Thailand's new weekly COVID hospitalizations have quietly quadrupled since early October

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

 

 

Thailand's new weekly COVID hospitalizations have quietly quadrupled since early October, now having increased steadily for six of the past seven weeks, according to the latest update today from the Thai Ministry of Public Health.

 

Although local Thai news media have basically ceased reporting on local COVID trends, the weekly COVID reports posted by the MoPH to its website show that new COVID hospitalizations reached 536 for the most recent week (Nov. 26 to Dec. 2), up from a recent low of just 124 for the week of Oct. 8-14.

 

The most recent 536 new weekly COVID hospitalizations is Thailand's highest tally in the past 4-1/2 months, since the country reported 556 new COVID hospitalizations for the week of July 16-22.

 

The current spike in new COVID hospitalizations is Thailand's second of 2023, but thus far remains far below the earlier spike that began after Song Kran in April.

 

From mid-April through early June, Thailand's new weekly COVID hospitalizations rose steadily and ultimately peaked at 3,085 for the week May 28 to June 3. After that, the weekly numbers mostly steadily declined until the trend again rebounded starting in early October.

 

Starting with the week of Oct. 8-14, Thailand's successive weekly new COVID hospitalizations have tallied at 124, 191, 206, 304, 287 (the only weekly decline in the recent period), 390, 480 and finally 536 for the most recent week.

 

During the same period since mid-October, the MoPH reports also show that the tallies of COVID hospitalized patients considered in serious condition have more than doubled, from 38 in the mid-October period up to 88 for the most recent week.

 

The apparent good news in all this is that officially declared COVID deaths, if the data is presumed accurate, have remained low and flat during the entire mid October to early December period, starting out at 3 per week at the start of that period and ending up at 3 for the most recently reported week.

 

Thailand stopped publicly reporting COVID infection/case data last fall, as have many countries, so tallies of COVID new hospitalizations have become one of the key indicators that public health officials these days use to monitor the successive up and down waves of COVID infections.

 

The Thai MoPH posts its weekly COVID reports mostly every Monday at the following website: https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main   A pull-down menu in the upper right corner of the website provides access to all of the MoPH's weekly COVID reports since the start of the year.

 

The red-colored sections show the new COVID hospitalizations counts for that week and the cumulative number thus far for the year. The gray colored sections show the new officially declared COVID deaths for that week and the cumulative number for the year. The dark purple colored sections show the current number of serious condition COVID patients hospitalized for that week.

 

According to the latest weekly report, Thailand thus far has had 36,204 COVID hospitalizations thus far this year and 826 officially declared COVID deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, the MoPH has reported a cumulative total of 4.75 million COVID hospitalizations and 34,495 officially declared COVID deaths.

 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

So.. more people are getting catching this covid cold.. but not more people are dying.

 

I'd suggest a bigger concern this year is an influenza outbreak....  especially if travelling to areas where influenza is seasonal (such as Europe). 

[stoner]

57 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

starting out at 3 per week at the start of that period and ending up at 3 for the most recently reported week.

 

so an absolute nothing burger. 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

ya, it's just 500+ people per week now being hospitalized involving COVID in Thailand. No reason anyone should care about that....

 

And FWIW, people even in Thailand typically are not hospitalized (admitted as inpatients) for having "colds." And COVID is not a "cold" or even the flu.

 

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant more common, tied to more severe outcomes than flu, RSV

October 28, 2023

 

"SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infections were more common and linked to more severe outcomes than influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in emergency department (ED) patients in Sweden, especially among those unvaccinated against COVID-19.

...

Karolinska Institutet researchers assessed rates of 30-day all-cause death, hospitalization, and intensive care unit (ICU) admission of adults seen in six EDs in Stockholm County for Omicron, flu, or RSV infection

...

Thirty-day death rates were 7.9% in the Omicron group, 2.5% in flu patients, and 6.0% in the RSV group."

