Outbreak greatest threat to Sandbox, says TAT Phuket chief

[webfact]

The TAT will launch a campaign highlighting that Phuket is separated from the ’dark red’ high-risk COVID zones zones elsewhere in the country, TAT Phuket Director Nanthasiri Ronnasiri said. Photo: PR Phuket

 

By The Phuket News

 

PHUKET: The rate of COVID-19 infections across the island is the greatest threat to the Phuket Sandbox scheme, with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) ready to launch a campaign specifically targeting US arrivals to stabilise the number of arrivals under the project, TAT Phuket Director Nanthasiri Ronnasiri has announced.

 

Speaking at the daily COVID situation meeting led by Governor Narong Woonciew yesterday (Aug 11), Ms Nanthasiri noted that bookings had continued well for the first 10 days of August.

 

“It is a good sign. In only 10 days there are already bookings for more than 140,000 room nights. It is expected that if the COVID-19 outbreak can be controlled well this high season [Oct-Feb], the economy may grow,” she said.

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/outbreak-greatest-threat-to-sandbox-says-tat-phuket-chief-81028.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2021-08-12

 

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[grandpa]

Bubbles for brains I think!

 

[Scrotobike]

Wow

 

"with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) ready to launch a campaign specifically targeting US arrivals"

 

Don't the read the news - USA CDC - don't go to Thailand?

Oh I forget who I am talking about TAT - the dream machine.

[jojothai]

Oh dear,

the new wave came in and washed away the sandbox.

[skatewash]

A little context about the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) covid travel recommendations.  The current recommendation is that you should not travel to Thailand.  The CDC also recommends not traveling to the following countries which are at "Very High Risk."  By the way, the US CDC does not recommend traveling to the US as it is classed as "Very High Risk" too but does not appear on the following list (which does include Thailand):

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html#travel-1

There are in fact only a small number of countries in the world that the CDC does not have on their "not recommended" list for vaccinated travelers to visit.

[Gottfrid]

I guess more rapes and murders are out of the question, then.

[zzzzz]

while 104 infected cases reported today over the 64 from yesterday

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by zzzzz

[Mavideol]

39 minutes ago, webfact said:

The rate of COVID-19 infections across the island is the greatest threat to the Phuket Sandbox scheme,

maybe not .... maybe lack of safety is the greatest one

[ikke1959]

Let them play in the Sandbox.. They are vaccinated for 75 % so what can happen?? The tourists are all vaccinated too.. Many countries have given a negative travel advice for Thailand, and the ones who need to come will have to do a lot of paperwork and pay a lot more for tests and insurance. But is still is a big success. Losing face is impossible...And now... a foreigner lost in the jungle and a Swiss woman murdered... But the success  story will be continued

[Mickeymaus]

"It is expected that if the COVID-19 outbreak can be controlled well this high season [Oct-Feb], the economy may grow,” she said." 

 

The most important thing is to control the numbers...

[sherwood]

TAT is exceptional at controlling the numbers, just no good with reality. 

Good luck Phuket is all I have to say about that story.

[sammieuk1]

I'm in Patong right now and can say apart from hordes of geriatric looking hookers plying their trade from massage shops there is not much else open to get excited about here, mostly not worth the effort to leave my hotel room and its rainy season.

 

Some may disagree but if I was here just on holiday I'd wish I wasn't???? 

[Pedrogaz]

Entirely foreseeable outcome....an entirely likely outcome that was not even considered by TAT or the generals. Shameful.....urging tourists to spend their hard earned money on a trip to a sandbox full of COVID delta.

[it is what it is]

34 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

I'm in Patong right now and can say apart from hordes of geriatric looking hookers plying their trade from massage shops there is not much else open to get excited about here, mostly not worth the effort to leave my hotel room and its rainy season.

 

Some may disagree but if I was here just on holiday I'd wish I wasn't???? 

i can see returners using the sandbox to get into thailand,  but who wants to come out of lockdown in their own country to go for a holiday to a country with a lockdown?

[KarenBravo]

Captain Obvious strikes again!

[HappyExpat57]

1 hour ago, zzzzz said:

while 104 infected cases reported today over the 64 from yesterday

 

Wasn't 90 cases within a week the threshold for shutting it down?

[Cake Monster]

17 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Wasn't 90 cases within a week the threshold for shutting it down?

Yes it was the stated number of Infections to be allowed in order to keep the Tourists safe.

But everything has changed due to the smell of some Tourist Money, and safety, as always will go down the gurgler in order to keep that smell wafting over the Island.

However, now the cases seem to be rising very quickly on the Island, as is the way with the Delta Variant, and soon the safety of the Tourists will have to be considered seriously, or some kind of incident may take place that will ruin Thai tourism for Years to come.

it would be better to pull the Plug now and the Authorities to declare the Sandbox closed. This way they will save face and gain respect.

Having some kind of an outbreak incident just aint gonna cut it, and all the apologies in the World wont work.

Sometimes, sanity is the better part of Valor

[ChC1]

45 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Wasn't 90 cases within a week the threshold for shutting it down?

