27 Omicron XBB.1.16 cases detected in Thailand by April 17th

[snoop1130]

 

Twenty-seven cases of Omicron XBB.1.16 sub-variant infection have been detected in Thailand, according to the latest information released on April 17th, but there is no evidence that the sub-variant is as serious as the Delta variant, which was prevalent about two years ago, before the Omicron variant, according to Dr. Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the Medical Sciences Department.

 

Although laboratory findings show that the XBB.1.16 sub-variant spreads slightly faster than XBB.1.5, he said that it will take at least two more weeks to determine whether XBB.1.16 is capable of spreading faster.

 

The most common symptoms associated with XBB.1.16 sub-variant infection include a cough, fever and a sore throat, with some patients also suffering eye infection or irritation, said Dr. Supakit, as he dismissed the suggestion that XBB.1.16 is as potent as the Delta variant.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/27-omicron-xbb-1-16-cases-detected-in-thailand-by-april-17th/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2023-04-18

 

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[dinsdale]

8 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

The most common symptoms associated with XBB.1.16 sub-variant infection include a cough, fever and a sore throat, with some patients also suffering eye infection or irritation, said Dr. Supakit, as he dismissed the suggestion that XBB.1.16 is as potent as the Delta variant.

Interesting. Seems to have forgotten to mention DEATH. Ah! And lung infections/pnuemonia. Mask up everyone another fatal sub-variant of the very deadly Omicron strain is about to take over. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by dinsdale

[connda]

 I wonder how many other respiratory illnesses where detected also.  Really, shouldn't we be informed about every cold and case of flu or bacterial pneumonia that happens in Thailand as many times as possible.  Daily preferable but at the least weekly.  Then we'd be much safer by confidently knowing all of the cases of respiratory disease - oh, and lets add in the PM2 PM10 induce cases of asthma, bronchitis, and COPD that are occurring right this moment too. 
I wonder why they only provide covid statistics?  ????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I saw the Department of Medical Services half hour long news conference today live streamed and broadcast on YouTube... all in Thai, of course, no English version or translations.

 

 

 

Frankly, I'd be more interested in hearing better info from MoPH on why there's been a week-over-week 250% increase in Thailand COVID hospitalizations, now averaging about 62 new COVID hospitalizations per day... And those are now at Thailand's highest numbers since the end of January.

 

What kind of age profile are those hospitalizations involving?  Are they predominantly Thai or foreign/tourist driven?  And what's the vaccination status of those being hospitalized....  Those kinds of details -- which the MoPH isn't providing thus far -- would be more meaningful for the general public.

 

But going off into the weeds on the latest new COVID variant that -- at least for now -- appears no more serious, but possibly somewhat more infectious than the other primary variants circulating in Thailand and elsewhere -- seems a bit overly wonky.

 

 

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[moogradod]

OK, what booster to take now. We have so far:

 

Wife: Sinovac - Astra - Moderna - Moderna

Myself: Astra - Astra - Moderna - Moderna

 

Isn't there a more advanced stuff from Pfizer ? I have completely lost the overview, but a 5. vaccination might be recommended anyway ? Or not ?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 minutes ago, moogradod said:

Isn't there a more advanced stuff from Pfizer ? I have completely lost the overview, but a 5. vaccination might be recommended anyway ? Or not ?

The newer bivalent version of the Pfizer vaccine has been available in Thailand, especially Bangkok, the past couple months -- though not especially well publicized.

 

Under TH MoPH policy, to get that bivalent booster, you need to have had at least 4 months since your last prior vaccination. Those vaxes are free to long-term expats, and possible would involve a fee for tourists or people on tourist status.

 

 

[RichardColeman]

Unless this 'new variant' makes my head explode like the original scanners movie, I am not interested

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

59 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Seems to have forgotten to mention DEATH. Ah! And lung infections/pnuemonia. Mask up everyone another fatal sub-variant of the very deadly Omicron strain is about to take over. 

Yes death... 273 official COVID deaths in Thailand since the start of 2023, including two new deaths in the past week, fortunately a small number compared to those from prior years of the pandemic here.

