British man's visit to wife in Buriram turns into Covid Christmas Nightmare

[webfact]

Picture: Daily News

 

A British man aged 46 who had all the tests went to the village of Khok Wat in Ban Dan sub-district of Buriram in the north east of Thailand to visit his wife.

 

He arrived in Thailand for the festive season on December 20th, reported Daily News.

 

But by Christmas Eve he had developed a high fever and checks at the house revealed it was Covid-19.

 

He was whisked away immediately to Soon Buriram Hospital where checks are being made to see if it is the Omicron variant.

 

Also now infected are an 80 year old woman at the house. 

 

Among 14 other close contacts from 4 familes who have to isolate for two weeks is a P2 child. 

 

Phoo Yai Ban Sirilak Kanram said that the British man had also visited a local market two days before Christmas. 

 

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[richard_smith237]

Thousands and Thousands of Thai’s returning back to their respective villages over the the current end of year period.... 

 

 

It's unfortunate, but this sort of thing is going to happen. It happened last year at both End of Year (NYE) and over the Songkran period. It will be happening right now... 

 

I hope those potential proximity cases are fine. The reality is others in the village also face exposure risk from the Wife and anyone else who has visited from other areas. Or, like Kalasin the virus was possibly already in the area. 

 

Disappointingly news such as this feeds into the hands of xenophobia..

[stephenterry]

That's how Covid spreads. It only takes one.

[steven100]

Anutin will be saying .... '  it's those dirty farangs again '     he's infected dozens .

[Geoffggi]

36 minutes ago, webfact said:

Phoo Yai Ban Sirilak Kanram said that the British man had also visited a local market two days before Christmas. 

Could this possibly be the source of the infection ?????

[rbkk]

So confirmation that "All the tests....." don't work. The same as with the 2 tourists in Chiang Mai reported yesterday. 

[Dmaxdan]

This story would not be newsworthy if this had been a Thai person who was infected and had traveled to their village to visit family.

[rbkk]

22 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

Could this possibly be the source of the infection ?????

I was reading yesterday that they think Omicron may have an incubation period of about 3 days compared the 6 days of previous varients.

 

 A research paper published Dec. 16 by Eurosurveillance describes an outbreak involving 80 people at a restaurant in Norway. Nearly every person who had omicron said they were vaccinated and had received a negative antigen-test result within two days before the party. After the event, symptoms appeared in about three days. This suggests the virus had multiplied so quickly that rapid-test results had been rendered obsolete.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/omicron-may-have-3-day-incubation-period-shortest-of-any-variant-6-things-to-know.html

[The Hammer2021]

Nightmare? Its unfortunately  an all too common medical occurence.

[smedly]

sounds to me like he got infected in Thailand, this is what happens when there is no mass testing going on, the virus could be rampant and you will only find out when someone gets sick, out of all the people involved in this, the only person very recently and extensively tested is the foreigner, logic tells me - it didn't originate with him 

[tomazbodner]

He could have simply gotten infected on a plane, which could have had infected transit passengers so they'd not know the source. As it would have been very early, the infection would not have picked up on initial test, but only a few days later when the viruses had an opportunity to multiply to the detectable levels.

 

With Omicron being 70x more infectious than Delta (I read this number in the news, but a bit skeptical), it should not take much for someone to get it in any closed space. As US health authorities estimate half the Earth's population would catch Omicron over the next 3 months, getting into a pressurised tube with hundreds of strangers for a day, masks off during eating and drinking, is pretty much a sure bet to catch it.

 

Now all that said - Omicron is staying in the upper respiratory system and does not move down to lungs. The whole reason why COVID became global emergency was because it moved to lungs, and caused deadly pneumonia. Now if Omicron doesn't move to lungs - how is it any different from a common cold, which is just like COVID, just it doesn't move to lungs?

[robblok]

4 minutes ago, smedly said:

sounds to me like he got infected in Thailand, this is what happens when there is no mass testing going on, the virus could be rampant and you will only find out when someone gets sick, out of all the people involved in this, the only person very recently and extensively tested is the foreigner, logic tells me - it didn't originate with him 

Sure Smedlly, he arrived the 20th and 24th sick. too short to be a Thailand infection. So it's more than likely that he indeed brought it with him.

[OneMoreFarang]

I am sure he spend lots of money for a big party when he arrived. So basically he was responsible for spreading the virus so fast to so many people.

 

And what do we learn from that? Darling, let's just have a quiet meal. No party, we don't want to spread Covid. ???? 

[metisdead]

A post using ALL CAPS has been removed, please turn off your Caps Lock when posting. 

[jerrymahoney]

26 minutes ago, smedly said:

sounds to me like he got infected in Thailand, this is what happens when there is no mass testing going on, the virus could be rampant and you will only find out when someone gets sick, out of all the people involved in this, the only person very recently and extensively tested is the foreigner, logic tells me - it didn't originate with him 

So same as with the Kalasin cluster, how many places are there in Buriram where there are COVID19/Omicron infections where  the Brit in question had NOT visited.

