Phuket Closes Risky Places to Control COVID-19

[digibum]

10 hours ago, pagallim said:

A video I saw of a couple of nights ago, was of a bar/restaurant which was a part of a resort in Rawai.    It was nearly empty anyway, only maybe 3 or 4 patrons in there.   About 12 to 15 local officials shouting quite loudly at the lady manager, looking through the check bins on the spike for bills that did not include food.   Really quite pathetic.    There may have been an issue with time, as I believe that restaurants had a 11 p.m. closing time (until tomorrow when it becomes 9 p.m.), but the video didn't have a time.

 

A few weeks ago, Rawai was in the news stopping people on motor bikes not wearing masks, and making them do physical exercises by the side of the road.    These are not police doing this, but supposedly defence volunteers.

In speaking to some restaurant and bar owners, it was interpreted as a warning.  
 

From what I was told, only one bar owner was fined.  But that was because they let customers back in after being closed by the police, which doesn’t exactly sound like the brightest of moves.  
 

Phuket, and especially Rawai, seem to like to do stuff like this to grab people’s attention and send a message.  
 

I saw that story about people being forced to do push ups.  But I’ve yet to see anybody doing push ups since.  
 

They obviously clue the media in on stuff like this so they can write the news story and warn everyone and then … they move on.  
 

The cops roused some bars the day before new restrictions were announced.  They sent their message.  They’ll be driving around the next few days making sure everyone is buttoned up by 9pm.  
 

If they get any complaints about bars/restaurants skirting the rules, they’ll do a high profile bust, round up some Thais and farangs, put their faces in the papers, and drive their point home.  
 

Seems pretty simple to understand.  

[digibum]

6 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

But this will stimulate the sand-pit scheme,more tourist will come flocking?

Well, they certainly won’t be getting much domestic tourism since you have to be vaccinated to get into Phuket now and outside of Phuket, not that many people have been vaccinated in Thailand.  
 

As for international tourism, it will probably put a dampener on some aspects.  
 

A very sizable amount of people coming into Thailand on the sandbox scheme are expats who wanted to avoid ASQ in Bangkok or Pattaya.  
 

A certain chunk of that group may decide to wait things out rather than return to Thailand in the midst of a lockdown.  

They could have returned to Thailand via the ASQ anytime they wanted but they specifically waited for the Sandbox.  Now that everything is locked down, they may just continue to wait.  

 

It may not be the Phuket restrictions that kill the Sandbox.  
 

Even many real tourists came with the intention of bolting off to CM or BKK or Pattaya or Samui once they did their 14 days on Phuket.  
 

But if the country is locked down and domestic flights are restricted, a big part of their holiday plans have been squashed.  

[gim12]

What do you mean “paid for the privilege”?Any returning expat would have had to ASQ in Bangkok or Pattaya at double or triple the cost

 

 

the returning expats who had their own residences there still had to pay for 14 nights of hotels-remember the fellow who  visited his wife during the day at their residence  but they tracked him down and made him stay in a hotel at night? THAT is what I meant when I say they paid for the privilege (privilege meant sarcastically) of going to Phuket

[digibum]

34 minutes ago, gim12 said:

What do you mean “paid for the privilege”?Any returning expat would have had to ASQ in Bangkok or Pattaya at double or triple the cost

 

 

the returning expats who had their own residences there still had to pay for 14 nights of hotels-remember the fellow who  visited his wife during the day at their residence  but they tracked him down and made him stay in a hotel at night? THAT is what I meant when I say they paid for the privilege (privilege meant sarcastically) of going to Phuket

And, again, the other option was to stay in ASQ in BKK or Pattaya at a higher cost.  

The requirement to stay in an approved hotel wasn’t hidden from anyone.  

I’m not going to argue that the whole sandbox thing isn’t a horrible plan.  
 

But nobody is forcing these people to come.  
 

And the example you give isn’t really making your point.  
 

At least 16 vaccinated people have tested positive either on arrival or on their second test. 
 

This guy who didn’t even wait for the results of his first test could have put many people at risk.  
 