It was. But in TAT's defence that they never told you the 90 cases per week threshold was designed for the sandbox tourists group only. When the threshold was decided, the number crunchers never expected the local would get even close to 9 cases per week. Until they realised unvaccinated Thai workers or tourists from the north are bring in the Delta variant and then it is too late. 

 

I fully expect one article will exploit the '90 cases per sandbox tourists group weekly' idea soon to make sure people believe sandbox scheme is working well.

[KarenBravo]

30 minutes ago, Cake Monster said:

Yes it was the stated number of Infections to be allowed in order to keep the Tourists safe.

But everything has changed due to the smell of some Tourist Money, and safety, as always will go down the gurgler in order to keep that smell wafting over the Island.

However, now the cases seem to be rising very quickly on the Island, as is the way with the Delta Variant, and soon the safety of the Tourists will have to be considered seriously, or some kind of incident may take place that will ruin Thai tourism for Years to come.

it would be better to pull the Plug now and the Authorities to declare the Sandbox closed. This way they will save face and gain respect.

Having some kind of an outbreak incident just aint gonna cut it, and all the apologies in the World wont work.

Sometimes, sanity is the better part of Valor

99% of the local Thai people don't smell anything.

I have seen no appreciable difference for ordinary Thais since the Sandbox opened.

[crazykopite]

Just read her statement and immediately a song entered my head “ Dream Dream Dream , Dream Dream Dream “ 

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, grandpa said:

Bubbles for brains I think!

 

My old man used to say something else.... but it wasn't bubbles.

[madmitch]

As Basil said about Sybil:

 

Specialist subject, the bleedin' obvious!

[impulse]

6 hours ago, skatewash said:

There are in fact only a small number of countries in the world that the CDC does not have on their "not recommended" list for vaccinated travelers to visit.

They want us barricaded into our basements.  Makes their statistics look better.  Devastates the economy, but that's another Department's problem.

 

[oldcpu]

7 hours ago, sammieuk1 said:

I'm in Patong right now and can say apart from hordes of geriatric looking hookers plying their trade from massage shops there is not much else open to get excited about here, mostly not worth the effort to leave my hotel room and its rainy season.

Sorry to read your time here in Phuket is not living up to your likely hopes and expectations.

 

I think thou, if you had asked any Phuket expat, prior to booking, everyone would have told you that going to Patong now is a bad idea ... really bad. 

 

Rawai, Chalong, ... and even Phuket Town are more lively.  Patong has been pretty much 'dead' for over a year now. ... Also, with latest spike in infections causing restaurants to stop serving alcohol, my view is even restaurants in Chalong and Rawai are very subdued.

[MrJ2U]

"Outbreak greatest threat to Sandbox, says TAT Phuket chief"

 

Pandemics can ruin even the best laid plans.

[Stargeezr]

I think that mostly people with family in Thailand are the ones travelling to there at present. I guess a

few desperate tourists who just can not wait to see the tropics may travel to Thailand in the High season after October.

  My Thai family tells me to stay away until October of 2022, or better October of 2023. They are hoping that the variants

will have died off, as well as the original COVID virus strain.  I agree 100 hundred percent. Looks like another cold Canadian Winter

for me this year.

Geezer

[nkg]

13 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

Wasn't 90 cases within a week the threshold for shutting it down?

 

They were expecting foreign tourists to account for most of the new cases.

 

As it turns out, almost all the cases of covid in Phuket have been domestic. Stopping fully-vaccinated tourists coming to Phuket now would be pointless.

[sammieuk1]

7 hours ago, oldcpu said:

Sorry to read your time here in Phuket is not living up to your likely hopes and expectations.

 

I think thou, if you had asked any Phuket expat, prior to booking, everyone would have told you that going to Patong now is a bad idea ... really bad. 

 

Rawai, Chalong, ... and even Phuket Town are more lively.  Patong has been pretty much 'dead' for over a year now. ... Also, with latest spike in infections causing restaurants to stop serving alcohol, my view is even restaurants in Chalong and Rawai are very subdued.

It's exactly my expectation ???? 

[Pattaya Spotter]

16 hours ago, zzzzz said:

while 104 infected cases reported today over the 64 from yesterday

 

Yes...daily cases in single digits before Sandbox...ban domestic arrivals and allow only vaccinated international arrivals and cases skyrocket ????

[oldcpu]

1 hour ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Yes...daily cases in single digits before Sandbox...ban domestic arrivals and allow only vaccinated international arrivals and cases skyrocket ????

Unfortunate timing.

 

If you look at the increasing cases outside of Phuket before sandbox, and looked at slow creeping cases inside Phuket before sandbox, and the looked at pathetic too few tests in Phuket before sandbox and still ongoing, it should be clear it is not the international travellers that brought this wave to Phuket. Further, contact tracing ( which is easier to do with the International Travellers) has shown it's the domestic people coming to Phuket that brought the virus to Phuket.

 

The closure to domestic travel was far too late.

Edited August 13, 2021 by oldcpu