Covid-19 inpatients and deaths surge by 150% in Thailand after Songkran celebrations

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Probably when so many people around the world, admittedly mostly elderly, cease being hospitalized and dying from COVID.... and Thailand isn't headed for having 5,000 to 10,000 new COVID infections per day.

 

Worldwide, per the WHO:

 

"Globally, over 2.8 million new cases and almost 18 000 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (20 March to 16 April 2023)"

 

https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---20-april-2023

 

And in the U.S., COVID is still causing about 190 new deaths per day and nearly 1,900 new hospitalizations per day.

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html

 

And in Thailand.... where new COVID hospitalizations are running more than 1,000 per week:

Temporary Covid-19 surge may result in 10,000 daily cases

A new wave of Covid-19 infections is expected to bring daily cases to 5,000-10,000, but a swift decline in numbers is predicted thereafter, according to Dr Nitipatana Chierakul, Head of the Respiratory Disease and Tuberculosis Division at the Faculty of Medicine in Siriraj Hospital."

 

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/temporary-surge-may-result-in-10000-daily-cases-for-a-brief-period

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Soikhaonoiken]

Or is it due to the influx of un- vaccinated Chinese tourist..

[NickyLouie]

On 4/27/2023 at 12:47 AM, ozimoron said:

That's not the issue. Healthy people failing to take precautions puts others at risk. You have no idea who you encounter has diabetes, cancer or any compromised immune system. Not caring about other people is sociopathic narcissism.

No they should bag up with N95 masks, not all of us.

[ozimoron]

Just now, NickyLouie said:

No they should bag up with N95 masks, not all of us.

Masks are not particularly effective at preventing somebody catching the virus. They're much better at preventing somebody spreading the virus.

 

When there's a spike in covid cases it makes sense for everybody to wear masks. It's called social responsibility and doesn't cost much.

[Pink Mist]

A troll post referring to people by another moniker has been removed.

 

10. You will not post troll messages. Trolling is the act of purposefully antagonizing forum members by posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking other members into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

[h90]

deaths surge by 150%....I don't see any death numbers here.

150%

from 2 to 5 or from 200 to 500?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 hours ago, h90 said:

deaths surge by 150%....I don't see any death numbers here.

150%

from 2 to 5 or from 200 to 500?

From the OP news report here:

 

Quote

from April 16 to 22...Furthermore, the number of fatalities rose from two to five within the same period.

The 150% reference pertains to Thailand's weekly new COVID deaths rising from 2 two weeks ago to 5 last week... Small numbers, but the increase was more than double week over week.

 

The greater concern numbers-wise was that new COVID hospitalizations have risen about 550% from 168 the first week of the month to 1,088 new COVID hospitalizations as of last week.

 

 

Source:

 

 

[h90]

10 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

From the OP news report here:

 

The 150% reference pertains to Thailand's weekly new COVID deaths rising from 2 two weeks ago to 5 last week... Small numbers, but the increase was more than double week over week.

 

The greater concern numbers-wise was that new COVID hospitalizations have risen about 550% from 168 the first week of the month to 1,088 new COVID hospitalizations as of last week.

 

 

Source:

 

 

hospitalization is interesting because it means they have more than light symptoms, else they wouldn't be in the hospital

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just now, h90 said:

hospitalization is interesting because it means they have more than light symptoms, else they wouldn't be in the hospital

That's what I would presume... The government/doctors aren't generally hospitalizing people here anymore just because they test positive for COVID...

 

They have to have enough symptoms to warrant being hospitalized, and/or be in one of the high-risk groups (elderly, immunocompromised, etc) where they don't want to risk leaving them at home to be treated with outpatient meds.

 

From the OP report:

 

"The increase in cases also extended to inpatients suffering from lung inflammation, with the number rising to 73, up by 143% from the previous week’s 30 cases. Patients requiring ventilator support also saw a notable increment of 84%, rising from 19 to 35 individuals."

 

Some folks with COVID here are still getting seriously ill, though the TH MoPH lately doesn't really publicly provide any identifying info of the ages or other demographic characteristics of those folks, which they used to do earlier in the pandemic.

 

However,I believe in one report on the 5 latest COVID deaths, they did at one point say most of them were elderly and unvaccinated.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Interesting... TH MoPH posted on FB two days ago regarding the recent post-Song Kran COVID death of a 34-year-old Burmese factory worker living in the Sathorn District of Bangkok who tested positive for the new COVID XBB.1.16.1 strain after being found dead in his room from pneumonia type symptoms.

