Russian consul general gives his views on Phuket Sandbox

[snoop1130]

 

PHUKET, 8 October 2021 (NNT) - Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong has met with Russian Consul General to Phuket Vladimir V. Sosnov to exchange their views on Thailand’s reopening to foreign tourists under the Phuket Sandbox scheme, and to discuss charter flights from Russia to Phuket.

 

The Russian consul general said there were many Russians who were interested in coming to Thailand under the Phuket Sandbox program, but Russia’s government was still concerned about Thailand’s COVID-19 infection numbers. It was discouraging travel to Thailand until the number of infections drops to a level it deemed safe, which was 40 infections per 100,000 persons.

 

The Phuket Vice Governor told the consul general that the infection rate in Phuket was 30 to 100,000 persons, and asserted that strict disease control measures were implemented on the island. More than 70% of people in Phuket are fully inoculated and booster shot coverage is expected to reach 70% by the end of this month.

 

Mr. Pichet said 496 Russian tourists have traveled into Phuket under the Sandbox program since September 1. The hope was for airlines to launch direct flights from Russia to Phuket, with the vice governor having also asked that the Russian government approve charter flights to Phuket.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2021-10-08

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow ASEAN NOW on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[Mavideol]

7 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

The Phuket Vice Governor told the consul general that the infection rate in Phuket was 30 to 100,000 persons, and asserted that strict disease control measures were implemented on the island. More than 70% of people in Phuket are fully inoculated and booster shot coverage is expected to reach 70% by the end of this month.

wouldn't... couldn't and shouldn't trust anything out of this guy's mouth.... sandbox has been reported in many instances as a complete fiasco, let's keep it at that, total fiasco

[LetsGoBrandon]

Can anyone explain the sandbox concept to me in a sentence if it isn't too much trouble?

[kelboy]

The only good thing about the sandbox is to allow expats to return, why would any tourist want to come, no drinking or smoking anywhere nice and don't even think about protecting your self from the sun and if you're not going to spend 1 million baht in 2 weeks we don't want you. 

[skatewash]

43 minutes ago, LetsGoBrandon said:

Can anyone explain the sandbox concept to me in a sentence if it isn't too much trouble?

Phuket Sandbox is 7 days of island quarantine for vaccinated and tested people who can subsequently visit the rest of Thailand.

[LetsGoBrandon]

2 hours ago, skatewash said:

Phuket Sandbox is 7 days of island quarantine for vaccinated and tested people who can subsequently visit the rest of Thailand.

Thank you!

Im amazed that the post where I asked the question has 2 emojis on it.....one is HAHA, the other is SAD

I cant understand what is so funny or sad about what I asked.

Seems like a decent idea although I wonder how they came about with the 7 days figure.

Are they 'following the science'?

Edited October 8, 2021 by LetsGoBrandon

[skatewash]

26 minutes ago, LetsGoBrandon said:

Thank you!

Im amazed that the post where I asked the question has 2 emojis on it.....one is HAHA, the other is SAD

I cant understand what is so funny or sad about what I asked.

Seems like a decent idea although I wonder how they came about with the 7 days figure.

Are they 'following the science'?

Phuket Sandbox island quarantine started out at 14 days but was reduced to 7 days on October 1st.  The 14 days was a common quarantine period because it was thought that most infections occurred within 14 days of exposure.

Many places in the world allow vaccinated people to enter (many countries in Europe included) with just a negative covid test and no quarantine required.  Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to allow vaccinated people to enter with just a negative test and island rather than room quarantine.

"Follow the science" is a rather naïve conception of how science works and a bit of a personal pet peeve.  Science can give evidence in support of doing some things and in support of not doing some things.  It doesn't tell you what to do.  At best there is a scientific consensus, which may or may not be wrong.  For example, heliocentrism was at one point very much outside the scientific consensus but it also turned out to be correct.  Covid decisions are partly based on science and partly based on politics.  Absolutely nothing has changed with regards to AstraZeneca vaccines produced in Thailand between when the UK didn't recognize them and now when they do.  Political and scientific organizations like CDC and WHO routinely make recommendations based on a mixture of science and politics.  Witness the huge reversals on whether we should be wearing a mask or not, whether covid could spread in an aerosolized form or not.

[LetsGoBrandon]

7 minutes ago, skatewash said:

Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to allow vaccinated people to enter with just a negative test and island rather than room quarantine.

Sounds interesting.

Im just wondering how this works out though.

So you're a foreigner who shows up in Phuket, with a negative C19 test and you're released

onto the island for 7 days before you can leave.

 

I suppose this is built entirely on the premise that the entire island is fully vaccinated or Covid-free, and the infection does not spread between vaxxed people (which I think is not true).

 

Still...worth a try.....people are going nuts staying cooped up in one place

 

 

[skatewash]

1 hour ago, LetsGoBrandon said:

Sounds interesting.

Im just wondering how this works out though.

So you're a foreigner who shows up in Phuket, with a negative C19 test and you're released

onto the island for 7 days before you can leave.