It was extremely selfish to flaunt the safety precautions. 

 

The sandbox may be seriously flawed, but to blow off the testing is worse.  

[ArcticFox]

I can hardly wait until they close the beaches and hotel swimming pools and implement a 9PM curfew.

[ChipButty]

6 minutes ago, ArcticFox said:

I can hardly wait until they close the beaches and hotel swimming pools and implement a 9PM curfew.

You're weird 

Edited July 20, 2021 by ChipButty

[Boedog]

How could this be the "Sandbox" is amune too everything else happening in the world, does the PM know about this yet? he wont be happy but everything looks on schedule for October 1st  re-opening apart from those pesky lockdowns

[PETERTHEEATER]

16 hours ago, Taboo2 said:

I will stay home in my apartment and choke the chicken. 

Just because 'bird competitions' are restricted?

[Harveyboy]

20 hours ago, DaveE13 said:

It's the no "bird competition" that does it for me. 

no birds no honey..

[riclag]

The V is taking away all the fun places to go to in Petri Phuket.

 

[superal]

18 hours ago, Taboo2 said:

Ok, I have just closed my plans to visit Phuket.....if I want to visit  a place where there is not much to do, I will stay home in my apartment and choke the chicken.  Save me a <deleted> load of money!

Me too having second thoughts . Have pre-approval for C.O.E. and was today going to book the hotel and flight ( Thai Air £566 one way so not cheap ) but keep hearing too many negatives  . Why are the authorities becoming killjoys such as closing bars and restricting restaurants etc ? 

I thought the idea of the sandbox was to encourage visitors but it seems they are trying to deter . I am going to put my plans on hold ( Phuket a stopover to get to Issan , me expat non o visa extension ) . Also no surprise Phuket has covid cos they were allowing domestic flights from swampy and passengers had to have at least 1 jab which does nothing and farangs flights were not allowed to touch down in Bangkok which is nonsensical . More of a concern is at the end of the 14 day quarantine , will there be flights to Bangkok and also other domestic flights ? I can foresee many international airway companies cancelling flights to Phuket as they will not have enough passengers . 

The sandbox concept was welcomed but has been mismanaged and gradually stripped of its benefits . 

[Rampant Rabbit]

On 7/19/2021 at 4:07 PM, snoop1130 said:

fields for cockfights

Should  be closed forever, disgusting  practice.

[Rampant Rabbit]

19 hours ago, digibum said:

That said, just a few days ago local officials were “suggesting” bars in Rawai could open as restaurants.  

That,ll  sure  confuse that darn covid Delta variant  alright!

[Espanol]

19 hours ago, digibum said:

just a few days ago local officials were “suggesting” bars in Rawai could open as restaurants.

 

Yes:  https://www.thephuketnews.com/rawai-bars-encouraged-to-reopen-as-restaurants-80694.php

 

 

And now they are forced to close and they must discard all purchased food.

 

 

[Espanol]

 

Do they expect many tourist arriving to Phuket this way?

Only Thais or expat residents returning home will go to Phuket now, because even this way is better than ASQ hotels in Bangkok.

But indeed no tourists will go.

[NanLaew]

12 hours ago, Espanol said:

Then we go to bed at midnight and get up at 8 AM to go to work at 9.

 

About siesta, only retired foreigners do. ????

Ah yes, I forgot about the 20 or 30 year-old local retirees.

[digibum]

4 hours ago, superal said:

I thought the idea of the sandbox was to encourage visitors but it seems they are trying to deter .

I know this must be confusing to a lot of people.  
 

TAT and the hotel owners want tourists and really could care less if half of Thailand died as long as they all got paid.  
 

The CCSA and medical professionals want to keep Covid in check.  
 

The CCSA overrides TAT and the hotel owners.  
 

That is why when TAT and hotel owners made several other brain dead proposals to open up Phuket, they were shot down.  The Phuket Sandbox was only approved because it met certain public health criteria.  
 

