Thailand reports record high COVID-19 deaths

[Petey11]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

And a very unusual / strange development -- FOURTEEN COVID deaths reported for the day in the NE province of Roi Et (by far the most of any single province for the day).... compared to only five in the vastly larger and more populous province of Bangkok.

 

Normally, for some time now, Bangkok has regularly seen double-digit daily COVID deaths and almost always has more than any other single province on any given day, as would be expected given its relative size/population.

 

Likewise, I think it's pretty rare, at least thus far in this year's version of the pandemic, to have any other province besides Bangkok reporting double digit COVID deaths..  But we had that today in Roi Et of all places for some reason.

 

Curiously, according to the MoPH daily fatality reports, Roi Et didn't have any COVID deaths yesterday, and only one the day before that.... Hmmmm......

 

 

Could it be that COVID is starting to take its toll in those outlying northern provinces which have lower vaccination rates in the elderly?

[SunnyinBangrak]

5 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

In a newspaperthey wrote that maybe 1st of May the Test and Go and Thailand Pass will be binned... I don't understand... With a fe thousand infections everything is in a lockdown and many rules and restrictions for entering Thailand and now after Songkran when they expect to be 50-100k a day things will be binned.....Somebody can explain?

Well clearly science can change in the space of a few seconds. On April 30th the restrictions are necessary otherwise this deadly terrifying virus will run amok and wipe us out, yet a second after the clock strikes midnight the virus will retreat even though restrictions are dropped. How fascinating.

 The other possibility is that the response was political in nature... You decide.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, mommysboy said:

I'm not sure that this can not be condensed to 98% with serious personal health issues.

 

Age is of course strongly associated with serious health issues, but is not the prime mover imo.

 

 

That's one of the issues I have with the way MoPH reports their fatality data and how it can be misinterpreted... Yes, it's true that older people (including those over 60) are more at risk of serious health consequences from COVID... along with people of all ages who have various chronic medical conditions.

 

But some people then take those kinds of references to suggest that the over 60 crowd were/are all sick and almost on death's door already, which is certainly not the case.

 

They may be over 60, but that doesn't mean they're all in poor health or wouldn't -- in the absence of COVID -- go on to live productive lives for many many more years.

 

[Felt 35]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

And a very unusual / strange development -- FOURTEEN COVID deaths reported for the day in the NE province of Roi Et (by far the most of any single province for the day).... compared to only five in the vastly larger and more populous province of Bangkok.

 

Normally, for some time now, Bangkok has regularly seen double-digit daily COVID deaths and almost always has more than any other single province on any given day, as would be expected given its relative size/population.

 

Likewise, I think it's pretty rare, at least thus far in this year's version of the pandemic, to have any other province besides Bangkok reporting double digit COVID deaths..  But we had that today in Roi Et of all places for some reason.

 

Curiously, according to the MoPH daily fatality reports, Roi Et didn't have any COVID deaths yesterday, and only one the day before that.... Hmmmm......

 

 

????Hmm.. on hold until this week's circus well underway!!

[ThailandRyan]

45 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

That will be sure to protect you after a day of maximum exposure amongst the  crowds.

 

Stay safe everyone. Look after your families and loved ones.

 

 

For someone Vaccinated, Boosted and having just finished a bout of Covid, my being around others right now is not much of a concern. Staying in today and tomorrow is to stay out of the heat as well as the crowds.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

29 minutes ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

Well clearly science can change in the space of a few seconds. On April 30th the restrictions are necessary otherwise this deadly terrifying virus will run amok and wipe us out, yet a second after the clock strikes midnight the virus will retreat even though restrictions are dropped. How fascinating.

 The other possibility is that the response was political in nature... You decide.

 

 

It's got nothing to do with science changing....

 

What's been driving the Thai government's all-over-the-ballpark, back and forth policy moves in recent months isn't anything to do with changing science or public health policy, but rather, politics and economics...

 

It's the inherent conflict between their political desire to begin resurrecting Thailand's tourism industry by beginning to/trying to lift restrictions in response to domestic demands ... versus the inconvenient truths that COVID deaths and serious hospitalizations are continuing to rise in the country, including today to a new year-high number of new COVID deaths.

