New COVID Cases Rise among Foreign Tourists in Phuket

[markeewan]

9 hours ago, TropicalGuy said:

and we know Omicron is dominant now, five times more infectious but also ten times less lethal so just STOP all this daft purposeless testing & case reporting. UK & Scandinavian countries stopping all this nonsense next week. No more Thais will get vaccinated so maximum effort now made.local Thai transmission must be way higher than from tourists so just open up to the vaxxed as Phil have done.

It is not correct to state that Thais are not getting vaccinated. My wife got her third injection yesterday and son the same day. The local people are still taking this quite seriously and vaccination is ongoing.

[hotchilli]

9 hours ago, steven100 said:

Those dirty farang again ......   spreading the virus in Thailand    !!!!

Those dirty filthy disease ridden farangs again, demanding that Thailand allow them in and host them graciously while all they do is lay on the beaches and pollute the water with their stinky after-sun lotion, leaving oil slicks for all to see.

Then visit eateries and demand to spend huge sums of money on second rate street food to show how rich they are.

Thais should beg Anutin to close the borders 100% and then Thais will have a 100% infection free country.

Happiness will return to the country as promised by Prayut.

[lassebasse]

It would be interesting to know how many tested positive day 1 compared to day 5. I do not belive that farang are bringing Covid to Thailand, I think the Thais are spreading it themselves and that all this testing is just a big scam.

[Dialemco]

Thai Tourism industry in its fragile state is shooting its self in the foot. It is better to close the borders and stop all these scams.  There are now plenty of countries allowing entry without restrictions until Thailand can do likewise and treat Tourists with the respect they deserve it is better to keep borders closed 

 

[Swampy999]

10 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

Another hi! farang that can't punctuate, alphabetacize or transliterate..

I think you will find "Ai (here)" is a derogatory term in Thai ????????

[Swampy999]

Ahhhhh of course it is fully vaccinated, multi tested, expensively insured, hoop jumping tourists that are bringing Covid-19 here, woe betide anyone that thinks its the 1 shot Sinovac locals or unvaccinated migrant workers.

[high plane drifter]

People are easily manipulated, and they don't realize it,   

It's much easier to foul someone than convincing them that they have been fouled.

 

[mancub]

28 minutes ago, lassebasse said:

It would be interesting to know how many tested positive day 1 compared to day 5. I do not belive that farang are bringing Covid to Thailand, I think the Thais are spreading it themselves and that all this testing is just a big scam.

Seems like a scam because of the incompetent and half-arsed way of implementing their tourist "program based on xenophobia .

[nickmondo]

11 hours ago, FalangKino said:

Every single person they allow into the country is vetted, as well as double jabbed.

 

This is exactly what they want. Every single one that tests positive will be forced to undergo a 10 day minimum stay in a hospital which costs around 10,000 baht a day. This is also not including the government approved hotels they had to stay in before, as well as the tests that had to be paid for as well.

 

This is just another racket to extort foreigners that visit this country.

indeed it is a racket!

10,000 a day in a private hospital?

I am pretty sure the daily rate, even in Bkk hospital, is less than that.

what i rip off.

im going nowhere.

[Gottfrid]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

visitors failed to undergo RT-PCR tests before their flights to the island province

Good system and good control. Thai quality!

[Rimmer]

A punctuation police post and replies have been removed

[kennw]

14 hours ago, Havenstreet1940 said:

.........................'New cases rose from Dec 13 because some visitors had not passed the Thailand Pass registration process or had not undergone RT-PCR tests'   ?????

 

So how did they manage to enter Thailand ???.