Now with cases on Phuket rising and 16 international travelers testing positive, Phuket authorities are faced with quickly snuffing out the new Covid cases quickly or having the entire Sandbox program cancelled with TAT and the hotel owners having egg on their faces.  
 

You may have noticed that at no point in this explanation has your fun been mentioned.  
 

That is intentional.  
 

Your fun was never a mission of TAT, the hotel owners, the CCSA, or the public health community.   
 

As such, it is and will continue to be the first thing sacrificed.  
 

The sooner people realize that, the less confusing things will be.  

[Deli]

On 7/19/2021 at 8:53 PM, Rhacsyn said:

Hi. I came back into Phuket through the sandbox scheme and live here. I cannot agree or disagree with you regarding the prevalance of Covid (little or no active testing other than sandbox) but I can confirm that hospitals are not overly busy on the Covid front and neither are the crematoriums. Nevertheless, it is a strange announcement as outlets with entertainment licences (bars, pubs, clubs) have supposedly officially been "closed" since 19th March so yes, i guess something is "brewing".

Don't think that something is brewing but the local clowns in charge of the litterbox are pooing in their nappies of fear screwing up the scheme due to more cases than allowed ( 90 per week ). What a loss of face this would be for the paranoid people in charge ?

[Espanol]

50 minutes ago, digibum said:

I know this must be confusing to a lot of people.  
 

TAT and the hotel owners want tourists and really could care less if half of Thailand died as long as they all got paid.  
 

The CCSA and medical professionals want to keep Covid in check.  
 

The CCSA overrides TAT and the hotel owners.  
 

That is why when TAT and hotel owners made several other brain dead proposals to open up Phuket, they were shot down.  The Phuket Sandbox was only approved because it met certain public health criteria.  
 

Now with cases on Phuket rising and 16 international travelers testing positive, Phuket authorities are faced with quickly snuffing out the new Covid cases quickly or having the entire Sandbox program cancelled with TAT and the hotel owners having egg on their faces.  
 

You may have noticed that at no point in this explanation has your fun been mentioned.  
 

That is intentional.  
 

Your fun was never a mission of TAT, the hotel owners, the CCSA, or the public health community.   
 

As such, it is and will continue to be the first thing sacrificed.  
 

The sooner people realize that, the less confusing things will be.  

However, if no fun, no tourists. 

 

So, if TAT and hotel owners want tourists, and Thai government wants their money, the will better provide some fun to tourists or they will never go to Thailand. 

[gim12]

who said he blew off the test? that was never mentioned, it said he did not sleep a the hotel- no mention in the article mentioned avoiding follow up tests,  he was allowed to spend time with his wife at his house during the day but not at night-that is not a safety factor that is a, "lets make money off needless hotels stays" factor,  he was tested at least once before the flight, a tested and double vaccinated tourist is not putting as many at risk as unvaccinated and untested locals and yet again, when I said he had the "privilege" of flying into Phuket I was being sarcastic

[digibum]

16 minutes ago, Espanol said:

However, if no fun, no tourists. 

 

So, if TAT and hotel owners want tourists, and Thai government wants their money, the will better provide some fun to tourists or they will never go to Thailand. 

Believe it or not, the government doesn’t care about your money.   
 

I know, that’s a hard pill for many to swallow.  
 

The only people that care are TAT and the hotel owners.  And TAT is basically just a cheerleader for the hotels and airlines.  
 

80% of the economy is humming along just fine.  
 

Until China opens up and lets people travel, this is all just to line the pockets of the hotel owners.   
 

Prayut isn’t going to have any problems buying submarines or making the government payroll because some farang decides not to come to Thailand.  

[digibum]

7 minutes ago, gim12 said:

who said he blew off the test? that was never mentioned, it said he did not sleep a the hotel- no mention in the article mentioned avoiding follow up tests,  he was allowed to spend time with his wife at his house during the day but not at night-that is not a safety factor that is a, "lets make money off needless hotels stays" factor,  he was tested at least once before the flight, a tested and double vaccinated tourist is not putting as many at risk as unvaccinated and untested locals and yet again, when I said he had the "privilege" of flying into Phuket I was being sarcastic

I know you’re not getting it but if you go back and read that news story, he failed to check into his hotel after arrival.  
 

