Tutorial Schools And Net Cafes To Close For 2 Weeks

[webfact]

INFLUENZA 2009

Tutorial schools and net cafes to close for 2 weeks

By The Nation

The cabinet on Thursday agreed to order closing of all tutorial schools and asked net cafes to close for two weeks as a measure to prevent spreading of the influenza 2009.

The venues, usually crowded with young people, would start closing on July 13 until 28.

Most of the flu patients in Thailand were students.

The cabinet agreed to the Public Health Ministry's proposal for the venues to close temporarily to prevent the spread of the flu.

The agreement came as the death of the flu victim in Thailand hit 12 on Thursday.

Two more deaths were reported pending confirmation from the ministry.

A traffic police died on Thursday from the new strain of influenza, bring the death toll in Thailand to 12.

The police whose name was not revealed was traffic police of Bang Na police station.

He succumbed to the flu on Thursday after being admitted to Police Hospital. He had also suffered from complication of kidney failure.

Thai Public Health Ministry on Thursday reported 211 new cases of the flu, bringing number of the cases in the country to 2,725.

H1N1 flu fatalities

1.

June 20: A 40-year-old woman, with congenital heart disease that was surgically treated at age 12, developed flu-like symptoms on June 8 and was admitted to hospital on June 14.

2.

June 25: A 15-year-old girl suffering from diabetes, diabetes insipidus as well as low white-blood cell count showed flu-like symptoms on June 23 and died two days later due to complications.

3.

June 27: A 42-year-old man with no chronic diseases began showing symptoms on June 18 after returning from overseas travel and visiting a pub in Bangkok. He was admitted into hospital on June 23.

4.

June 29: A 21-year-old newly recruited Army conscript showed symptoms on June 15, admitted to hospital on June 19 and died of heart failure caused lung complications.

5.

July 1: A 45-year-old man, known to be a heavy drinker, started showing symptoms on June 23 and was admitted to hospital on June 26. Died of lung complications and low blood pressure.

6.

July 1: A 30-year-old overweight man, weighing 123 kilograms against a height of 165 centimetres, developed symptoms on June 23 and sought hospital treatment on June 28, though he continued going to work despite doctors' advice. He was admitted to hospital on June 30 with high fever, breathing difficulties and cough, and died of lung complications the next day.

7.

July 2: An eight-year-old girl, suffering from leukaemia, admitted to hospital with flu-like symptoms but died before lab results could confirm she had been infected by the type-A (H1N1) virus.

8.

July 3: A 37-year-old woman began developing symptoms on June 25 and died in hospital two days after being admitted. This was the first fatality without prior surveillance or quarantine.

9.

July 3: A 19-year-old boy started showing symptoms on June 30, was admitted to hospital on July 2 and died the next day from pneumonia and pulmonary oedema.

10.

July 6: A 21-year-old woman, who was five months into her pregnancy and had a hyperthyroid condition, got infected on June 29, sought hospital treatment on July 4 but was sent home after being told she had a simple sore throat. She returned to hospital on July 6 and died a few hours later.

11.

July 7: A 58-year-old man, with chronic kidney disease, sought hospital treatment a few days earlier, but died of lung complications.

12.

July 8: A traffic police of Bang Na police station was infected by the flu and was admitted to Police Hospital. He had complication of kidney failure.

-- The Nation 2009/07/09

[auntie]

what is a tutorial school?

[PeaceBlondie]

Overkill - note that almost no deaths occurred in the under-18 population of healthy Thais

[asia_pilot]

What is a tutorial school ?

Since all Internet Shops are privatley owned I doubt they will close....

[Mai Krap]

I guarantee this will never happen. Just go take a look and see how many internet shops are actually closed for two weeks.

[TAWP]

No-one is going to close their lively hood for 2 weeks.

It's not like 10 years ago when internet-cafe's (or, even just computer/game cafe's back then) was making a lot of money due to their rarity.

[stumonster]

What is a tutorial school ?

after school extra study - quite common

[jonclark]

Can't see the point of tutorial schools being asked to shut. Surely if you wanted to close places where students or young people gather then, schools, universities, shopping malls, pubs (i know, i know) and clubs would be better starting points.

