to/around a positive case in a plane.

[Speedhump]

31 minutes ago, mancub said:

Seems that this person travelled from Phuket to Bkk end of June and wasn't tested ( or tested & found positive) until arrival back in Phuket on 1st July.

Thanks. So this doesn't point to deliberate suppression of a positive response to encourage tourism. 

[richard_smith237]

9 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

How is it possible with all the negative tests they have to bring before flying?? 

 

ALL the negative tests ?? You mean one Pre-Flight test. 

 

If I’m not mistaken, its possible for the virus to remain unbeatable for 5 days.

 

Thus: It may not have been picked up on the Pre-Flight Covid-19 tests (for international or non-vaccinated passengers), but was picked up on the test on arrival.

(Or the test on arrival is a false positive). 

 

Its also possible that a vaccinated person can still carry the virus (i.e. Sinivac 50%)

 

 

The SandBox is never going to be water tight.... there will be imported cases, it will be impossible to eliminate risk. 

The objectives of the Phuket SandBox seem pretty obvious - to see if travel can open up while ‘managing’ Covid instead of killing off the economy while trying kill off Covid, which is an impossibility.