 

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/sars-cov-2-omicron-variant-more-common-tied-more-severe-outcomes-flu-rsv

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

By way of extension to the mindset of some posters here:

 

"The US has been living in a "fantasy world" where people pretend COVID-19 is "not relevant," Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Task Force coordinator during the Trump administration, told ABC's "Start Here" podcast.

 

"We wanted to make it like flu because that was easier, but it's never going to be like flu," Birx said, explaining that COVID-19 comes in more frequent waves, makes people sicker, kills more people and can have longer-term complications such as long COVID. "So let's just all agree it's not flu. It will never be flu."

 

https://abc7chicago.com/covid-cases-2023-cdc-immunity-testing/13738857/

Edited December 4, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[impulse]

20 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

ya, it's just 500+ people per week now being hospitalized for COVID in Thailand. No reason anyone should care about that....

 

In a population of 60 million, that's 0.00083% of the population being hospitalized WITH Covid in a week.  No clue how many are being hospitalized FOR Covid, but I suspect it's a tiny minority of that 0.00083%. 

Extrapolating over a year, I like my odds when there's a 0.043% chance of being hospitalized WITH Covid this entire year.  (That's a 1 in 2400 chance)  Probably even lower for those who have no underlying health conditions that would send them to hospital where they'd be Covid tested in the first place.

 

So I'm going to go on living my life, worrying about real threats like crazy drivers...

 

[richard_smith237]

Over the past couple of years TallGuy... has made his bed regarding covid and repeatedly doubled down on posts regarding the severity of covid and its continuance as deadly global pandemic...     

 

.. I think some people are so invested in this story they can't let it go....  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

In the U.S. right now, more than 1,100 people per week are dying with COVID as the main or contributing cause, along with nearly 20,000 new weekly COVID hospitalizations.

 

In a country of about 330 million people, that tally of weekly COVID deaths amounts to 0.000003% of the population.  Does that mean we should be unconcerned with the 1,100+ weekly COVID deaths and nearly 20,000 new weekly COVID hospitalizations?

 

I wouldn't say that. Lives have value, period.

 

 

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00

 

 

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklyhospitaladmissions_select_00

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

If nothing else, all of the above should serve as a reminder to everyone that denialists notwithstanding, COVID is continuing to circulate widely in the world and in Thailand... sickening many people still, especially the older populations, and fortunately killing some but fewer than in recent years.

 

 

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7218a3.htm

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[connda]

Some people just need to live in fear.  And then in order to find purpose in life they need to spread that fear. 
It sucks to be irrationally fearful.  But heck. Look around.  It's now almost 4 years since the WHO/CDC/Experts told us that we all are going to die from the Covid Plague, and still, the majority of Thais remain all masked up like obedient clones.  Then on AN we still have a subset of true believers who proselytize to the masses that "Covid Is Gonna Get Ya This Time For Sure!"  <head-shake>

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

There's a big difference between "fear" and knowledge and awareness...

 

I have no "fear" about COVID. But I certainly think knowledge and awareness of the facts of what's occurring in the world with COVID can and should help inform people's decisions and behaviors.

 

But it's a typical COVID denialist and anti-vaxer ploy to wrongly try to portray knowledge and information as fear.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[impulse]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

There's a big difference between "fear" and knowledge and awareness...

 

I have no "fear" about COVID. But I certainly think knowledge and awareness of the facts of what's occurring in the world with COVID can and should help inform people's decisions and behaviors.

 

But it's a typical COVID denialist and anti-vaxer ploy to wrongly try to portray knowledge and information as fear.

 

When your odds of being in the hospital with Covid this week are 1 in 120,000 and your odds of dying with Covid this week are 1 in 20,000,000, I'd say you're well over the "Information threshold" and into fear mongering.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

9 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

When your odds of being in the hospital with Covid this week are 1 in 120,000 and your odds of dying with Covid this week are 1 in 20,000,000, I'd say you're well over the "Information threshold" and into fear mongering.