Oh yes I forgot - This whole story is just a charade so that the government appears to be doing something to prevent the PANDEMIC.

On second thoughts, you know what it wouldn't surprise me if in the next month pubs and clubs are ordered shut.

Lunatics in charge of the asylum me thinks.

[TerryLH]

"Can't see the point of tutorial schools being asked to shut. Surely if you wanted to close places where students or young people gather..."

If students and/or young people don't gather there, business isn't too good for them.

If the attempt to limit the spread of the flu is genuine, I applaud whatever they do.

[Chang_paarp]

Wot about the 7/11's, the markets, the wats (it is Kao Panza a lot of kids ordain for the duration) and all the other places kids congregate?

[kalbo123]

"Can't see the point of tutorial schools being asked to shut. Surely if you wanted to close places where students or young people gather..."

If students and/or young people don't gather there, business isn't too good for them.

If the attempt to limit the spread of the flu is genuine, I applaud whatever they do.

so it's ok to get flu on regular schools or in a mall or whereever but not doing extra study or in internet cafe's?

[KevinBloodyWilson]

"Can't see the point of tutorial schools being asked to shut. Surely if you wanted to close places where students or young people gather..."

If students and/or young people don't gather there, business isn't too good for them.

If the attempt to limit the spread of the flu is genuine, I applaud whatever they do.

so it's ok to get flu on regular schools or in a mall or whereever but not doing extra study or in internet cafe's?

It seems so. No need to worry about bars, clubs, schools, buses.

Smoke and mirrors, designed to appeal to the average Joe who isn't too hot on the whole thinking thing but knows how to be easily impressed.

Kev

[jonclark]

Prediction for a possible story in one of the papers next week

Thermal Scanners to be installed at Kao San Road to stop the great unwashed, youth of the west spreading the disease.

Now that's gotta be a vote winner. Young, Foreign and Dirty.

Absolutely no evidence to support this and it's a flimsy as this story.......... so it should work!

[george]

And:

CLOSE All Embassies in Bangkok - a lot of Thais queing for visas and might spread the flu when going abroad

CLOSE All Thai Consulates and Embassies abroad, so the Aliens doesn't fly here and infect us in Thailand

CLOSE All a-go-go bars, BJ bars and hole in wall institutions

CLOSE All Christian Churches, Islamic Mosques and Buddhist temples in the Kingdom, as a lot of people congregate at such locations.

CLOSE All public transportation in Bangkok, including buses, trains, BTS, MTR and public taxis.

[sunholidaysun1]

closing of the intenet cafe's is a good idea , we wouldnt want to the Pig Flu mutating into a computer virus would we .

[erobando]

Overkill - note that almost no deaths occurred in the under-18 population of healthy Thais

IMO this plan isn't particularly helpful but...

I think the idea behind the plan is not that student-age kids have been dying but that they've been catching and spreading the disease at a high rate.

[Boater]

how many tutorial schools or internet cafes, take or make ' TEA' Money for the goverment or police ... NONE

yet as above, it would be a more sensible move to close Go Go Bars ect as there HAVE BEEN cases of the flu spreading there, but hey this will never happen as to much 'TEA' money would be lost !

this whole statment just makes the goverment look extremly stupid !

[ukrules]

Overkill - note that almost no deaths occurred in the under-18 population of healthy Thais

16% of recorded deaths did with another 25% aged 21 or under. So 41% of the deaths were people aged 21 or under.

Edit - didn't notice that you said 'healthy' Thais, it's still very concerning that such a high proportion of the victims are so young.

Edited July 9, 2009 by ukrules

[Thailand]

The ideas of the powers that be just get dafter.

[webfact]

TYPE A (H1N1) FLU

Malls join battle to contain virus

By The Nation

Published on July 10, 2009

Retailers launch hygiene campaign; tutorial schools ordered to close

The private sector yesterday joined the government in launching preventive measures to help contain the spread of influenza A (H1N1) as the country's death toll edged up to 14.

