Bangkok Tightens Covid Measures as City Expects Tourist Influx

[webfact]

 

by Namo Vananupong

BANGKOK (NNT) - The Bangkok city hall has announced it is making all preparations necessary to control the spread of COVID-19, as more visitors will be making their way to the Thai capital this year.

 

The Governor of Bangkok Chadchart Sittipunt said he has instructed deputy governors to assess the preparedness of the city’s public health system, including available personnel, bed, medication, and vaccine.

 

The city hall will be closely monitoring the situation at tourist hotspots such as Yaowarat road, Khaosan road, hotels, temples, and floating markets, which could see an increase in transmission risks with a higher number of visitors.

 

The city has also reactivated its COVID-19 command center to ensure accurate reporting of information, as well as promoting health and hygiene measures such as mask-wearing, social distancing, hand hygiene, and the SHA Plus measure for businesses.

 

The Bangkok governor let on that the city hall could consider offering COVID-19 vaccines to visitors if they are interested, as well as preparing a system to support travelers who are not able to return to their country of origin due to COVID-19. Some countries require their citizens to have a negative COVID-19 test result prior to return.

 

Source: https://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/detail/TCATG230110094654550

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2022-01-10

 

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[Shop mak]

Futile attempt, when 4,000 possible covid cases arrive daily, at swampy.

 

In other news: facemask soon required all over Thailand.

[sapson]

Yet numb nuts and his cronies were at the airport welcoming the first batch of Covid spreaders.

[samtam]

 

Quote

...city hall has announced it is making all preparations necessary to control the spread of COVID-19,

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[the Governor has]...instructed deputy governors to assess the preparedness of the city’s public health system

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...city hall will be closely monitoring the situation at tourist hotspots

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...city [hall] has also reactivated its COVID-19 command center to ensure accurate reporting of information

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...governor let on that the city hall could consider offering COVID-19 vaccines to visitors if they are interested, as well as preparing a system to support travelers who are not able to return to their country of origin due to COVID-19

 

Impressive measures. 

[jvs]

Sending what message?No one is coming in with Covid but we have to do

all we can to stop it from spreading?

So all of the measures we have taken so far were all in vain?

Money coming in for sure but at what cost?

I hope we will not go back to a lockdown because some one opened the gate.

[Bangkok Barry]

There is only one major source of concern over Covid, and that is China. But Thailand can't block Chinese from coming as that would offend the Chinese government. Which means that China effectively governs Thailand as Thailand cannot do anything that offends Beijing.

[bangon04]

"it is making all preparations necessary" - that is sooo re-assuring.....

[swm59nj]

This is a very big mistake not implementing special restrictions regarding people coming in from China. I have nothing against the Chinese.  I visited Beijing twice, Xian once.  That was about ten years ago.  Unfortunately things have changed. During that time I met some locals who were very nice. Showed me around the cities I visited.  These were everyday people from a. Cultural website.  Not tour guides.  I really enjoyed China at that time. 
Unfortunately with Covid some bad things happened there.  Is it a fault of most of the general population there?  I would say no. 
But because of that situation.  I feel there is a need for very stringent entry rules for Chinese visitors. 

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The Bangkok city hall has announced it is making all preparations necessary to control the spread of COVID-19, as more visitors will be making their way to the Thai capital this year.

Good luck tourist hot spots... you're going to need it.

[RichardColeman]

6 hours ago, sapson said:

Yet numb nuts and his cronies were at the airport welcoming the first batch of Covid spreaders.

Yes, I wonder which one of them will be the first one to go down on it, and the  blame some westerner he bumped into

[mjakob007]

Chinese hospitals & crematoriums are stretched for capacity.

Thailand can always provide some spare capacity to big Bro, until demand for locals climb

[PETERTHEEATER]

8 hours ago, samtam said:

Checking a 12 inch ruler against a master and finding it to be 14 inches. Now THAT'S an impressive measure.......????

 

Impressive measures. 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, mjakob007 said:

Chinese hospitals & crematoriums are stretched for capacity.

Thailand can always provide some spare capacity to big Bro, until demand for locals climb

 

Re China and the impact of its incoming tourism to Thailand....  The headline below seems a bit misleading, since the 90% figure appears to be a cumulative rate of COVID infection since the start of the pandemic, and NOT meaning 90% of the province's population are infected NOW.... But the article nonetheless lays out the implications.

 

Mon 9 Jan 2023 01.13 EST

90% of people in China province infected with Covid, says local health official

Data from the health commission for central Henan suggests 88 million people in the province may have had the virus

 

Almost 90% of people in China’s third most populous province have now been infected with Covid-19, a top local official has said, as the country battles an unprecedented surge in cases.

...

Covid cases are expected to soar further as the country celebrates lunar new year later this month, with millions set to travel from big cities to visit vulnerable older relatives in the countryside.

...

But the World Health Organization has said China is under-reporting the scale of the outbreak and international health experts estimate more than 1 million people in the country could die from the disease this year.

 

(more)

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/09/life-is-moving-forward-china-enters-new-phase-in-covid-fight-as-borders-open

 

[jacko45k]

Err.. they just decided to allow people in, unchecked and untested, willy-nilly, from what I believe is currently the most infected country in the world.... so what is this about?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Regarding China and their outbound tourists:

 

Almost a fourth of air passengers screened from China had COVID-19, report reveals

January 14, 2023

 

Italian officials who screened 556 airline passengers from two Chinese provinces in late December found that almost a quarter of them tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, with one flight having 42% of passengers infected, according to a report yesterday in Eurosurveillance.

 

Authorities conducted the screening from Dec 26 to Dec 29 after Omicron cases spiked dramatically in Beijing and other Chinese cities. The screening took place at two major airports: Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci in Rome and Malpensa in Milan.

 

Of the 556 passengers from China screened, 126 (22.7%) tested positive via polymerase chain reaction testing. The proportion testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 per flight ranged from 11% to 42%. The flights originated from either Nanjing in Jiangsu province or Hangzhou or Wenzhou in Zhejiang province."

 

(more)

 

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/almost-fourth-air-passengers-screened-china-had-covid-19-report-reveals

 

[JoseThailand]

They tighten their bungholes