 

 

You have no basis and no source for asserting above that all the cases the Thai authorities report as "COVID hospitalizations" are just hospitalizations "with COVID".

 

In  current times, Thai hospitals aren't automatically COVID testing everyone who comes thru their doors. They're only COVID testing people, and finding actual cases, who present with symptoms that are characteristic of COVID.

 

But even if what you claim were true, which it clearly isn't, a reasonable person would certainly have to wonder why the numbers of those COVID hospitalization cases have suddenly quadrupled over the past almost two months.

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[impulse]

11 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

But even if what you claim were true, which it clearly isn't, a reasonable person would certainly have to wonder why the numbers of those COVID hospitalization cases have suddenly quadrupled over the past almost two months.

 

Quadrupled, to 1 in 120,000 of the population.  Still liking those odds.

 

My inkling is they're finding more cases because they're testing more of the patients.  Prove that wrong.
 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

30 minutes ago, impulse said:

My inkling is they're finding more cases because they're testing more of the patients.  Prove that wrong.
 

 

It's your claim / "inkling", and thus your obligation to source and support it, and once again, you have none.

 

In reality,  the Thai government has been doing its best downplay and minimize the extent of COVID occurring in the country, if for no other reason than, drawing attention to it certainly has the potential to harm their efforts to revive lagging tourism.

 

No news conferences or MoPH announcements about the rise in COVID hospitalizations. No articles in the local news sources updating on what's occurring here with the pandemic.

 

And yet for some unexplained reason, you think they've suddenly increased COVID testing four years into the pandemic....and after they've already declared COVID as endemic and no longer a public health "emergency."

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Pouatchee]

3 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Over the past couple of years TallGuy... has made his bed regarding covid and repeatedly doubled down on posts regarding the severity of covid and its continuance as deadly global pandemic...     

 

.. I think some people are so invested in this story they can't let it go....  

 

 

mr smith a COVID denier. once again trying to ridicule another AN member. scoring points on the back of others. freeloader i call that

[Pouatchee]

8 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

No news conferences or MoPH announcements about the rise in COVID hospitalizations. No articles in the local news sources updating on what's occurring here with the pandemic.

 

thanks dude... good to know what is going on

keep it up... ya got my thumbs up

[richard_smith237]

13 minutes ago, Pouatchee said:

mr smith a COVID denier. once again trying to ridicule another AN member. scoring points on the back of others. freeloader i call that

 

In your haste to find objection with my posts because you don't like me you've jumped to a flawed assumption with your attempt to point- score with use the 'covid denier' moniker. 

 

I have never denied the existence of covid, nor its severity in the past.

 

However, I'd argue that SARS-CoV-2 in its existing variants is no longer associated with the severity of the Covid disease it once was and thus those who are clinging on to this rhetoric are exaggerating.

 

Or, to put that in 'junior school' words for you... Covid is not bad any more but some still think it is and I think they are wrong.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

40 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Covid is not bad any more but some still think it is and I think they are wrong.

 

I'm sure the 536 Thai COVID cases newly hospitalized last week, and the 1,100+ COVID deaths and nearly 20,000 new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S. in a recent weekly tally, much appreciate you sentiments.

 

For me, I've never yet been hospitalized in Thailand, and I'm continuing to do my best to keep it that way, especially being among the age 60+ more COVID vulnerable crowd.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[richard_smith237]

4 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I'm sure the 536 Thai COVID cases newly hospitalized last week, and the 1,100+ COVID deaths and nearly 20,000 new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S. in a recent weekly tally, much appreciate you sentiments.

 

For me, I've never yet been hospitalized in Thailand, and I'm continuing to do my best to keep it that way, especially being among the age 60+ more COVID vulnerable crowd.

 

 

You sensationalised your heading with the word 'quadrupled' - which while accurate is designed to inflate the issue.

 

Why didn't you write - increased from 0.00017% of population to 0.00074% of population... 