 

Why were they allowed to board the plane? Airline are supposed to do pre-boarding checks of all documentation, a valid Thai Pass is one of them, and a valid PCR certificate showing a negative result within the time set by destination country. USA 24hrs, Singapore 48 hrs, Thailand 72 hrs. (If transiting through Singapore it is 48hrs)  

[geisha]

11 hours ago, Rhacsyn said:

Reported in Thaiger this morning:

 

https://thethaiger.com/coronavirus/cv19-thailand/cv19-phuket/phuket-officials-alarmed-by-number-of-tourists-testing-positive-on-arrival

It would be good to know where the ones who arrive positive are coming  from . Sounds a bit strange to me.  I know there were a lot of fraudulent test papers circulating in Eu. And probably the whole world. 

[Smokey and the Bandit]

13 hours ago, FalangKino said:

Every single person they allow into the country is vetted, as well as double jabbed.

 

This is exactly what they want. Every single one that tests positive will be forced to undergo a 10 day minimum stay in a hospital which costs around 10,000 baht a day. This is also not including the government approved hotels they had to stay in before, as well as the tests that had to be paid for as well.

 

This is just another racket to extort foreigners that visit this country.

Totally agree. If you are asymptomatic and do not need treatment, how can they have the nerve to charge 10,000 baht per day??

Do you get a free massage every day?? Even then it wouldn't cost that much.

 Pure and simple rip off!!

[Darksidedude]

14 hours ago, Virt said:

Test and you shall find and since 100% of the tourist are tested it's only natural some positives slip through.

 

Now how about testing 100% of the local population in Phuket and compare numbers...

Me and the family had recently gone for a trip to Australia from Oman,

 

We all had neg PCR test before we flew as per the procedures, it was 20 hrs in total travel time to reach Melbourne, taxis, airports and aircraft.

 

My wife tested positive 5 days after arriving in Melbourne then me and my daughter.

 

for sure 100% my wife contracted covid whislt travelling.

 

We will not be travelling anywhere until this covid is gone away

[Paulaew]

According to the Phuket governor (as reported in The Thaiger on Feb 3), most of the foreigners testing positive are from Russia and Kazakhstan. It's fair to guess there are some dodgy test certification papers available there.

 

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/most-phuket-tourists-infected-with-covid-travelled-from-russia-and-kazakhstan

 

Paul Laew

[zyphodb]

2 hours ago, Dialemco said:

Thai Tourism industry in its fragile state is shooting its self in the foot. It is better to close the borders and stop all these scams.  There are now plenty of countries allowing entry without restrictions until Thailand can do likewise and treat Tourists with the respect they deserve it is better to keep borders closed 

 

Not better for HiSo's wallets though...

[IamNoone88]

Great job in attracting the type of tourist that blatantly disregards the requirements and either does bother to comply or forges their documentation. Patong must be full of these tourist scumbags.

[Aussieroaming]

 You can't get onto an inbound flight without a Thai Pass and your PCR Test Results, unless some airlines aren't vetting passengers at check in for their documentation. Just more local finger pointing at someone else in order to deflect fault or blame.

[NanLaew]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

...and some visitors failed to undergo RT-PCR tests before their flights to the island province.

How did the international arrival manage to get anywhere near the boarding gate without a RT-PCR test? Is this a problem with domestic visitors arriving by plane not having their PCR test status checked? Anyone here flown to Phuket domestically and had to show evidence of being PCR tested before getting on the plane?

 

 

 

10 hours ago, smedly said:

just posting what I am reading, people need to look at the sources but is a good heads up to investigate further

 

Medical experts in Hong Kong have warned of the efficacy rate of the Sinovac vaccine against the Omicron variant, with govt public health advisor Yuen Kwok-yung saying that it didn’t provide sufficient antibodies to neutralise the Omicron variant.

Hong Kong must be one of the most locked down and locked in countries in the region, if not the planet. I would expect their government public health advisor's statements to support their ongoing suppression of public freedoms unrealistically oppressive covid rules. I would wager he's also a card carrying member of the CCP.

 

Anyway, arguing the efficacy or otherwise of the Chinese vaccines is so 2020/21. This being 2022 and all.

[NanLaew]

17 minutes ago, Paulaew said:

According to the Phuket governor (as reported in The Thaiger on Feb 3), most of the foreigners testing positive are from Russia and Kazakhstan. It's fair to guess there are some dodgy test certification papers available there.

