Tourist faces huge bill, separation from family after testing positive on arrival in Thailand

[PoorSucker]

11 minutes ago, MichiganMarty said:

yes, yesterday I read Richard Barrow's examples of these happenings. OMG just frightening situations for travelers to be put in.

It's the same example.

[JustAnotherHun]

Hotel manager asks hospital manager:

If I send you some dirty farang with a faked positive test, how big will my brown envelope be?

[Pedrogaz]

Truly shocking, The government should provide free treatment for such cases where PCR shows negative prior to departure from home country

[Chad3000]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

To date, approximately 25,000 tourists have entered Thailand since the country reopened to tourists on Nov 1. 

 

Only 26 tourists have tested positive.

Only 26 have suffered a similar fate but hey...I'm alright Jack.

 

What a horror. This story needs to go viral worldwide

[BusyB]

5 minutes ago, JustAnotherHun said:

Hotel manager asks hospital manager:

If I send you some dirty farang with a faked positive test, how big will my brown envelope be?

This of course is the big worry ...

[cardinalblue]

Absolutely BS to go into Q for 14 day  at a hotel b/c shared a taxi…what about the taxi driver flight attendant  etc…. 
 

this is turning into a scam to milk people of money…

[kiwikeith]

1 hour ago, Chris.B said:

350,000 baht hospital bill, nearly £8,000 for 10 day stay! Must be a good room at 35,000 baht a night!

That is what I thought, why go to hospital and not be sent to a quarantine hotel where you can stay 14 days for anywhere from 30, to 100k Bhat.

Normal procedure in NZ is if you test positive you go to MIQ,

unless your very sick.

[Chad3000]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

“His said that he had tested positive and will be transferred to hospital, and mine said that mine is negative, but I’d need to stay in quarantine for 14 days”

Human rights violation??

 

Kidnapping?

[herfiehandbag]

2 hours ago, Chris.B said:

350,000 baht hospital bill, nearly £8,000 for 10 day stay! Must be a good room at 35,000 baht a night!

Too right - I recently paid ThB34000 for 10 days, and that included major surgery (2 operations) on a badly poisened foot.

 

Someone is making a lot of money.

 

Should put yet another boot into a renaissance of the tourist industry!

 

The people running this <deleted> show, and tolerating this sort of nonsense really and truly don't have a <deleted> clue do they?

 

It takes an almost stellar degree of incompetent buffoonery to shoot yourself in the foot- with a howitzer!

[JustAnotherHun]

3 minutes ago, Chad3000 said:

Human rights violation??

 

Kidnapping?

No. Thailand.

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, Chris.B said:

350,000 baht hospital bill, nearly £8,000 for 10 day stay! Must be a good room at 35,000 baht a night!

 

[khunpa]

Well at least we know from past news that tourists from Sweden seem to not mind this.

 

And also soon rich Indians will arrive. So no worries really…

[ericdiam]

bul<deleted> 25000 tourists. 

NO 25K ARRIVALS from which over 50% are Thai and another 45% who return here. Live here. Have condo here. Have family, wife here. 

Tourists close to ZERO!!!!

[mrmicbkktxl]

1 hour ago, gungadin1 said:

Axa cover everything that's why I went with them.I contacted customer services to go over every scenario before paying

 

AXA Thailand?

[cyril sneer]

hopefully the word gets around

 

i'm sure there are more stories like this to come over the next few days/weeks/years

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

His said that he had tested positive and will be transferred to hospital, and mine said that mine is negative, but I’d need to stay in quarantine for 14 days”.

Tat is just plain wrong, negative means negative.

[LivinLOS]

2 hours ago, Chris.B said:

350,000 baht hospital bill, nearly £8,000 for 10 day stay! Must be a good room at 35,000 baht a night!

himself.. His family in ASQ quarantine.. etc etc

[bougnat]

In fact it is now clear that it is much more interesting to receive positive cases than healthy back pakers for Thailand.

 

 

 

[Benmart]

An excellent warning to others to avoid coming here. I hope that this is blasted across the international media to discourage others from coming to the LOS, and "Smiles" is not the last letters meaning.

[LivinLOS]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

However, the issue is compounded by the fact that there is next to no official information about the risks of travelling to Thailand and testing positive on arrival.

 

Despite the myriad of infographics, Facebook posts and tweets from the Tourism Authority of Thailand and other related agencies on the requirements for foreigners to enter Thailand, there is very little about what a positive test on arrival could mean for foreigners, especially those travelling in groups, as a family or with young children. 

And heres the real heart of the problem.. They dont have clear defined policies that are then stuck to.. On anything.. 

One persona has 10 days hospital.. Another has 14 days quarantine.. The famiuly might get allowed out after a test on day 3 or 4.. Maybe.. Who knows.. 

Its entirely at the mercy of Somchais random mood on the day.. Like immigration.. Like motor vehicle sales and inspections.. like.. Etc.. 

[aussiexpat]

20 minutes ago, Chad3000 said:

Only 26 have suffered a similar fate but hey...I'm alright Jack.

 

What a horror. This story needs to go viral worldwide

It's starting to, it's now in the Independent

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/thailand-pass-reopening-rules-paperwork-b1954324.html

 

 

[bullseye66]

And there, my friends, is exactly why, no tourists should/would travel to Thailand until all these ridiculous restrictions are lifted.

[dogfish180]

I'd bet that there is no second test, to confirm that the first result was correct. Just cart them off to hospital......kerrching!