Or... increased from 0.17 in 100,000 people to 0.75 in 100,000 people...

Or... easier to consume...  increased from 1.7 people per Million to 7.4 people per Million... 

 

Quadrupled is more dramatic and fits a rhetoric. 

[Amethyst]

Picked up in Thailand News as well:

 

 

[thaicurious]

On 12/4/2023 at 5:59 AM, richard_smith237 said:

I'd argue that SARS-CoV-2 in its existing variants is no longer associated with the severity of the Covid disease it once was and thus those who are clinging on to this rhetoric are exaggerating.

 

Or, to put that in 'junior school' words for you... Covid is not bad any more but some still think it is and I think they are wrong.

While currently there are less hospitalizations and less deaths than the deluge of destruction this infection initially inflicted, while there might even be less known long-covid cases, much of that is resultant of the immunity (which we know wanes over mere months) by prior & repeated infection, by vaccination & by hybrid immunity, as well as by antivirals, not necessarily simply because "Covid disease (isn't what) it once was" which is a fallacy in thinking if only because...

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10066022/

"Do pathogens always evolve to be less virulent? The virulence–transmission trade-off in light of the COVID-19 pandemic ... Formerly, it was theorized that pathogens should always evolve to be less virulent. ... In the case of COVID-19, a higher viral load does not mean a higher risk of death; immunity is not long-lasting; other hosts can act as reservoirs for the virus; and death as a consequence of viral infection does not shorten the infectious period. Consequently, we cannot predict the short- or long-term evolution of the virulence of COVID-19. (bolding mine)"

 

So even if by current strains per current chance and current community health as noted above, current results might "fit a rhetoric" of seeming like Covid has been currently domesticated, try being less careful in handling your pet viper who you gave a cute current name to because you thought venomous Viper "is not bad any more" and see how that works for ya.

 

And if you don't believe that, ask Australian zoologist and conservationist Steve Irwin about cute stingray, oh wait, you can't, he's dead. Because sometimes even an expert still has to be careful.

 

Or just read up on some current studies of what your current "isn't what it was" covid strain of cute omicron can do to your brain

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/small-study-finds-brain-alterations-after-covid-omicron-infection

"the researchers evaluated 61 men before and after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in January 2023. The men had been part of a larger cohort who had undergone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychiatric screenings before infection in August and September 2022. Average age was 43 years. The researchers collected MRI and neuropsychiatric data after COVID-19 infection and tracked clinical symptoms for 3 months...

...In certain regions of the brain, gray-matter thickness had thinned, and the ratio of right hippocampus volume to total intracranial volume was significantly reduced after infection. (bolding mine)"

 

full study here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2812387

[rabas]

On 12/4/2023 at 6:49 PM, richard_smith237 said:

Quadrupled is more dramatic and fits a rhetoric. 

 

The title "Quietly quadrupled" since 2 months ago...

 

... is accurate and exactly describes a low level of Covid creeping up over time, and helps alert higher risk people, e.g., older folks with weaker immunity who are constantly exposed to crowded places, etc.

 

Maybe save them a nasty bout of long Covid. 

 

Maybe the author deserves a Covid reporting Pulitzer. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The original report I wrote to start this thread made it clear that the current levels of new COVID hospitalizations -- 500+ per week -- remain well below the 3,000+ per week peak in the wake of this year's Song Kran period. Context is important.

 

But the original report also made it clear that the current numbers are the highest in the past 4+ months, and now have risen for 6 of the past 7 weeks... So there's definitely an upward trend occurring that warrants monitoring, and taking precautions as warranted.

 

[jayboy]

16 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The original report I wrote to start this thread made it clear that the current levels of new COVID hospitalizations -- 500+ per week -- remain well below the 3,000+ per week peak in the wake of this year's Song Kran period. Context is important.

 

But the original report also made it clear that the current numbers are the highest in the past 4+ months, and now have risen for 6 of the past 7 weeks... So there's definitely an upward trend occurring that warrants monitoring, and taking precautions as warranted.