 

Per Google Translate:

 

"The Ministry of Public Health reveals test results of a Myanmar man who has tested positive for COVID-19 found severe pneumonia before death
repeat!! Vaccination can prevent serious illness and death."

 

"The results of the investigation showed that the deceased worked as a factory worker in Bangkok, had never received the COVID-19 vaccine before and had no history of receiving COVID-19 treatment before his death. Songkran Festival The deceased played Songkran water with friends. And starting to have a fever, red eyes, buy medicine and take it yourself, but stay in the room. not admitted to the facility."

 

Source:

 

One for all the folks here who repeatedly claim that COVID Omicron these days only kills the elderly...

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Per Thai MoPH regarding XBB.1.16 symptoms, via Google Translate:

 

"COVID symptoms XBB.1.16 or “Arcturus”
- Coughing a lot and often
- Strange sore throat, feeling like something is stuck in your throat.
-Has mucus or phlegm
-high fever over 38.5 °C
- Some people have a nose that can't smell. and the tongue does not taste
- Eye irritation, red eyes, a lot of eye discharge, can't open the eyes"

 

Source:

 

 

[MrJ2U]

Just got back from Pattaya.

I wasn't feeling well so took a test.

 

COVID-19 for the second time and 4 vaccines.   Pretty bad headache and terrible fatigue.

Harsh cough and minor sore throat.

 

Wife has gotten it now so we're staying a few nights at a hotel room in Udon Thani so the our children don't catch it. 

 

We pretty never went anywhere as it was business and stayed relaxing in the room with air-conditioning and TV.  

 

Very contagious.  Probably thousands getting it. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

22 minutes ago, MrJ2U said:

Very contagious.  Probably thousands getting it. 

 

"A new wave of Covid-19 infections is expected to bring daily cases to 5,000-10,000, but a swift decline in numbers is predicted thereafter, according to Dr Nitipatana Chierakul, Head of the Respiratory Disease and Tuberculosis Division at the Faculty of Medicine in Siriraj Hospital."

 

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/temporary-surge-may-result-in-10000-daily-cases-for-a-brief-period

 

[onthedarkside]

Another inflammatory troll post by the same poster has been removed

[rattlesnake]

5 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

Just got back from Pattaya.

I wasn't feeling well so took a test.

 

COVID-19 for the second time and 4 vaccines.   Pretty bad headache and terrible fatigue.

Harsh cough and minor sore throat.

 

Wife has gotten it now so we're staying a few nights at a hotel room in Udon Thani so the our children don't catch it. 

 

We pretty never went anywhere as it was business and stayed relaxing in the room with air-conditioning and TV.  

 

Very contagious.  Probably thousands getting it. 

Thank God you had your 4 vaccines or it would have been much worse.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

27 minutes ago, rattlesnake said:

Thank God you had your 4 vaccines or it would have been much worse.

 

The current vaccines have a limited lifespan of effectiveness against the current COVID variants... generally 4 months plus before the protections, particularly against routine infection, wane significantly.

 

The protections against severe COVID illness and death are believed to be more long-lasting post injection.

 

But that's one of the reasons public health agencies recommend that people continue to wear high quality face masks and maintain social distancing -- to minimize the extent to which people continue to get infected and allow the virus to continue to mutate to increasingly infectious, vaccine evading forms such as the current XBB.1.16 variant.

 

From the Thai MoPH three days ago, via Google Translate:

 

"At this time, the situation of COVID-19 in Thailand has a tendency to see a significant increase in infected and sick patients. Therefore, in order to reduce the risk of infection Everyone must cooperate to protect themselves and their family members according to measures D – M – H - T continuously.

 

D : Distancing. Distance 1-2 meters. Avoid being in crowded places.

M : Mask Wearing Wear a mask when entering a risky place/
crowded/ poor air flow

H : Hand Washing Wash your hands frequently with soap and water. or alcohol gel

T : Testing ATK check when having respiratory disease symptoms"

 

Source:

 

 

[MrJ2U]

12 hours ago, rattlesnake said:

Thank God you had your 4 vaccines or it would have been much worse.

Yes, definitely since previous exposure doesn't seem to help. 

[rabang]

Is there any other country where covid is still such a big issue and masks so prevalent?

[anrcaccount]

15 minutes ago, rabang said:

Is there any other country where covid is still such a big issue and masks so prevalent?