 

And that the daily reported official COVID case counts are only a portion of those that are actually occurring, by varying estimates as much as a four-fold undercount of reality.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[mommysboy]

29 minutes ago, anchadian said:

Chonburi announces 1,034 new and confirmed cases of Covid-19 and two new deaths

 

Twelve people were listed as being in serious condition in Chonburi currently, either on a ventilator or with pneumonia. Nine of them were not vaccinated. According to the Chonburi Department of Public Health, the vast majority of recent cases are mild or asymptomatic at 99.604 percent.

 

The two new deaths were aged 60 and 73, with severe personal health problems and pre-existing conditions. Both of them were not vaccinated.

 

https://thepattayanews.com/2022/04/14/chonburi-announces-1034-new-and-confirmed-cases-of-covid-19-and-two-new-deaths/

Omicron and vaccination is clearly different from Delta and no vaccines.

 

Once again the deaths are in people with severe personal health problems, and they were unvaccinated.  Unless they were already so frail that vaccination was deemed imprudent, then ...... well you know the rest!

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Today's MoPH two-week COVID trends chart:

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/541592117459117/?type=3

 

In the red text above, MoPH is saying that 107 of today's newly reported 115 COVID deaths (93%) involved people who had NOT received their third-dose COVID vaccine booster shot.

 

 

[mommysboy]

37 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

That's one of the issues I have with the way MoPH reports their fatality data and how it can be misinterpreted... Yes, it's true that older people (including those over 60) are more at risk of serious health consequences from COVID... along with people of all ages who have various chronic medical conditions.

 

But some people then take those kinds of references to suggest that the over 60 crowd were/are all sick and almost on death's door already, which is certainly not the case.

 

They may be over 60, but that doesn't mean they're all in poor health or wouldn't -- in the absence of COVID -- go on to live productive lives for many many more years.

 

Mostly I agree, but I guess I am saying that with Omicron (as opposed to Delta) the over 60's in good, reasonable health probably are not at great risk, especially if vaccinated..  

 

It really seems to be about whether someone has a severe personal health problem or not- almost a tale of two pandemics.

Edited April 14, 2022 by mommysboy

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Apart from the year-high number of 115 new COVID deaths today, it's a bad COVID day in Thailand when more provinces other than Bangkok are reporting more than 1,000 official new cases, or getting close to that threshold:

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/photos/a.106455480972785/541592410792421/?type=3

 

Meanwhile, the latest per capita COVID case rankings by province from member @Eaglekott for April 12 two days earlier (where Chonburi had reported only 803 cases (791 in the official MoPH document I'm seeing) and Khon Kaen only 527):

 

 

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1221220-information-about-new-covid-19-cases-per-province/?do=findComment&comment=17301128

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

16 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Mostly I agree, but I guess I am saying that with Omicron (as opposed to Delta) the over 60's in good, reasonable health probably are not at great risk, especially if vaccinated..  

 

It really seems to be about whether someone has a severe personal health problem or not- almost a tale of two pandemics.

 

It's hard to know for sure, given the way the MoPH reports their COVID death data and their relative lack of specificity at the national level.

 

For example, of today's 115 deaths, they say 90 of them were age 60 and older... but they don't give any breakdown on to what extent that group had chronic risk conditions for COVID serious illness.

 

Then separately, they list another 23 deaths under the age of 60 in which they say chronic conditions were involved.

 

At the bottom of the fatality report, they have a general list of risk conditions involving the fatalities at large, and 91 are listed (no way to know if any of them may be multiple conditions involving the same fatality).

 

On their list for today:

--33 kidney disease

--22 heart disease

--15 cerebrovascular disease

--13 bedridden

--7 cancer

--1 obesity

 

If you take that list at face value, that would mean at least 24 of today's 115 deaths had no identified health conditions called out by MoPH. And of course, being bedridden in and of itself may not be a COVID health risk condition as opposed to a symptom of old age, given that the oldest fatality among today's group was age 99.

 

There's also no way to know, from the MoPH's reporting, to what extent any of these above risk factor conditions were, to use your phrase, "severe personal health problems" as opposed to ongoing, chronic and otherwise manageable health issues.