 

So far there seems none.

[Bkk Brian]

4 minutes ago, jerrymahoney said:

So same as with the Kalasin cluster, how many places are there in Buriram where there are COVID19/Omicron infections where  the Brit in question had NOT visited.

 

So far there seems none.

Did those places where there seems none have any  decent size random testing recently?

Edited December 27, 2021 by Bkk Brian

[jerrymahoney]

1 minute ago, Bkk Brian said:

Did those places where there seems none have any  decent size random testing recently?

Places where there seems to have none is called Buriram Province.

[rbkk]

32 minutes ago, robblok said:

Sure Smedlly, he arrived the 20th and 24th sick. too short to be a Thailand infection. So it's more than likely that he indeed brought it with him.

Not if the incubation period for Omicron is 3 days.

 

[richard_smith237]

25 minutes ago, robblok said:

Sure Smedlly, he arrived the 20th and 24th sick. too short to be a Thailand infection. So it's more than likely that he indeed brought it with him.

Caught it on the flight from

a Thai person ???

 

kidding of course… but this is what happens with all the speculation.

 

If reports are correct the incubation period of Omicron can be 3 days. 

 

Caught it at the first bar he popped into ??? I know, unlikely & odds are he brought the variant into Thailand from his home country or from the airport (transit or origin). 
 

That’s the risk of travel & point of quarantine. 
This sort of news plays into the hand of abolishing ‘test & go’ which would be devastating for any attempts at stimulating the tourism economy. 
 

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, rbkk said:

Not if the incubation period for Omicron is 3 days.

 

True, i read its faster so maybe he got it in Thailand. But id bet there is more omicron in the UK then Thailand. But then again you could be right. Not going to bet on it. I was still thinking about the other variant.

[robblok]

1 minute ago, richard_smith237 said:

Caught it on the flight from

a Thai person ???

 

kidding of course… but this is what happens with all the speculation.

 

If reports are correct the incubation period of Omicron can be 3 days. 

 

Caught it at the first bar he popped into ??? I know, unlikely & odds are he brought the variant into Thailand from his home country or from the airport (transit or origin). 
 

That’s the risk of travel & point of quarantine. 
This sort of news plays into the hand of abolishing ‘test & go’ which would be devastating for any attempts at stimulating the tourism economy. 
 

Chances are higher he imported it, but nothing is sure. But yes this will destroy chances of test and go. ????

[Bkk Brian]

13 minutes ago, jerrymahoney said:

Places where there seems to have none is called Buriram Province.

Really, latest figure for Buriram was 4 new cases on the 24th Dec, not updated yet for latest.

[GroveHillWanderer]

51 minutes ago, robblok said:

Sure Smedlly, he arrived the 20th and 24th sick. too short to be a Thailand infection. So it's more than likely that he indeed brought it with him.

Not necessarily, at least if it is Omicron and the info in that earlier post is correct that it has an incubation period of only 3 days.

[jerrymahoney]

8 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Really, latest figure for Buriram was 4 new cases on the 24th Dec, not updated yet for latest.

So I guess they should start testing all the places the Brit gent hasn't been and, if there are positive cases, that proves they didn't get it from him.

 

Buriram province 2018 population about 1.6 million. Have fun.

[Bkk Brian]

1 minute ago, jerrymahoney said:

So I guess they should start testing all the places the Brit gent hasn't been and, if there are positive cases, that proves they didn't get it from him.

 

Buriram province 2018 population about 1.6 million. Have fun.

Not sure I suggested they test 1.6m 

[jerrymahoney]

4 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Not sure I suggested they test 1.6m 

no you asked if there had been a "decent size random testing" of 1.6 million.

 

But it seems to me they are doing a pretty decent job in following up on all those who might have had exposure to the Brit in question and that I guess would be a decent first priority.

Edited December 27, 2021 by jerrymahoney

[rbkk]

3 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Not sure I suggested they test 1.6m 

I think there are 5 markets in Buriram? Makes sense to test in the ones he hasn't been to.

[Boomer6969]

40 minutes ago, jerrymahoney said:

So same as with the Kalasin cluster, how many places are there in Buriram where there are COVID19/Omicron infections where  the Brit in question had NOT visited.

 

So far there seems none.

Here you are. None...

 

[Bkk Brian]

1 minute ago, jerrymahoney said:

no yu asked if there had been a  "decent size random testing" of 1.6 million.

Thank you still stands

[jerrymahoney]

Just now, Bkk Brian said:

Thank you still stands

 Dr Pichet Phuedkhuntod is  the director of Public Health in Buriram ... why not ask him and offer him any helpful suggestions you might have.