 

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/most-phuket-tourists-infected-with-covid-travelled-from-russia-and-kazakhstan

 

Paul Laew

Aha! So it's NOT just a Serbian thing after all.

[NanLaew]

22 minutes ago, Darksidedude said:

Me and the family had recently gone for a trip to Australia from Oman,

 

We all had neg PCR test before we flew as per the procedures, it was 20 hrs in total travel time to reach Melbourne, taxis, airports and aircraft.

 

My wife tested positive 5 days after arriving in Melbourne then me and my daughter.

 

for sure 100% my wife contracted covid whislt travelling.

 

We will not be travelling anywhere until this covid is gone away

With omicron's payload peaking at around 3-days after initial infection (faster than delta), chances are everyone caught it in Melbourne.

[Darksidedude]

18 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

With omicron's payload peaking at around 3-days after initial infection (faster than delta), chances are everyone caught it in Melbourne.

yep and everyone dont care if they get it as they are over it, which is fair enough considering they have had 7 lockdowns 265 days 

 

[connda]

9 hours ago, smedly said:

I don't believe you lol

 

Hammer Time lol

 

move on - Hammer is on my ignore list, uninteresting and wasting 10secs of my life 

He made mine yesterday. 

[KarenBravo]

Tourists with Covid increasing as entry and entertainment regulations relaxed.

Quelle surprise........

[GeorgeCross]

time to update the ignore list

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by GeorgeCross

[tlcwaterfall]

11 minutes ago, connda said:

He made mine yesterday. 

Made mine many months ago. ????

[mran66]

4 hours ago, lassebasse said:

It would be interesting to know how many tested positive day 1 compared to day 5. I do not belive that farang are bringing Covid to Thailand, I think the Thais are spreading it themselves and that all this testing is just a big scam.

 

yeah. However it is completely realistic to expect that even 1st test positives has gone up as larger share of arriving people are from  countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, India etc (instead of EU, US, AUS/NZ earlier) where it is much easier and cheaper to get a negative test report than positive, and is culturally fit to do so (i.e you just certify yourself with photoshop and printer). Im pretty sure major parts of positives are from culturally corrupt countries.

 

But also it is 100% sure that 2nd test positives will go up as well as people get infected locally. The whole 5th day test is just a tourist scam - likelyhood of a farang testing positive on that test (after negative departure and arrrival tests) is way lower than a random thai to test positive, having the omicron situation here. With this logic they should call every thai for test every 5th day too...but sorry that does not generate tourist revenue so can skip 555

Edited February 5, 2022 by mran66

[mran66]

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

How did the international arrival manage to get anywhere near the boarding gate without a RT-PCR test? Is this a problem with domestic visitors arriving by plane not having their PCR test status checked? Anyone here flown to Phuket domestically and had to show evidence of being PCR tested before getting on the plane?

I doubt many are allowed to board without the test report as it would backfire the airlines at the end. However, it is very easy to get negative test report to satisfy the requirements, it is just a piece of paper. Making fake certificates in certain countries (that now have more people arriving from) is nothing special, just business as usual.

[khunjeff]

"New cases rose from Dec 13 because some visitors had not passed the Thailand Pass registration process or had not undergone RT-PCR tests. Some visitors had forged their RT-PCR test certificates or conducted only antigen tests."

 

Sorry, I just don't believe that at all - in fact, it's insulting to people's intelligence. If you've flown to Thailand in recent months, you know that there just isn't any way to pass the check-in procedure of any airline without a Thailand Pass QR code and a PCR test result. None. So arrivals didn't go through TP registration, or showed up with only an antigen test? Not a chance.

 

But is it possible that some people forged PCR results, or went to dishonest labs that didn't really test their samples? Sure, but it seems very unlikely that such people would make up more than a tiny fraction of incoming passengers - that scam has only a small upside, but a huge potential downside if detected.