 

https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/541597437458585

 

 

[mrfill]

6 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Unfortunately as @TallGuyJohninBKK indicated in a post yesterday, there have been millions infected but not near enough for herd immunity and with Omicron and the other variants I am not sure we will ever see it.

Herd immunity works with diseases like chicken pox and measles as once you have had it, you don't get it again. It doesn't work so well when you can repeatedly get infected, as in the case of common colds, influenza and syphilis.

[mommysboy]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

It's hard to know for sure, given the way the MoPH reports their COVID death data and their relative lack of specificity at the national level.

 

For example, of today's 115 deaths, they say 90 of them were age 60 and older... but they don't give any breakdown on to what extent that group had chronic risk conditions for COVID serious illness.

 

Then separately, they list another 23 deaths under the age of 60 in which they say chronic conditions were involved.

 

At the bottom of the fatality report, they have a general list of risk conditions involving the fatalities at large, and 91 are listed (no way to know if any of them may be multiple conditions involving the same fatality).

 

On their list for today:

--33 kidney disease

--22 heart disease

--15 cerebrovascular disease

--13 bedridden

--7 cancer

--1 obesity

 

If you take that list at face value, that would mean at least 24 of today's 115 deaths had no identified health conditions called out by MoPH. And of course, being bedridden in and of itself may not be a COVID health risk condition as opposed to a symptom of old age, given that the oldest fatality among today's group was age 99.

 

There's also no way to know, from the MoPH's reporting, to what extent any of these above risk factor conditions were, to use your phrase, "severe personal health problems" as opposed to ongoing, chronic and otherwise manageable health issues.

 

https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/541597437458585

 

 

I don't know where the truth lays, but this is today's report from thepattayanews.com, listed earlier in this thread.  I've been following it for about a week or so, and the wording hasn't changed- only the figures:

 

Twelve people were listed as being in serious condition in Chonburi currently, either on a ventilator or with pneumonia. Nine of them were not vaccinated. According to the Chonburi Department of Public Health, the vast majority of recent cases are mild or asymptomatic at 99.604 percent.

 

The two new deaths were aged 60 and 73, with severe personal health problems and pre-existing conditions. Both of them were not vaccinated.

 

 

This also corresponds with my own personal experience over the last few weeks. A lot of people say the same. 

[TheScience]

Hope someone matches *record covid cases death rate* during songkran and the hiway murder rate for the week.

 

At the very least the question needs to be put to the government.

Edited April 14, 2022 by TheScience

[anchadian]

I'm sure there are many sad stories like this that we rarely get to hear about.  Money springs to mind.

 

Covid test confusion ruins UK family holiday to Thailand

 

An email with another sad outcome from possible risks, albeit small, that individuals and families face returning to Thailand at this time. The Thaiger receives at least a few of these sad stories every week. Names of individuals and locations been changed or withheld on the request of the author.

 

My name is Pete Passport. I am a journalist and travel writer from the UK.

 

I have travelled to Thailand many times since the 1980s, and love the country and the culture.

But I have just had a disturbing experience in my latest visit with my wife and son, as part of a trip to write a holiday feature about how Thailand is re-opening to tourism in time for Songkran.

 

https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/tourism/covid-test-confusion-ruins-uk-family-holiday-to-thailand

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

38 minutes ago, TheScience said:

Hope someone matches *record covid cases death rate* during songkran and the hiway murder rate for the week.

 

At the very least the question needs to be put to the government.

 

The other day it was 25 or so road deaths compared to 100+ COVID deaths....

 

And a new report today says the average road deaths over the past three days has been about 38 per day...

 

https://www.facebook.com/ThaiPBSWorld/posts/5455928334452452

 

But apart from that, as has been mentioned before, road deaths are not a contagious pandemic, whereas COVID is.

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

38 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

The two new deaths were aged 60 and 73, with severe personal health problems and pre-existing conditions.

Ya, I've seen those reports and their language, and figured that's what you were, at least in part, basing your comments on...

 

I'm just not sure extrapolating the particular language and assessment that Chonburi health officials have chosen to use for a few local deaths there is automatically illustrative of the national landscape.