Given that the results of his test on landing can take up to 10 hours for them to get back, he could have been positive for Covid and spreading to everyone he came in contact with.  
 

And since several “tourists” have passed their initial test and tested positive on the second test, there seems to be a valid reason for health officials to want to keep an eye on people immediately after arrival.  
 

Oh, plus he never installed the tracking app so it seems pretty obvious he was blowing off the requirements.  

[Espanol]

3 minutes ago, digibum said:

Believe it or not, the government doesn’t care about your money.   
 

I know, that’s a hard pill for many to swallow.  
 

The only people that care are TAT and the hotel owners.  And TAT is basically just a cheerleader for the hotels and airlines.  
 

80% of the economy is humming along just fine.  
 

Until China opens up and lets people travel, this is all just to line the pockets of the hotel owners.   
 

Prayut isn’t going to have any problems buying submarines or making the government payroll because some farang decides not to come to Thailand.  

Prayut himself supported the full idea of Phuket "sandbox", welcomed personally the first tourists and he would lose a lot of face if full programme fails.

Even could be forced to resign by the one(s) who formerly promoted him to PM.

Not to mention people already complaining about their closed business, and not only hotels and restaurants, but also malls, factories, airlines, building companies, exporters and many other important companies. Most of them owned by you-know-who.

[digibum]

2 minutes ago, Espanol said:

Prayut himself supported the full idea of Phuket "sandbox", welcomed personally the first tourists and he would lose a lot of face if full programme fails.

Even could be forced to resign by the one(s) who formerly promoted him to PM.

Not to mention people already complaining about their closed business, and not only hotels and restaurants, but also malls, factories, airlines, building companies, exporters and many other important companies. Most of them owned by you-know-who.

Prayut only supported the sandbox after it went through several rounds of revisions.  He was the one responsible for shooting down several of TATs and hotel owner’s previous stupid ideas.  
 

The only sector of the market that is really hurting due to a lack of tourism that anybody up in Bangkok cares about is condo sales.  
 

And since the Chinese are 50% of that market and they can’t travel anywhere right now, this is all just a big show to appease people like Bill Heinecke who owns tons of hotels across Thailand.  
 

He’s been writing articles in the media and doing interviews and the sandbox is a bone being thrown to him and the other hotel owners to shut them up.  

[NanLaew]

56 minutes ago, superal said:

Me too having second thoughts . Have pre-approval for C.O.E. and was today going to book the hotel and flight ( Thai Air £566 one way so not cheap ) but keep hearing too many negatives  . Why are the authorities becoming killjoys such as closing bars and restricting restaurants etc ? 

I thought the idea of the sandbox was to encourage visitors but it seems they are trying to deter . I am going to put my plans on hold ( Phuket a stopover to get to Issan , me expat non o visa extension ) . Also no surprise Phuket has covid cos they were allowing domestic flights from swampy and passengers had to have at least 1 jab which does nothing and farangs flights were not allowed to touch down in Bangkok which is nonsensical . More of a concern is at the end of the 14 day quarantine , will there be flights to Bangkok and also other domestic flights ? I can foresee many international airway companies cancelling flights to Phuket as they will not have enough passengers . 

The sandbox concept was welcomed but has been mismanaged and gradually stripped of its benefits . 

As a 'retired' person in Udon but currently working in the not-so free world, the Phuket back door was on my list of return options. No longer though. Having done two consecutive quarantines plus a 14-day self isolation (just to make sure!) in my current neck of the woods, the security of a balcony hotel room in the bottom end of Sukhumvit (again) seems best.

 

However, since the Delta variant seems to 'stick' harder for longer, I am waiting to see the inevitable up-tick on ASQ arrivals failing their 3rd day test and being whisked off to one of those cardboard bed field hospitals.

[FritsSikkink]

Great attraction for tourist to come then.