 

I suppose this is built entirely on the premise that the entire island is fully vaccinated or Covid-free, and the infection does not spread between vaxxed people (which I think is not true).

 

Still...worth a try.....people are going nuts staying cooped up in one place

 

 

The population of Phuket is very roughly 80% vaccinated. People having the most contact with Sandboxers (tourist industry workers, fellow Sandboxers at 100%, and even domestic tourists) are almost certainly vaccinated at an even higher rate.  Sandboxers are also tested on an almost weekly basis while they are in the Sandbox.  A very small percentage have tested positive for covid (about on the order one would expect for false positives with the RT-PCR test). 

Covid is definitely present in Phuket, but at a relatively stable level that has not overwhelmed the medical facilities and capacities.

Zero cases of covid is proving to be an elusive goal.  A certain level of covid cases seems to be sustainable and manageable.  Vaccination efforts continue, expanding to booster shots for people who had previously been vaccinated with Sinovac, and school-aged children.

The Sandbox was intended as an experiment.  People who believe it has been a failure point to the low numbers of people who have entered the Sandbox to date under the restrictions that were in place.  Very few argue that it has been a failure because vaccinated and tested visitors have driven covid infection rates up on Phuket.  In response to this as of October 1 those restrictions have been relaxed (7 days island quarantine, down from 14; and 2 RT-PCR tests rather than 3).

[smedly]

5 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The Phuket Vice Governor told the consul general that the infection rate in Phuket was 30 to 100,000 persons

we did 200 tests and that is all we found just 30..........honest

 

They turned up at a hospital and we tested them

 

What do mean by mass community random testing, we don't do that, that is why Thailand infection detections are so low - we not hide anything honest

 

 

[smedly]

6 minutes ago, skatewash said:

The population of Phuket is very roughly 80% vaccinated. People having the most contact with Sandboxers (tourist industry workers, fellow Sandboxers at 100%, and even domestic tourists) are almost certainly vaccinated at an even higher rate.  Sandboxers are also tested on an almost weekly basis while they are in the Sandbox.  A very small percentage have tested positive for covid (about on the order one would expect for false positives with the RT-PCR test). 

Covid is definitely present in Phuket, but at a relatively stable level that has not overwhelmed the medical facilities and capacities.

Zero cases of covid is proving to be an elusive goal.  A certain level of covid cases seems to be sustainable and manageable.  Vaccination efforts continue, expanding to booster shots for people who had previously been vaccinated with Sinovac, and school-aged children.

The Sandbox was intended as an experiment.  People who believe it has been a failure point to the low numbers of people who have entered the Sandbox to date under the restrictions that were in place.  Very few argue that it has been a failure because vaccinated and tested visitors have driven covid infection rates up on Phuket.  In response to this as of October 1 those restrictions have been relaxed (7 days island quarantine, down from 14; and 2 RT-PCR tests rather than 3).

really long post - so how many tests take place in Phuket every day ?

 

Here is a hint for you - if you do zero tests then you will have no detected infections - you can start from there

[Albert Zweistein]

Not much view from the Russian consul but more begging from the vice governor to allow more Russians to come.

[RichardColeman]

5 hours ago, smedly said:

we did 200 tests and that is all we found just 30..........honest

if they were finding 15% on testing , I'd call that pretty critical !

[smedly]

Thailand might like to think they opened to foreign tourists, they can keep saying it but they are far from open 

 

what they did was come up with a scheme that did nothing more than facilitate the return of retirees  expats and Thais returning from overseas, the sooner they realise that the better, to tick all the boxes they need to open up entertainment and have a similar "Green List" with the same requirements as the UK or they can forget about foreign tourism  - it really is that simple

[steven100]

14 hours ago, LetsGoBrandon said:

Can anyone explain the sandbox concept to me in a sentence if it isn't too much trouble?

no .....   it's too complicated

[hotchilli]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The Phuket Vice Governor told the consul general that the infection rate in Phuket was 30 to 100,000 persons, and asserted that strict disease control measures were implemented on the island. More than 70% of people in Phuket are fully inoculated and booster shot coverage is expected to reach 70% by the end of this month.

Leally.

[hotchilli]

14 hours ago, LetsGoBrandon said:

Can anyone explain the sandbox concept to me in a sentence if it isn't too much trouble?

One word: Scam

[sammieuk1]

Still on 70% vax after 3 months is confusing ????

[wensiensheng]

There’s that 70% vaccinated figure quoted again. Why did he say that? The authorities claimed to have reached that figure on 1st July in order that the sandbox could begin. Since then many vaccinations have taken place and the authorities have claimed much higher percentages. Now this guy drops back to 70% when speaking with a representative of a foreign government. 
 

every day there are inconsistencies in the Covid figures reported by Phuket and this is just another larger scale example. I’m not sure phuket authorities really know what the figure is and make it up as they go along depending on audience gullibility.