 

Especially when the national-level MoPH COVID fatality reports don't paint the same picture.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[ThailandRyan]

42 minutes ago, TheScience said:

Hope someone matches *record covid cases death rate* during songkran and the hiway murder rate for the week.

 

At the very least the question needs to be put to the government.

So far covids leading....

[mommysboy]

56 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Ya, I've seen those reports and their language, and figured that's what you were, at least in part, basing your comments on...

 

I'm just not sure extrapolating the particular language and assessment that Chonburi health officials have chosen to use for a few local deaths there is automatically illustrative of the national landscape.

 

Especially when the national-level MoPH COVID fatality reports don't paint the same picture.

 

 

Fair point. And of course if there is one region eager to open up then that is surely Pattaya.

 

Thailand has not been the only country guilty of publishing less than comprehensive data, and all seem to be shy of printing more detailed analysis.  Official data seems to contradict and confound imo.  Yet I feel something must have prompted successive governments around the world to decide that something had intrinsically changed, and the virus no longer represented such a danger to the general public.  

 

It's also from what you here around you, and even experience.  It just seems more like the picture painted in thepattayanews reports is more accurate.

 

Nevertheless, I don't think it's so easy to say who is healthy and who is not.  By the age of 60, and often before that, most people have something wrong, even if it's just being overweight.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by mommysboy

[Bkk Brian]

3 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

They may be over 60, but that doesn't mean they're all in poor health or wouldn't -- in the absence of COVID -- go on to live productive lives for many many more years.

 

This ^^^^^

 

The most important and moral point that should always be highlighted when some posters say it only really affects the over 60's and those with underlying diseases.

 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 minute ago, mommysboy said:

Also, I don't think it's so easy to say who is healthy and who is not.  By th age of 60, and often before that, most people have something wrong, even if it's just being overweight.

it's been interesting to have read the MoPH daily COVID fatality reports over a period of many months now.

 

For all the attention some posters here seem to fixate on the obesity issue, that's usually a fairly small share of the MoPH risk factor lists, and as with today's report, kidney disease is far and away a more frequently cited risk among the COVID deaths here.

 

[mommysboy]

13 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

This ^^^^^

 

The most important and moral point that should always be highlighted when some posters say it only really affects the over 60's and those with underlying diseases.

 

 

 

 

Well look at the graphic that TGJ posted earlier.  You could hardly blame someone for thinking so.  

 

And of course we tend to focus only on deaths.  I'm sure there are plenty of younger folk suffering in hospital with various degrees of severity, and also coping with long covid symptoms.  I know a few people who suffered a very harsh URTI, as bad as any I've had before.

 

 

 

 

[anchadian]

Worldwide COVID cases surpass 500 mln as Omicron variant BA.2 surges

 

New cases are rising in 20 out of more than 240 countries and territories tracked, including Taiwan, Thailand and Bhutan.

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/worldwide-covid-cases-surpass-500-mln-omicron-variant-ba2-surges-2022-04-14/

[mommysboy]

21 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

it's been interesting to have read the MoPH daily COVID fatality reports over a period of many months now.

 

For all the attention some posters here seem to fixate on the obesity issue, that's usually a fairly small share of the MoPH risk factor lists, and as with today's report, kidney disease is far and away a more frequently cited risk among the COVID deaths here.

 

It's generally associated with morbidity with most illnesses I guess.  I wonder if obesity is less important with the latest variant then- would explain why people are not getting as sick as before.  Also, less obesity in Thailand of course.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

35 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Nevertheless, I don't think it's so easy to say who is healthy and who is not.  By the age of 60, and often before that, most people have something wrong, even if it's just being overweight.

 

Here's the way one U.S. study ranked the various causes for severe COVID outcomes, highest to lowest, with older age being the highest risk of all. Obesity is way down on the list compared to the others. But still is risk...not meaning to suggest otherwise.

 

 

"Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) of severe COVID-19 outcomes after primary vaccination were higher among persons aged ≥65 years (aOR = 3.22; 95% CI = 1.81–5.74), and those with immunosuppression (aOR = 1.91; 95% CI = 1.37–2.66), pulmonary disease (aOR = 1.69; 95% CI = 1.31–2.18), liver disease (aOR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.12–2.52), chronic kidney disease (aOR = 1.61; 95% CI = 1.19–2.19), neurologic disease (aOR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.06–2.25), diabetes (aOR = 1.47; 95% CI = 1.14–1.89), or cardiac disease (aOR = 1.44; 95% CI = 1.01–2.06)."