[ttrd]

2 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

Not only if you test positive but as in the OP even if you test negative and were next to someone in the car or plane you still get carted off for 2 weeks. I doubt any International Insurance companies will pay out for this? Even if they do you also need to ensure they pay out there and then and not make you pay first.  Probably only Thai Insurance companies will cover this.

What about the other persons who were in the same plane, stood near him waiting for the luggage, walked near him through the customs, stood near him in the taxi que and so and so on ... 

[gearbox]

1 hour ago, tezzaaa said:

Interesting post (+ good to know), does anyone know/recommend any Thai insurance that would  cover costs if found positive?

 

 

 

There are a few:

 

https://www.aainsure.net/COVID-100000-usd-insurance.html

 

Roojai/Dhipaya Covid only insurance should also cover asymptomatic as stated by their agent in this forum.

 

However there are many nuances.  If one stays in an AQ hotel, they are associated with a hospital, usually private, so probably there is not much choice and the covid positive person will be dispatched to that hospital. This is how the ASQ system worked.

 

The SHA+ hotels however have only certification, so in theory if one is tested positive they should have a choice between public/private hospital, hospitel, or a field hospital.  There was a case recently in Samui when someone got charged 60K baht for hospitel stay, so the exorbitant charges of hundreds of thousands would be usually for stays in the very expensive private hospitals.

 

If a field hospital is available the charges will be very low, but no privacy and power points, bring big power banks there to use your phone ????

[ianguygil]

I very rarely write anything personal on this forum, but i have more experience with this than most given that I have been out of Thailand and back in twice since May. First to the USA then to the UK when  my son started at UCL. So here goes

 

I would say that everybody needs to understand that the period between the actual test, and boarding the flights, is when it seems most people are infected, and this can be up to 72 hours (3 days). The flights I took all required that we wear masks all the time, even in toilets (which I don't know how they check) and I was right up front so nobody except my wife and son were sitting close to me. 

 

Entering the USA is actually frightening because there is no mention of COVID really apart from the need for a test prior to boarding the flights, So while the whole rest of the world seems to have all kinds of rules on arrival, there were none in the US. I have dual citizenship, but my wife is Japanese. She had no requirement to do a test or to report to anything..

 

Flights to the UK have the same PCR test requirement 72 hours or less before the actual takeoff. On arrival in the UK as a citizen I had to fill in a form prior to departure and prepay for a COVID test to be pre-delivered to my accommodation and I had to return this via registered first class mail within 2 days of arrival. All went smoothly and the PCR test result came in fine. Should I have tested positive I would have had to go into a special hotel and quarantine is my understanding, so much as in Thailand except that the hotels are <deleted>. And expensive. And small. 

 

When my wife arrived in the UK she came through Spain for a few days. She was contacted a few days later to say that somebody on the flight from Barcelona had subsequently tested positive for COVID. So she was required to do a PCR test which was negative and she was free to go around. Again, should she have tested positive she would have been required to pay for and to stay in a hotel because we have no residence in the UK

 

On my first ASQ in Thailand on return from the USA I paid for a Service Flat and I did the full 15 nights in quarantine with 3 PCR test.

 

On my return to Thailand from the UK I did the Phuket Sandbox. I PCR test on arrival and 1 a few days later. Fantastic. Stayed at the Kata Thani and the accommodation was half of the cost of a <deleted> hotel in the UK should I have needed to quarantine for a beach front room.

 

I would make the following observations

 

1: in Thailand many more people wear masks than in the UK. London was ridiculous and Cornwall not much better. It is no wonder they get 40K cases a day

2: In the US masks depend on which state. I have a home in California (SF) and almost everyone had a mask on. I have a place in Lake Tahoe (Nevada) and almost nobody has a mask on. Idiots. 

3: Thailand is very clear and well organized for the entry and the quarantine. I really don't get what people are complaining about. I did my COE process twice, no problem, no confusion, polite and efficient

 

On the whole insurance thing, it depends what kind of insurance you buy. You have to have insurance to cover getting sick. If you buy cheap insurance it may not cover you for quarantine even if asymptomatic. You get what you pay for. 

 

The people complaining about Thailand being the "COVID center" are just plain wrong. The thing is to "look at the deaths". The UK has 260 something today. Thailand has 60 (approx). This is a lagging indicator by about 2 weeks, but Thailand is clearly safer and people are less stupid that in the UK and in the USA. Except for the expats I see in the bars around where i live in the center of Bangkok, Thai people seem to sit outside and congregate in small groups. Exactly what people think they are doing in an enclosed bar cheek to cheek with other people during a pandemic is a question for every nation to ask.

 

[dogfish180]

Fully vaccinated, yet sent to hospital. Isn't the whole point of the vaccine to stop hospitals becoming over crowded with Covid patients? ????????

[2009]

They put a heavy amount of dumb in the somtdum.

 

Stupid and authority shouldn't mix.

[Chad3000]

A conspiracy theorist might posit that Thailand knows it's days in the sun are over.

 

Now, it's just a money grab until people wake up and stop coming.

 

If housing was cheaper in states I'd be gone.

[gearbox]

41 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

Truly shocking, The government should provide free treatment for such cases where PCR shows negative prior to departure from home country

AFAIK this is how it is done in Greece. Better to have many more thousands of tourists spending some money, rather than scare them with stories like this. The really expensive to treat symptomatic covid is covered by all insurance policies passing through the Thailand Pass, trying to squeeze a bit of extra money from the asymptomatic cases is petty and not making any sense financially.