 

MoPH Weekly report for April 9 - 15 (new COVID hospitalizations in red, COVID deaths in black). The bottom section shows totals of each thus far for the calendar year.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/pfbid09Zw4rzwCWPiRC48qsYFk6rne1Y32i3ZqQKQtzzgCGWd3zEbFEW7uckC1SYGu9Nfcl

 

And yes, lung infections and pneumonia from Omicron COVID:

 

"Department director-general Tharet Krutnairawiwong said 435 patients were admitted to hospital for treatment of Covid-19 between April 9 and 15, about 62 cases per day. Of the number, 30 had lung inflammation and 19 were put on ventilators, up 58% and 36% respectively, from the previous week."

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40026704

 

 

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[dinsdale]

7 minutes ago, moogradod said:

OK, what booster to take now. We have so far:

 

Wife: Sinovac - Astra - Moderna - Moderna

Myself: Astra - Astra - Moderna - Moderna

 

Isn't there a more advanced stuff from Pfizer ? I have completely lost the overview, but a 5. vaccination might be recommended anyway ? Or not ?

Of course it's entirely up to you but let me suggest thinking about if you need to be further vaccinated against a virus that for the vast majority of people infected has mild to very mild symptoms akin to that of the common cold or even no symptoms at all. 

[Puccini]

17 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I saw the Department of Medical Services half hour long news conference today live streamed and broadcast on YouTube... all in Thai, of course, no English version or translations.

Did they have Italian snd Swahili versions?

 

Come to think about it, why should a Thai government department broadcast a news conference in any language other than Thai, unless,of course, the target audience is the population of countries other than Thailand?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 minute ago, Puccini said:

Did they have Italian snd Swahili versions?

 

Come to think about it, why should a Thai government department broadcast a news conference in any language other than Thai, unless,of course, the target audience is the population of countries other than Thailand?

Throughout the COVID pandemic, the Thai MoPH had a somewhat consistent pattern of providing English versions of their updates in various forms... So it's nothing new for them.  But those companion English versions ceased when Thailand downgraded its COVID response some months back.

 

They provided the EN versions as an information resource to the large English speaking expat community in Thailand, as well as for the international news media who previously covered COVID issues in Thailand.... and mainly were EN speakers.

 

[moogradod]

3 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Of course it's entirely up to you but let me suggest thinking about if you need to be further vaccinated against a virus that for the vast majority of people infected has mild to very mild symptoms akin to that of the common cold or even no symptoms at all. 

If anybody is vulnerable - I am. What may be a mild symptom for you could easily be deadly for myself.

[moogradod]

15 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The newer bivalent version of the Pfizer vaccine has been available in Thailand, especially Bangkok, the past couple months -- though not especially well publicized.

 

Under TH MoPH policy, to get that bivalent booster, you need to have had at least 4 months since your last prior vaccination. Those vaxes are free to long-term expats, and possible would involve a fee for tourists or people on tourist status.

 

 

Thanks for this info. I do not care if it is for free or not - it must be available. I am living in the surroundings of Pattaya.

[dinsdale]

1 minute ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Yes death... 273 official COVID deaths in Thailand since the start of 2023, including two new deaths in the past week, fortunately a small number compared to those from prior years of the pandemic here.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/informationcovid19/posts/pfbid09Zw4rzwCWPiRC48qsYFk6rne1Y32i3ZqQKQtzzgCGWd3zEbFEW7uckC1SYGu9Nfcl

 

And yes, lung infections and pneumonia from Omicron COVID:

 

"Department director-general Tharet Krutnairawiwong said 435 patients were admitted to hospital for treatment of Covid-19 between April 9 and 15, about 62 cases per day. Of the number, 30 had lung inflammation and 19 were put on ventilators, up 58% and 36% respectively, from the previous week."

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/thailand/general/40026704

 

 

 

What's the age and comorbidity profile?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

5 minutes ago, moogradod said:

If anybody is vulnerable - I am. What may be a mild symptom for you could easily be deadly for myself.

