Phuket marks record daily new infections, one more COVID death

[webfact]

Image: PPHO

 

By The Phuket News

 

PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO) marked a record 50 new local COVID-19 infections on the island yesterday (July 29), bringing the total number of people recognised as infected with COVID-19 in Phuket since Apr 3 to 1,073.

 

The 50 new local infections did not include one Phuket Sandbox arrival testing positive for COVID-19.

 

As such, the 50 new cases bring the total number of new local infections on the island in the past seven days to 192, as follows:

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-marks-record-daily-new-infections-one-more-covid-death-80862.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2021-07-30

 

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[Somtamnication]

Oh brother. Will this ever end?

[Mavideol]

but they "claimed" 83% of Phuket's population was vaccinated and it was safe for foreigners to arrive..... I guess the last comment about keeping the "sandbox" open for the next 2 weeks still or will have to be revised... one has to wonder what it will take for them to see/face the truth.....   555

[Ohyesuare]

8 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

but they "claimed" 83% of Phuket's population was vaccinated and it was safe for foreigners to arrive..... I guess the last comment about keeping the "sandbox" open for the next 2 weeks still or will have to be revised... one has to wonder what it will take for them to see/face the truth.....   555

As long as the vaccines are keeping people out of the ICU, that was the goal, even with increasing infections/cases.

[zzzzz]

10 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

but they "claimed" 83% of Phuket's population was vaccinated and it was safe for foreigners to arrive..... I guess the last comment about keeping the "sandbox" open for the next 2 weeks still or will have to be revised... one has to wonder what it will take for them to see/face the truth.....   555

1: You can catch the virus even if ur vaccinated

2.,  Blame the returning thais and Police at the bridge for not checking everyone!!

[WEBBYB808]

Phuket, "Winning!"

[ourdon]

192 so far this week.  Interesting.  The medical advice was to shut the sandbox down when the infections reached 90 per week.  The govenator has decided that he has more expertise than the medical advisors. 

 

I'm curious what the govenator's public reasons for remaining open will be.  I think looking behind those reasons might start to show which power blocks actually control Phuket

 

I suspect that the Sandbox will remain active until the tourists stop or enough people are killed to scare even the power blocks with the fear of retribution.

[Espanol]

1 hour ago, zzzzz said:

1: You can catch the virus even if ur vaccinated

2.,  Blame the returning thais and Police at the bridge for not checking everyone!!

Blame the former rule of only asking Thais for PCR got just 7 days before the travel and not asking them for vaccines.

No they reallized that all transmisions are local, not tourists related, and finally began taking real measures about Thais entering Phuket.

Better late than never, but may be too late now.

[Pattaya Spotter]

2 hours ago, Ohyesuare said:

As long as the vaccines are keeping people out of the ICU, that was the goal, even with increasing infections/cases.

Exactly...one there is widespread vaccination new infections are an unimportant metric. 

[LivinginKata]

2 hours ago, zzzzz said:

1: You can catch the virus even if ur vaccinated

2.,  Blame the returning thais and Police at the bridge for not checking everyone!!

 

For sure much of this current problem is being imported from central Thailand. My wife travelled back 4 weeks ago and was not asked to prove anything at check point. No temp check or ID request. A joke.

[sucit]

Serious question, when do we start disallowing people to leave the island. It’s worked in reverse. I don’t understand these inconsistent restrictions.

[richard_smith237]

2 hours ago, ourdon said:

192 so far this week.  Interesting.  The medical advice was to shut the sandbox down when the infections reached 90 per week.  The govenator has decided that he has more expertise than the medical advisors. 

 

I'm curious what the govenator's public reasons for remaining open will be.  I think looking behind those reasons might start to show which power blocks actually control Phuket

 

I suspect that the Sandbox will remain active until the tourists stop or enough people are killed to scare even the power blocks with the fear of retribution.

Question: 

 

Who do you think presents more risk to who ?

 

1) Fully vaccinated people who have taken a PCR test before travelling, a PCR test on arrival and two further PCR tests during a two week stay. 

 

2) Someone else on the Island who may or may not have been vaccinated with Sinvac.

 

Additionally - to Quote... 50 new infections did no include one Sandbox arrival.

 

The medical experts you mention may not be very ‘expert’ at all... and as with so many others in positions of ’some’ influence in Thailand may be just making announcements for the sake of announcements..i.e. just spouting hot air without any real basis in fact. 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The 50 new local infections did not include one Phuket Sandbox arrival testing positive for COVID-19.

 

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

3 hours ago, Ohyesuare said:

As long as the vaccines are keeping people out of the ICU, that was the goal, even with increasing infections/cases.

Exactly...one there is widespread vaccination new infections are an unimportant metric. 

Agreed... IF ‘everyone’ is vaccinated and vaccination protects the vast majority of people from death and serious illness (in all but rare cases), then the only valid metric becomes hospitalisations and Deaths as a direct result of Covid infection. 

 

Those who ‘refuse’ to take the vaccine do not count - that is their choice to risk themselves. 