No. 

 

Nothing even close.

 

Mainstream media coverage of covid worldwide is very low and falling. 

 

Thailand now has the very dubious honour of world's most masked up country, a title coveted by.... no one!

 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

21 minutes ago, anrcaccount said:

Thailand now has the very dubious honour of world's most masked up country, a title coveted by.... no one!

 

 

Except perhaps, those people who didn't/don't want to end up dead from COVID....

 

Look at the cumulative COVID per capita death rates from countries like the U.S. and U.K. where there was/is significant opposition to masking, vs. places like Japan and Thailand where masking has been more accepted and embraced.  The differences are stark, (even allowing for some vagaries in the completeness of death reporting here)!

 

 

Source link:

Edited April 30, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[anrcaccount]

3 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Except perhaps, those people who didn't/don't want to end up dead from COVID....

 

Look at the cumulative COVID per capita death rates from countries like the U.S. and U.K. where there was/is significant opposition to masking, vs. places like Japan and Thailand where masking has been more accepted and embraced.  The differences are stark, (even allowing for some vagaries in the completeness of death reporting here)!

 

 

Source link:

Masks don't affect deaths. Arguably ( at best) they affect transmission.

 

So run those same countries and time periods with cases recorded. 

 

Not nearly the correlation you are looking for?

 

So then think again? 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

5 minutes ago, anrcaccount said:

Masks don't affect deaths. Arguably ( at best) they affect transmission.

When you affect (reduce/limit) transmission, you affect potential deaths... You can't die from COVID if you haven't caught it in the first place.

 

[Scott]

A post making unsubstantiated claims has been reported and removed.

 

[anrcaccount]

So did you check the stats on those same countries?

 

Some of the countries you're advocating that "masking saves lives"  actually had more cases / transmission, yet lower deaths.

 

So - masks weren't the correlating factor..... 

[Sunderland]

On 4/29/2023 at 10:36 AM, ozimoron said:

Masks are not particularly effective at preventing somebody catching the virus. They're much better at preventing somebody spreading the virus.

 

When there's a spike in covid cases it makes sense for everybody to wear masks. It's called social responsibility and doesn't cost much.

If you think like that at this stage of the pandemic, then you will be wearing a mask forever. And your advice would be for everyone in the world to wear a mask to try and prevent every virus - including colds - to spread. 

 

You may wish to choose to wear a mask forever, but the rest of the world has mostly moved on and is getting on with life as "normal", not this "new normal" nonsense.

[DavisH]

4 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Look at the cumulative COVID per capita death rates from countries like the U.S. and U.K

Probably more to do with westerners being generally terribly unhealthy in the US and UK. Metabolic syndrome and obesity is rampant in those countries. One hospitalised, far more of them were dying when compared to those in Thailand. Masks have nothing to do with this situation. Just try to control the spread of measles with standard masks. It doesn't work. The same for omicron. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

16 minutes ago, DavisH said:

It doesn't work. The same for omicron. 

And you have some credible source to back up that unsourced opinion as regards COVID Omicron?

Edited April 30, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

17 minutes ago, DavisH said:

Probably more to do with westerners being generally terribly unhealthy in the US and UK.

Thailand has it's own share of chronic health issues among the population, particularly including high rates of diabetes and liver disease -- both of which are likewise risk factors for bad COVID outcomes.

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[rabang]

Latest study on mask wearing shows that there is no evidence of their effectiveness. Let's see if this one passes the censorship.

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub6/full#CD006207-sec-0008

 

https://maryannedemasi.substack.com/p/exclusive-lead-author-of-new-cochrane
 

Quote

 

DEMASI: This Cochrane review has caused quite a stir on social media and inflamed the great mask debate. What are your thoughts?

JEFFERSON: Well, it’s an update from our November 2020 review and the evidence really didn't change from 2020 to 2023. There’s still no evidence that masks are effective during a pandemic.

DEMASI: And yet, most governments around the world implemented mask mandates during the pandemic…

JEFFERSON: Yes, well, governments completely failed to do the right thing and demand better evidence. At the beginning of the pandemic, there were some voices who said masks did not work and then suddenly the narrative changed. 

DEMASI: That is true, Fauci went on 60 minutes and said that masks are not necessary and then weeks later he changed his tune.

 

 

[jacko45k]

12 hours ago, rabang said:

Is there any other country where covid is still such a big issue and masks so prevalent?

Japan seems keen on masks still.