[wensiensheng]

10 hours ago, skatewash said:

The population of Phuket is very roughly 80% vaccinated. People having the most contact with Sandboxers (tourist industry workers, fellow Sandboxers at 100%, and even domestic tourists) are almost certainly vaccinated at an even higher rate.  Sandboxers are also tested on an almost weekly basis while they are in the Sandbox.  A very small percentage have tested positive for covid (about on the order one would expect for false positives with the RT-PCR test). 

Covid is definitely present in Phuket, but at a relatively stable level that has not overwhelmed the medical facilities and capacities.

Zero cases of covid is proving to be an elusive goal.  A certain level of covid cases seems to be sustainable and manageable.  Vaccination efforts continue, expanding to booster shots for people who had previously been vaccinated with Sinovac, and school-aged children.

The Sandbox was intended as an experiment.  People who believe it has been a failure point to the low numbers of people who have entered the Sandbox to date under the restrictions that were in place.  Very few argue that it has been a failure because vaccinated and tested visitors have driven covid infection rates up on Phuket.  In response to this as of October 1 those restrictions have been relaxed (7 days island quarantine, down from 14; and 2 RT-PCR tests rather than 3).

A lot of what you say makes sense. However I think it is wrong in one respect. TAT made a big play out of how many TOURISTS would be attracted and how much they would spend. Yes, there was talk of it being a pilot project but overwhelmingly the objectives articulated prior to its start revolves around tourist numbers and money spent by said tourists

 

in the context of the stated objectives it has been a failure. Very many fewer tourists than expected arrived in the island. 
 

as a pilot project, some valuable lessons can be learned, not least that tourists won’t come if entertainment venues are shuttered and they are subjected to onerous restrictions. But was a pilot project needed to learn those facts? 

[arithai12]

11 hours ago, smedly said:

we did 200 tests and that is all we found just 30..........honest

 

They turned up at a hospital and we tested them

 

What do mean by mass community random testing, we don't do that, that is why Thailand infection detections are so low - we not hide anything honest

 

 

Actually, I read that Phuket is a place where they do active testing. It's in an article from the newspaper that cannot be linked, I am sure you can find it yourself. It mentions 25,000 tests. With about 200 infections, it amounts to 1% which is in the ballpark of the infection rates in european countries with similarly high vaccination levels.

[arithai12]

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

It was discouraging travel to Thailand until the number of infections drops to a level it deemed safe, which was 40 infections per 100,000 persons.

About 70M people in Thailand, so 40 infections/100,000 should amount to 28,000 daily infections. We are at the 10,000 level, so what does he mean? Perhaps that he doesn't believe the 10,000 figure because most of Thailand does contact tracing tests... Fair enough, but then don't play with the numbers. Also interesting to note that in fact Russia is in fact experiencing quite a surge in infections  right now (too many non-vaccinated).

 

Finally, there are currently 3 main types of vaccines administered in Russia, depending on the region. Sputnik V is one of them, and it is recognized for COE in Thailand. What about the other two? Russians, especially siberians, love Phuket in the winter for obvious reasons. But COE and similar hurdles must drop if Thailand wants to attract them.

[Scouse123]

Nobody seems to talk about the Sputnik V vaccine at all.

[Mavideol]

1 hour ago, Scouse123 said:

Nobody seems to talk about the Sputnik V vaccine at all.

what about ???

[Rampant Rabbit]

19 hours ago, LetsGoBrandon said:

Can anyone explain the sandbox concept to me in a sentence if it isn't too much trouble?

Stay in an overpriced hotel with nothing to do for two weeks spending all your  money then go  home after being reamed up the nostrils umpteen times.

[RafPinto]

5 hours ago, steven100 said:

no .....   it's too complicated

 

[RafPinto]

1 hour ago, Scouse123 said:

Nobody seems to talk about the Sputnik V vaccine at all.

Here he goes.

[NeoDinosaw]

19 hours ago, skatewash said:

Phuket Sandbox is 7 days of island quarantine for vaccinated and tested people who can subsequently visit the rest of Thailand.

After the 7 days can I really go anywhere I want in Thailand  ?     Can I go to Mae Sot, Korat, Kanchanaburi, Udon Thani,  Surin,  Chumphon  ?   can I stay in any hotel or guest-house of my choice ?  

[skatewash]

2 minutes ago, NeoDinosaw said:

After the 7 days can I really go anywhere I want in Thailand  ?     Can I go to Mae Sot, Korat, Kanchanaburi, Udon Thani,  Surin,  Chumphon  ?   can I stay in any hotel or guest-house of my choice ?  

Yes, unless the place in Thailand you are going to has some sort of local quarantine requirements.  You can stay anywhere, does not have to be a SHA Plus accommodation.

[RafPinto]

7 minutes ago, NeoDinosaw said:

After the 7 days can I really go anywhere I want in Thailand  ?     Can I go to Mae Sot, Korat, Kanchanaburi, Udon Thani,  Surin,  Chumphon  ?   can I stay in any hotel or guest-house of my choice ?  

I asked my GF.

She said YES.