 

Risk Factors for Severe COVID-19 Outcomes Among Persons Aged ≥18 Years Who Completed a Primary COVID-19 Vaccination Series — 465 Health Care Facilities, United States, December 2020–October 2021

 

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7101a4.htm

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Bkk Brian]

11 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Well look at the graphic that TGJ posted earlier.  You could hardly blame someone for thinking so.  

 

And of course we tend to focus only on deaths.  I'm sure there are plenty of younger folk suffering in hospital with various degrees of severity, and also coping with long covid symptoms.  I know a few people who suffered a very harsh URTI, as bad as any I've had before.

I'm more concerned with the covid deniers or the selfish all right jacks of this world (not saying you're one of them) that seems to thinks its ok because the majority of the deaths are in the older population. They have human rights too and as mentioned had it not been for covid they could well have carried on a valuable and productive life.

[mommysboy]

3 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Here's the way one U.S. study ranked the various causes for severe COVID outcomes, highest to lowest, with older age being the highest risk of all. Obesity is way down on the list compared to the others. But still is risk...not meaning to suggest otherwise.

 

 

"Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) of severe COVID-19 outcomes after primary vaccination were higher among persons aged ≥65 years (aOR = 3.22; 95% CI = 1.81–5.74), and those with immunosuppression (aOR = 1.91; 95% CI = 1.37–2.66), pulmonary disease (aOR = 1.69; 95% CI = 1.31–2.18), liver disease (aOR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.12–2.52), chronic kidney disease (aOR = 1.61; 95% CI = 1.19–2.19), neurologic disease (aOR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.06–2.25), diabetes (aOR = 1.47; 95% CI = 1.14–1.89), or cardiac disease (aOR = 1.44; 95% CI = 1.01–2.06)."

 

Risk Factors for Severe COVID-19 Outcomes Among Persons Aged ≥18 Years Who Completed a Primary COVID-19 Vaccination Series — 465 Health Care Facilities, United States, December 2020–October 2021

 

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7101a4.htm

 

I don't know in all honesty.  But wouldn't obesity likely be behind most type 2 diabetes for instance.  Maybe we can't neatly differentiate- it's more complex.

[mommysboy]

Just now, Bkk Brian said:

I'm more concerned with the covid deniers or the selfish all right jacks of this world (not saying you're one of them) that seems to thinks its ok because the majority of the deaths are in the older population. They have human rights too and as mentioned had it not been for covid they could well have carried on a valuable and productive life.

Absolutely. I reckon for sure if the situation were reversed and it was the youngsters most suffering, then we'd still be in lockdown regardless and people would rightly be chastised for not towing the line.  It's always pained me that the vulnerable could not be protected better.

 

(My interest is mostly in establishing the facts.)

[worrab]

Have the report for today showing a little rise from 247 cases yesterday.

 

Health officials on Thursday (April 14) reported 252 new COVID-19 cases in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, of which 60 cases were found in Hua Hin.

Elsewhere in the province, 31 cases were found in Pranburi, 42 cases in Sam Roi Yot, 19 cases in Kuiburi, 12 cases in Thap Sakae, 21 cases in Bang Saphan, 3 cases in Bang Saphan Noi, and 61 cases in Mueang Prachuap Khiri Khan.

Three new COVID-19 related deaths were reported in the province today.

 

https://www.huahintoday.com/hua-hin-news/april-14-prachuap-reports-252-new-covid-19-cases-60-in-hua-hin/

[Anton9]

23 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

I'm more concerned with the covid deniers or the selfish all right jacks of this world (not saying you're one of them) that seems to thinks its ok because the majority of the deaths are in the older population. They have human rights too and as mentioned had it not been for covid they could well have carried on a valuable and productive life.

It's also selfish asking young people to keep making sacrifices for a disease that doesn't affect them at all.

They basically lost 2 years of life because of restrictions and lockdowns.

Everyone should take responsibilty for their own health.