By Erich Parpart

 

Thailand has so far found 5,397 cases of Covid-19 with the new variant having spread to 71 out of 77 provinces in the country, the government said on Monday.

 

“Lab tests confirmed,” said Dr Sumanee Wacharasin, an assistant spokeswoman of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

 

Out of 15,345 Covid samples that were taken from around the country between November 1 and January 9, 64.71 per cent were Delta and 35.17 per cent were Omicron.

 

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Full story: https://www.thaienquirer.com/36372/omicron-has-spread-to-71-out-of-77-provinces-in-thailand/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Enquirer 2022-01-11

 

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53 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thailand has so far found 5,397 cases of Covid-19 with the new variant having spread to 71 out of 77 provinces in the country, the government said on Monday.

 

Out of 15,345 Covid samples that were taken from around the country between November 1 and January 9, 64.71 per cent were Delta and 35.17 per cent were Omicron.

With it basically in every province of the country, it kind of makes little sense shutting the country. May as well open and a least get some money.

 

Those figures for % to 9th January are also misleading somewhat since they would not have been looking for /or getting Omicon positives until 6-7 weeks into that time period. Omicron testing in the last 3 weeks % would be a better measurement

Antin said Thailand had it under control ! ????????

The BIB didn’t stop it ?

2 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

With it basically in every province of the country, it kind of makes little sense shutting the country. May as well open and a least get some money.

 

Those figures for % to 9th January are also misleading somewhat since they would not have been looking for /or getting Omicon positives until 6-7 weeks into that time period. Omicron testing in the last 3 weeks % would be a better measurement

I don't know that 'opening up' is the solution.  There are a lot of factors at play.  Are you going to let people who are positive just move around the country without quarantining them?   Do you think the local people and workers in the hotels, bars and restaurants are going to be willing to deal with sick people without mitigating policies in place?   

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

With it basically in every province of the country, it kind of makes little sense shutting the country. May as well open and a least get some money.

 

Those figures for % to 9th January are also misleading somewhat since they would not have been looking for /or getting Omicon positives until 6-7 weeks into that time period. Omicron testing in the last 3 weeks % would be a better measurement

the problem is the numbers - although it is quite a mild version, the larger numbers mean that there are still hospitalisations and even deaths and those numbers as seen in the UK can put a strain on health services. all big numbers increase the changes of new strains emerging.

It will also discourage people from voting Thailand.

None of this is helped by the government changing the restrictions every few days.

Restrictions are needed to minimise the the speed t numbers at which it spreads - not where it spreads and Thailand's province by province approach doesn't help either.

Eventually Covid will change from pandemic to endemic and then we can start to "normalise" travel around te world, but we're not safe until we are all safe and Thailand still has a way to go.

3 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

With it basically in every province of the country, it kind of makes little sense shutting the country. May as well open and a least get some money.

Complete nonsense... 

yes it may be in almost every province, but why open the gates and compound the issue.

Let the provincial authorities get a handle on the domestic infection levels first, then think how to control international travelers in the best way.

Thailand is open... but not for a free-for-all.

 

Even with the lockdown most places are business as usual 

 

Opening the very few businesses that arn’t allowed to open shouldn’t make much of a difference 

So it's in 71 out of 77 provinces now and yesterday the numbers went down from the previous day. We know this spreads by some accounts 8x faster than Delta yet yesterday's numbers were lower than the day before. This seems to defy logic.

12 hours ago, cyril sneer said:

Even with the lockdown most places are business as usual 

 

Opening the very few businesses that arn’t allowed to open shouldn’t make much of a difference 

with an R factor of 5 it certainly does.

14 hours ago, Credo said:

I don't know that 'opening up' is the solution.  There are a lot of factors at play.  Are you going to let people who are positive just move around the country without quarantining them?   Do you think the local people and workers in the hotels, bars and restaurants are going to be willing to deal with sick people without mitigating policies in place?   

Yes.  We don't quarantine people when they get the flu and omicron should be treated no differently.  At a minimum, they should follow what other countries are doing and reduce the quarantine down from whatever it is now to 5 days.

 

People who work for SHA+ hotels and restaurants are all vaccinated, so they can be exposed without much danger.  That was the whole point of SHA+.

 

You seem to be as confused about the whole point of vaccination as a lot of other people.  It always was and always will be primarily to prevent hospitalization.  Trying to prevent catching it, maybe getting the sniffles, and spreading it always was and always will be secondary.  They were hopeful vaccines would also do that but it's just not the case with omicron.

I'm surprised they think 6 provinces don't have it ????

An inflammatory post has been reported and removed.

 

 

23 hours ago, dinsdale said:

We know this spreads by some accounts 8x faster than Delta yet yesterday's numbers were lower than the day before. This seems to defy logic.

You would almost think they aren't countng properly or just making numbers up to suit

I know that is of course unbelievable And incorrect