It may be mild... except for those who end up hospitalized or dead....

 

The newer bivalent  COVID booster shots are particularly being recommended for people who are older (often age 65 and up) and/or those with a range of pre-existing health conditions that could make them more vulnerable to illness from COVID.

 

[Maestro]

Removed some troll posts.

[dinsdale]

6 minutes ago, moogradod said:

If anybody is vulnerable - I am. What may be a mild symptom for you could easily be deadly for myself.

Ok. Take care. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

What's the age and comorbidity profile?

I'd certainly like to know..... as I mentioned in my post above.. But thus far... TH MoPH isn't providing those kinds of details....

 

But FWIW, IMO, the COVID deaths of people in their 60s, 70s or 80s are no less sad or meaningful than the less common COVID deaths of younger aged folks.

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[moogradod]

2 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

It may be mild... except for those who end up hospitalized or dead....

 

The newer bivalent  COVID booster shots are particularly being recommended for people who are older (often age 65 and up) and/or those with a range of pre-existing health conditions that could make them more vulnerable to illness from COVID.

 

That's me. I am 67 and have a list of serious pre-existing conditions that would make you think a lot. According to the doctors I should have been dead since a long time, but I manage to survive somehow.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 minute ago, dinsdale said:

What's the age and comorbidity profile?

I'd certainly like to know..... as I mentioned in my post above.. But thus far... TH MoPH isn't providing those kinds of details....

 

[Menken]

2 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I'd certainly like to know..... as I mentioned in my post above.. But thus far... TH MoPH isn't providing those kinds of details....

 

Well it certainly is going to fit the profile of all the others why wouldn't it? Even with the onset of covid in early days the pattern quickly developed that the Young and healthy or experiencing very few symptoms or issues outside of a serious flu. I need not find a graph you should know this well.

 

As this is even more mild case than before there's no reason to think that more people are dying and they're certainly is no reason to think that the pattern of infection is any different or the outcomes.

 

Old

 

Infirm

[ozz1]

Meanwhile hundreds of people die on our roads over 3 days and no one cares one person dies with COVID and they panic there priorities are all wrong people dying on the roads at least they had a mask on tit

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

[responding to a now removed comment regarding non-mRNA vaccines from China vs mRNA vaccines...]

 

The mRNA vaccines have been shown to be more effective against COVID than the non-mRNA ones originally produced by China...

 

Now recently, China is increasingly moving toward using mRNA COVID vaccines for its own population. Even the Chinese know that's the way forward.

 

China Approves an mRNA Covid Vaccine, Its First

March 22, 2023

China has for the first time approved a Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, greenlighting a homegrown shot months after the ruling Communist Party eliminated its strict pandemic restrictions.

...

Among the vaccines currently available in China, the most widely known are made by the companies Sinopharm and Sinovac. Like other traditional vaccines, they rely on a century-old method for inoculation, which use an inactivated virus to trigger a response by the immune system, and have since proven to be less effective in protecting against symptomatic disease.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/business/china-mrna-covid-vaccine.html

Edited April 18, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK
A removed post which was replied to has been edited

[dinsdale]

25 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I'd certainly like to know..... as I mentioned in my post above.. But thus far... TH MoPH isn't providing those kinds of details....

 

But FWIW, IMO, the COVID deaths of people in their 60s, 70s or 80s are no less sad or meaningful than the less common COVID deaths of younger aged folks.

 

I agree. I'm 60, smoke, drink, asthma I've had Omicron once that I know of (3 days I was fine and all up it wasn't too bad muscles pains on day 0 was not so good) maybe twice as I had head cold symptoms not long ago (pretty mild, milder than previouis over in 2 or 3 days) and not sure but I think I had Delta a couple of years ago. That was worse and lasted about 4 or 5 days but still wasn't much worse, if at all, than some colds I've had in my life. Jabbed twice with AZ last time Oct 2021 so my natural immunity should be good. I'm not concerned at all. The point that can't be ignored is that experts globally describe Omicron as not severe for those classified as not at risk. I will never get jabbed again and as you know I don't wear a mask. I should say that with Delta I wore a mask as Delta was not good but since Omicron booted Delta basically from the face of the Earth I haven't. It didn't take long for the evidence that Omicron was less severe and even now the new sub-variants are even less severe than the original Omicron.