[gim12]

let me make this as clear as possible, I sarcastically said people have the "privilege" of flying into Phuket because that is the attitude of the authorities, their attitude seems to be if a vaccinated foreigner wants to come then we are going to use that desire to milk them of funds just because we can: we are going to overtest-3 tests in 14 days but we will not test the unvaccinated locals the same amount of times, if he has a house he can spend the days there but cannot spend the nights there even if he takes the required number of tests, if someone near him on the plane is positive then he will have to quarantine for 2 weeks-at over $100 a night- even if his test comes back negative, if a returnee has a house here he can spend the day there but not the night because we want him to pay for a hotel and the "privilege" of returning, we are going to track the vaccinated and tested  visitor but not the unvaccinated and untested locals, their policies of focusing on the tested and vaccinated visitor and not the unvaccinated locals shows their desire  is to make money and not to lessen the spread of the virus

[Captain Monday]

3 hours ago, digibum said:

I know this must be confusing to a lot of people.  
 

TAT and the hotel owners want tourists and really could care less if half of Thailand died as long as they all got paid.  
 

The CCSA and medical professionals want to keep Covid in check.  
 

The CCSA overrides TAT and the hotel owners.  
 

That is why when TAT and hotel owners made several other brain dead proposals to open up Phuket, they were shot down.  The Phuket Sandbox was only approved because it met certain public health criteria.  
 

Now with cases on Phuket rising and 16 international travelers testing positive, Phuket authorities are faced with quickly snuffing out the new Covid cases quickly or having the entire Sandbox program cancelled with TAT and the hotel owners having egg on their faces.  
 

You may have noticed that at no point in this explanation has your fun been mentioned.  
 

That is intentional.  
 

Your fun was never a mission of TAT, the hotel owners, the CCSA, or the public health community.   
 

As such, it is and will continue to be the first thing sacrificed.  
 

The sooner people realize that, the less confusing things will be.  

Nice screed. Do you think the pandemic in Thailand is made worse by vaccinated and 4xTested tourists?

Covid-19 is already widespread here 5000 plus came in two weeks less 6 positive tourists including 1  SINOVAC UAE guy and two unvaccinated, diseased brats.

 

[superal]

2 hours ago, digibum said:

Believe it or not, the government doesn’t care about your money.   
 

I know, that’s a hard pill for many to swallow.  
 

The only people that care are TAT and the hotel owners.  And TAT is basically just a cheerleader for the hotels and airlines.  
 

80% of the economy is humming along just fine.  
 

Until China opens up and lets people travel, this is all just to line the pockets of the hotel owners.   
 

Prayut isn’t going to have any problems buying submarines or making the government payroll because some farang decides not to come to Thailand.  

20% of the Thai economy, being the tourist section , is huge and probably a much higher % of working people rely on tourism for an income . There is not a social safety net in Thailand and people are going hungary and cannot repay bank loans . There are already demonstrations that are opposing the generals leadership and the farcical covid vaccine performance along with unnecessary  submarine purchases and a new space programme are causing a lot of unrest in the population .

Do not underestimate the importance of the Thai tourism financial contribution  which only accounts for above board businesses . There is of course the dark side of tourism namely hospitality /entertainment in its crudest form which employs many unofficially . The Chineses contribution to the Thai economy does not equate to the number of Chinese tourists who often come to a Chinese owned hotel and on an all inclusive deal which can also include bus tours owned by Chinese companies . 

[Stargeezr]

Thailand will be lucky if it can even open to international tourists in December.  It will take until December to

see just how bad the delta, lambda, and other new variants are doing. It will also take until about October for

the Pfizer, Moderna, and maybe J & J vaccines to arrive and start to be given to Thais and expat who will pay

lots just to get their 2 shots.    Thailand will be lucky to get even a part of the high season visitors, especially if

the government keeps insisting that alcohol has to be restricted or not allowed.  I am surprised that even

the ME visitors have not started to publicly complain. They must be impressed with the ghost town feeling

when they travel around Phuket City on tours.

Geezer