 

But, first, everyone who wants a vaccination has to be given the opportunity to receive ‘both’ vaccinations and preferably the second dose being at least AZ (after Sinovac) or the mRNA vaccine .

 

 

[DFPhuket]

With a high percentage of people in Phuket vaccinated, few should be getting seriously ill. How many are actually so ill that they need to be hospitalized? That will be impossible to tell as long as those who are mildly or asymptomatic are also hospitalized. 

 

The Phuket sandbox is being used to try new approaches to dealing with Covid. One new approach would be to report positive cases by level of illness: minimal symptoms, serious symptoms requiring hospitalization, and life threatening illness. 

 

Covid is not going away. Phuket sandbox success needs to be measured by the number those seriously ill, not just by the number of positive reports. 

[Espanol]

1 hour ago, DFPhuket said:

With a high percentage of people in Phuket vaccinated, few should be getting seriously ill. How many are actually so ill that they need to be hospitalized? That will be impossible to tell as long as those who are mildly or asymptomatic are also hospitalized. 

 

I don't know in Phuket, but about Pattaya:

 

"We often get asked how many of these cases are serious, hospitalized, etc. That specific information is not normally released, although has been stated numerous times that the vast majority, over 80%, are asymptomatic or “Green” which are mild cases of Covid-19."

 

https://thepattayanews.com/2021/07/30/chonburi-covid-19-cases-drop-to-914-with-six-new-deaths/

 

 

Since much more people vaccinated in Phuket than in Pattaya, asymptomatic should be many more. Probably over 90%

 

 

[superal]

5 hours ago, zzzzz said:

1: You can catch the virus even if ur vaccinated

2.,  Blame the returning thais and Police at the bridge for not checking everyone!!

and why are they letting Thais  on to the island to work with the proviso that they must have had at least 1 jab of az or sinovac etc when we all know that 2 doses are needed at least for protection and lessen infecting others . Phukets covid outbreak has almost certainly not come from double jabbed farangs and the virus was probably there before the sandbox was started and increased by additional unvaccinated Thai workers .  

[oldcpu]

5 hours ago, ourdon said:

192 so far this week.  Interesting.  The medical advice was to shut the sandbox down when the infections reached 90 per week.

 

The underlying assumption behind the 90 per week was that the 90 per week was coming from International Travelers.

 

That is NOT the case.

 

The 90-per-week are coming from domestic travelers to Phuket.  NOT from International.

 

So one could make the case, the Sandbox is being closed now to those domestic travelers to Phuket, and from that perspective, the medical advice is being followed.

 

IMHO the only way the International Travelers will reach 90-cases per week will be if we see a 10-fold increase in their arrivals to Phuket , which is HIGHLY UNLIKELY.  Or another way to reach the 90-per-week for International Travelers is the pandemic among locals in Phuket festers even more, and the International Travelers catch the virus from locals in Phuket.  That is how the 90-cases per week of Internationals testing positive for the virus will be reached IMHO.

 

[oldcpu]

1 hour ago, Espanol said:

 

I don't know in Phuket, but about Pattaya:

 

"We often get asked how many of these cases are serious, hospitalized, etc. That specific information is not normally released, although has been stated numerous times that the vast majority, over 80%, are asymptomatic or “Green” which are mild cases of Covid-19."

 

https://thepattayanews.com/2021/07/30/chonburi-covid-19-cases-drop-to-914-with-six-new-deaths/

 

 

Since much more people vaccinated in Phuket than in Pattaya, asymptomatic should be many more. Probably over 90%

 

 

Indeed - it would be nice to see the statistics as to how many are asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms.

 

[MrJ2U]

7 hours ago, Ohyesuare said:

As long as the vaccines are keeping people out of the ICU, that was the goal, even with increasing infections/cases.

I haven't heard much about the hospital situation in Phiket.  I wonder if anyone on this forum has that info.

 

Maybe keeping them out of the ICU.  But you still only have an infinite number of hospital beds.  

 

In any case this Phuket Sandbox seems to be winding down on its own despite TATs  glowing reviews.

 

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by MrJ2U

[mancub]

8 hours ago, Ohyesuare said:

As long as the vaccines are keeping people out of the ICU, that was the goal, even with increasing infections/cases.

5 hours ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Exactly...one there is widespread vaccination new infections are an unimportant metric. 

Agreed, that is the "goal" of a vaccination program. The goal of the Sandbox, however, was to show the world that Thailand was safe and ready for international tourism. 

It has failed due to a combination of poor planning and the turn of events throughout the country.

 

[oldcpu]

37 minutes ago, mancub said:

The goal of the Sandbox, however, was to show the world that Thailand was safe and ready for international tourism. 

 

Was that the goal ?  or was it to (1) test to see the impact of letting in International Travelers (when at the time this was planned Thailand was not seeing the current pandemic), and (2) to help the local Phuket economy.

 

Clearly you and I see what these goals were very differently.

