Phuket mass screening tests 1,300 over two days

By The Phuket News

 

More than 1,300 people in Phuket Town and those working at the main markets were tested for COVID-19 over just two days. The amss-testing campaign continues today (Aug 13). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

 

PHUKET: Health officers today are continuing their mass screening of people for COVID-19 in the Phuket Town Fresh market 1 area after the huge push to identify those infected still living among the community saw 1,300 people tested over the past two days, with 55 local residents and Myanmar migrant workers confirmed infected.

 

Of the 55 confirmed infected, 44 have yet to be included in the tally of 33 confirmed infections reported for yesterday (Aug 12).

 

“On Aug 11 [Wednesday], we tested 870 people in our proactive screening at the market and found 11 people infected, those were four Thais and seven migrant workers,” a Phuket City Municipality health officer who asked not to be named told The Phuket News this morning (Aug 13).

 

Full story: https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-mass-screening-tests-1-300-over-two-days-81038.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2021-08-13

 

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13 minutes ago, webfact said:

push to identify those infected still living among the community saw 1,300 people tested over the past two days, with 55 local residents and Myanmar migrant workers confirmed infected.

No, they were testing the people who felt well enough to turn up and thought they did not have it - the ones that probably know they have it and were sick were at home !

Well, according to official figures*, the infection rate is 45%, so we can expect 585 Phuket cases!

* https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/ 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

PHUKET: Health officers today are continuing their mass screening

Got Covid?

 

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

No, they were testing the people who felt well enough to turn up and thought they did not have it - the ones that probably know they have it and were sick were at home !

Are you kidding?

Thais are very scared of catching Covid. If they thought they have it, home would be the last place they would be.

They'd be off to the hospital as their life could depend on it and they know that.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Phuket mass screening tests 1,300 over two days

Mass testing.... Jeez.

5 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Mass testing.... Jeez.

I would hardly call 1300 tests over 2 days " Mass  Testing ".

Now ! If they had said 130,000 over 2 Days that would be on some kind of par with Countries that really do perform Mass Testing.

No expense to be spared obviously in the pursuit of Tourists Safety.

This is hardly going to give confidence to anybody potentially booking into the Sandbox, which is the object of the exercise after all.

Look at the photo. Nobody cares about social distancing (again). But the people go there to find out if they have Covid. Sorry - all this doesn't make sense anymore to me. 

>1300 tests conducted in two days is a big improvement over June ( ~ 100 tests/day on average) and a big improvement over July ( ~200 tests/day on average).  Kudos to the local government for increasing the testing here.  

 

Still, I think the Island would benefit if much more testing could be done.  More testing gives a better indication as to how the virus has spread and gives the local government better information to support their decision making.

 

My fear is they will run out of test kits, and run out of a budget to buy the test kits, and run out of the 'will' to keep testing.

 

1300 is not mass testing, they have no idea.

 

This is what's required for mass testing :

 

 

 

 

The technology will include automation, robotics and LGC EndPoint PCR (EPCR) testing workflow for COVID-19, which can process up to 150,000 tests each day.

500 jobs created already increasing to 1000 soon.

They also do the sequencing of virus samples here which allows the detection of new variants - regardless of where they come from - bet that the UK will know about it first.

 

How many 'mega labs' do they have in Thailand?

28 minutes ago, ukrules said:

1300 is not mass testing, they have no idea.

 

This is what's required for mass testing :

 

... or Thailand government (not the English language Thai press) has an idea but doesn't have the money. 

 

I note the GDP of the UK:  2.829 trillion USD (2019).  The GDP of Thailand 543.5 billion USD (2019), where I think tourism was something close to like 18% of Thailand's GDP, and that Thai GDP has taken a major hit in 2020/2021.

 

Still - I too would like to see a LOT more testing.  A LOT more.

Calling 1,300 a mass screening out of a population of 70,000 isn't mass screening.

 

Either do it right or don't do it at all.

 

 

4 hours ago, ukrules said:

How many 'mega labs' do they have in Thailand?

Maybe the NHS should take some of that Mega Lab money and invest it into surgery barns to start in on their 5 million backlog cases...

 

Bringing it back to the OP, I'm not sure the UK model with the NHS in gridlock, nor the US model with 600K deaths are good ones to emulate.  I hear there's a proposal to change the name from NHS to NCS, to reflect that Covid has locked it up.

 

 

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, impulse said:

Maybe the NHS should take some of that Mega Lab money and invest it into surgery barns to start in on their 5 million backlog cases...

Well this money isn't coming from the NHS, it's funded separately and directly from central government.

 

They could do with extra resources to process the backlog, I suspect they will come as well.

45 minutes ago, MrJ2U said:

Calling 1,300 a mass screening out of a population of 70,000 isn't mass screening.

 

Either do it right or don't do it at all.

 

 

Agreed its not 'mass screening'.

 

I agree far far FAR too little testing is being done.

 

I disagree 'Either do it right or don't do it at all.'. 

 

As ugly as it is (with too little testing, and it is ugly) it is still infinitely better than none.

42 minutes ago, oldcpu said:

Agreed its not 'mass screening'.

 

I agree far far FAR too little testing is being done.

 

I disagree 'Either do it right or don't do it at all.'. 

 

As ugly as it is (with too little testing, and it is ugly) it is still infinitely better than none.

Your right