Edited April 18, 2023 by dinsdale

[Pink Mist]

A troll post and an off topic post as well as replies have been removed.

[Pink Mist]

A reported misinformation post has been removed. Please back up your claims with a verifiable link.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

14 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

The point that can't be ignored is that experts globally describe Omicron as not severe for those classified as not at risk.

That may be the law of averages, but being young and without health problems is not some kind of absolute guarantee that COVID, even Omicron, won't cause them health problems. The cases below involved the current Omicron variants.

 

Mothers passed COVID to babies through placenta, possibly causing brain damage, death

April 12, 2023

 

"Two mothers who gave birth at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, passed along the COVID-19 infection to their newborns through the placenta, researchers at the University of Miami Health System and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have found.

 

In both cases, the infection caused brain damage in the babies, according to a press release summarizing the findings from the study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics on April 6.

 

Although both babies tested negative for the COVID-19 virus at birth, they experienced "seizures, small head sizes and developmental delays," the press release said.

 

(more)

 

https://www.foxnews.com/health/mothers-passed-covid-babies-placenta-possibly-causing-brain-damage-death

 

One of the babies involved later died at age 13 months.

 

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[dinsdale]

11 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

That may be the law of averages, but being young and without health problems is not some kind of absolute guarantee that COVID, even Omicron, won't cause them health problems.

 

Mothers passed COVID to babies through placenta, possibly causing brain damage, death

April 12, 2023

 

"Two mothers who gave birth at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, passed along the COVID-19 infection to their newborns through the placenta, researchers at the University of Miami Health System and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have found.

 

In both cases, the infection caused brain damage in the babies, according to a press release summarizing the findings from the study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics on April 6.

 

Although both babies tested negative for the COVID-19 virus at birth, they experienced "seizures, small head sizes and developmental delays," the press release said.

 

(more)

 

https://www.foxnews.com/health/mothers-passed-covid-babies-placenta-possibly-causing-brain-damage-death

 

One of the babies involved later died at age 13 months.

 

 

Tragic but obviously very rare. Interesting it happened at the same hospital. I would be interested to know the mother's vaccination status and if vaccinated when they got their vaccinations. I did see that there's a hyper link stating that vaccines cannot cause this but that's a discussion for another day. Not sure if we're even allowed to discuss this.

Edited April 18, 2023 by dinsdale

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

2 minutes ago, dinsdale said:

Tragic but obviously very rare.

Not as rare as you seem to think... From the U.S. CDC:

 

 

"During the period of Omicron predominance (December 19, 2021–February 28, 2022), COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates in children aged 5–11 years were approximately twice as high among unvaccinated as among vaccinated children. ... Thirty percent of hospitalized children had no underlying medical conditions, and 19% were admitted to an intensive care unit. Children with diabetes and obesity were more likely to experience severe COVID-19."

 

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7116e1.htm

 

[dinsdale]

2 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Not as rare as you seem to think... From the U.S. CDC:

 

 

"During the period of Omicron predominance (December 19, 2021–February 28, 2022), COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates in children aged 5–11 years were approximately twice as high among unvaccinated as among vaccinated children. ... Thirty percent of hospitalized children had no underlying medical conditions, and 19% were admitted to an intensive care unit. Children with diabetes and obesity were more likely to experience severe COVID-19."

 

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7116e1.htm

 

"I do not believe this is a common finding that is occurring," he told Fox News Digital. 

"The findings of microcephaly [small head size], as well as low Apgar scores [a scoring system used to determine a newborn’s color and breathing] are not common. If they had become more common during COVID, this information would definitely have been shared across pediatric hospitals."

From your link

https://www.foxnews.com/health/mothers-passed-covid-babies-placenta-possibly-causing-brain-damage-death