[oldcpu]

My Thai wife pointed out to me a Facebook page, in Thai language, that described where many of the pandemic clusters were in Phuket.  I had her pass to me the Thai text, and I dragged it into google translate  ... I fixed up the format a bit and pasted it below.

 

I thought some on this forum might find this of interest:

 

= = = = = google translation from a Facebook Thai language page) = = = = = =

 

Overview of Covid-19 in Phuket, in July, 19, found 12 new clusters, 771 high-risk exposures.
.
Mr. Kusak Kukiattikul Doctor of Public Health, Phuket Province Report on the progress of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation, which is an overview of Phuket Province. The cluster was found in July 2021, consisting of
* 4 in a golf course (30 Jun.-5 Jul. 21),
* 20 cases in Soi Thung Charoen (7-28 Jul. 21),
* 5 in a village (8-19 Jul. 21).
* 15 in a Bank
* 8 cases in Furniture installation company (7-28 Jul. 21)
* 8 cases Koh Kaew football (17 Jul 21)  
* 32 cases in Department store (20-23 Jul 21)
* 8 cases  in ice shop (25 - 26 July '21)
* 14 cases in company in Talat Nuea Subdistrict (25 - 26 July '21)
* 13 cases construction camp (26 - 27 Jul. 21)
* 7 in a sub-district administrative organization (26-28 Jul 21)
* 5 in dim sum restaurants (28 Jul 21)

From all 12 clusters (of risk groups) were a total of 771 potential cases (ie people checked).

[oldcpu]

2 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

I haven't heard much about the hospital situation in Phiket.  I wonder if anyone on this forum has that info.

A recent Thaiger.com news article (dated 30-July-2021) has some very vague information:  https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/precarious-phuket-open-internationally-closed-domestically

 

I quote from the article:

 

- - -  start of quote - - - -

Phuket’s healthcare and hospital system are still in strong shape with only 36% of resources in use currently. No cases have required ventilators so far. Some of the 148 cases in the past week were Phuket residents infected outside the province and returning home for medical treatment. High-risk infections were moved to local quarantine facilities.

 

Phuket currently has 450 rooms ready for isolation and quarantine, but each tambon in Phuket was asked to make contingency plans in case of a surge to identify rooms that could be converted to provide up to 1,500 quarantine rooms.

- - -  end of quote - - - -

 

With 35 to 50 cases each day, and the trend suggests even more tests per day could be seen, 450 rooms could be filled pretty quick if only one per room.  I wonder how many per room ?   I fear the 'contingency plan' of more rooms could be needed.

[mancub]

58 minutes ago, oldcpu said:

Was that the goal ?  or was it to (1) test to see the impact of letting in International Travelers (when at the time this was planned Thailand was not seeing the current pandemic), and (2) to help the local Phuket economy.

 

Clearly you and I see what these goals were very differently.

Not so differently, but how then explain why Samui/Krabi/Burriram and even Pattaya are under the same "umbrella" or "bandwagon" with plans being formulated after the current wave became apparent.

 

[JimmyJ]

9 hours ago, WEBBYB808 said:

Phuket, "Winning!"

Perfect.

[JimmyJ]

https://www.thephuketnews.com/officials-change-definition-of-population-of-phuket-claim-island-74-vaccinated-80369.php

[Ohyesuare]

3 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

I haven't heard much about the hospital situation in Phiket.  I wonder if anyone on this forum has that info.

 

Maybe keeping them out of the ICU.  But you still only have an infinite number of hospital beds.  

 

In any case this Phuket Sandbox seems to be winding down on its own despite TATs  glowing reviews.

 

 

Richard Barrow provides a daily update of how many in Phuket are in the hospital and deaths etc.. I think it's at around 200 now with 36% of ICU filled but I could be misremembering and can't be bothered to go look it up. Once hospitals have reached capacity, of course the sandbox will be over, if not long before that.

[Ohyesuare]

2 hours ago, mancub said:

Agreed, that is the "goal" of a vaccination program. The goal of the Sandbox, however, was to show the world that Thailand was safe and ready for international tourism. 

It has failed due to a combination of poor planning and the turn of events throughout the country.

 

Let's be honest, the goal was to bring in some badly needed tourist dollars to at least one part of Thailand and hopefully calm down the "peasants" by giving them some hope that things will soon be back to normal.

[Rhacsyn]

46 minutes ago, Ohyesuare said:

Richard Barrow provides a daily update of how many in Phuket are in the hospital and deaths etc.. I think it's at around 200 now with 36% of ICU filled but I could be misremembering and can't be bothered to go look it up. Once hospitals have reached capacity, of course the sandbox will be over, if not long before that.

As per Thaiger / BP today 36% of resources are currently in use but nobody has required ventilator yet

[Albert Zweistein]

3 hours ago, oldcpu said:

Was that the goal ?  or was it to (1) test to see the impact of letting in International Travelers (when at the time this was planned Thailand was not seeing the current pandemic), and (2) to help the local Phuket economy.

 

Clearly you and I see what these goals were very differently.

They were advertising all over the world "Amazing Thailand even more Amazing now...........