 

 

The trend is clear.Covid cases are ticking upwards not just in Thailand but in the US and Europe.It is recommended by the authorities there that most people should have one of the updated vaccines.Yet here in Thailand there is silence on the subject and as far as I know these vaccines aren't available.There certainly isn't a publicity campaign.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main

 

 

Thailand's weekly new COVID hospitalizations continued their upward spiral last week, now almost five times higher than the admissions from just two months ago, and having increased for seven of the past eight weeks, according to the latest update from the Thai Ministry of Public Health.

 

The MoPH's latest weekly update says Thailand had 590 new COVID hospitalizations for the week of Dec. 3-9, up 10% from the 536 recorded the prior week, and nearly five times higher than the recent low of just 124 new COVID hospitalizations for the week of Oct. 8-14.

 

The most recent 590 new weekly COVID hospitalizations is Thailand's highest tally in the past five months, since the country reported 613 new COVID hospitalizations for the week of July 9-15.

 

The current spike in new COVID hospitalizations is Thailand's second of 2023, but thus far remains well below the earlier spike that began after Song Kran in April.

 

From mid-April through early June, Thailand's new weekly COVID hospitalizations rose steadily and ultimately peaked at 3,085 for the week May 28 to June 3. After that, the weekly numbers mostly steadily declined until the trend again rebounded starting in early October.

 

Starting with the week of Oct. 8-14, Thailand's successive weekly new COVID hospitalizations have tallied at 124, 191, 206, 304, 287 (the only weekly decline in the recent period), 390, 480, 536 and now 590 for the most recent week.

 

During the same period since mid-October, the MoPH reports also show that the tallies of ongoing COVID hospitalized patients considered in serious condition have risen 147%, from 38 in the mid-October period up to 94 for the most recent week. The prior week's tally was 88.

 

Officially declared COVID deaths have remained very low in Thailand, though the MoPH has not recently publicly clarified their criteria for counting such deaths. The MoPH tallied five official COVID deaths last week, up from three the prior week, but well below the year's high figure of 69 for the week of June 4-10.

 

Thailand stopped publicly reporting COVID infection/case data last fall, as have many countries, so tallies of COVID new hospitalizations have become one of the key indicators that public health officials these days use to monitor the successive up and down waves of COVID infections.

 

The Thai MoPH posts its weekly COVID reports mostly every Monday at the following website: https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main   A pull-down menu in the upper right corner of the website provides access to all of the MoPH's weekly COVID reports since the start of the year.

 

The red-colored sections show the new COVID hospitalizations counts for that week and the cumulative number thus far for the year. The gray colored sections show the new officially declared COVID deaths for that week and the cumulative number for the year. The dark purple colored sections show the current number of serious condition COVID patients hospitalized for that week.

 

According to the latest weekly report, Thailand thus far this year has had 36,794 COVID hospitalizations and 831 officially declared COVID deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, the MoPH has reported a cumulative total of 4.75 million COVID hospitalizations and 34,500 officially declared COVID deaths.

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

New COVID hospitalizations took a big dip to 514 this past week Dec. 10-16, down from 590 the week prior and only the second weekly decline in the past nine weeks. But the latest weekly tally remained more than four times higher than the recent low count of 124 in mid-October.

 

Meanwhile, according to the latest weekly update from the Thai Ministry of Public Health, there still were weekly increases in reported new COVID deaths (6), COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition (114), and those requiring intubation in order to breathe (58).

 

The tally of newly reported COVID deaths rose by one from the prior week, and at six was the highest number of new weekly COVID deaths since six also were reported for the week ending at the beginning of September.

 

The tally of 114 hospitalized COVID patients in serious condition exceeded 100 for the first time since late September, when the tally was 106. It also was the first time the count of 58 intubated COVID patients in hospital exceeded 50 since the same week in late September, when the count was 72.

 

 

https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main