"We've been following the outbreak closely. So far, the number of our shoppers has not been affected by the flu, but we're ready to follow the measures recommended by the Public Health Ministry," said Vanchai Chanwattanarunggul, general manager for shopping complexes at The Mall Group.

Among the steps taken by the major retail chain in response to the rising number of infections were cleaning all public spaces inside shopping complexes, including handrails, elevators and trolleys, with disinfectant more often, and regularly informing customers and employees of the proper ways to avoid the disease.

Vanchai also urged the government to step up its campaign to encourage people to use facemasks while avoiding overcrowded places.

In the event that shopping malls are ordered to close down temporarily, there would be a chain reaction on the retail and other industries, he said.

Tesco Lotus said it has also implemented a flufighting programme at all of its stores to assure customers of strict hygiene standards.

"All stores, especially public areas, toilets and shopping carts, are now cleaned more frequently and toilet soap has been replaced with 100percent antiinfection products," said Gwyn Sundhagul, director and chief marketing officer.

Central Retail Corp, another major retail chain, said all points of contact in public spaces and the toilets of its branches were now wiped down more often while employees were advised to adopt practices to avoid infections such as washing hands more regularly.

Chaisit Kupwiwat, deputy managing director of Vibhavadi Hospital, said visitors coming to check if they have come down with the flu has increased to some 100 persons per day.

Pichit Kangwolkij, director of Bangkok Hospital Pattaya, said they were also seeing more people wanting to be checked for the flu, now up to 120 persons per day.

Thailand's casualties are among the highest in Asia, following the outbreak in late April, prompting the government to take a more drastic approach to controlling the situation.

Starting on Monday, all students with flulike symptoms will be stopped from entering their school grounds.

All tutorial schools across the country were also ordered to shut down for more than two weeks, from Monday to July 28, while Internet and gaming cafes were asked to suspend their operations during the same period.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said more than twothirds of the 2,925 confirmed A (H1N1) cases were youths aged 11-20.

Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said a circular would be issued to all government agencies to inform officials that they should take sick leave if they develop the flu.

"This is an act of social responsibility. Without it, the disease may infect everyone in the country," Witthaya said.

Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Nopamornbodi said that if the A (H1N1) virus was still raging in two weeks, authorities might consider cutting the academic semester short.

"The school break may have to come sooner than October," he said.

Concert halls, cinemas, pubs, karaoke kiosks and other entertainment venues were also a concern, as these places could also easily propagate the unusual flu, he said.

"We will also launch campaigns in factories to let workers know that they should take sick leave when they feel ill," he said.

The mortality rate is now at just about 0.4 and most of those who died were patients with chronic diseases.

-- The Nation 2009/10/07

[hammered]

Usual politcal nonsense. Opposition (with no idea) for politcal point scoring criticises government for doing nothing re the flu. The government responds with some nonsensical closures of things.

Dont ever expect politicans to actually put the country first

[baht&sold]

Majority on TV.com assert Govt doing nothing, laughs

Govt asserts doing many things, majority on TV.com laughs

TV.com feeds flu-fears, gets great hits, TV.com laughs

What a laugh

[davejonesbkk]

"Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Nopamornbodi said that if the A (H1N1) virus was still raging in two weeks, authorities might consider cutting the academic semester short...."

What are they expecting??? For it to be all cleared up and 'no ploblem now, everything ok misterrr' in a fortnight??? I know that a lot of people see this as a mountain being made out of a mole hill but whatever happens its not going to just vanish in 2 weeks time!

[PatinBKk]

News on TV this morning said that Chumphon was closing all its schools as of today...anyone there can confirm this??? A quick trip into HH today, was amazed the amount of people wearing masks.....

[Old Man River]

Usual politcal nonsense. Opposition (with no idea) for politcal point scoring criticises government for doing nothing re the flu. The government responds with some nonsensical closures of things.

Dont ever expect politicans to actually put the country first

As concerned parents, trying to do what we can, we did pull our kid out of tutorial school 3 weeks ago. We know we can't completely shelter her (or ourselves), but you do what you can do. The reason for the tutorial schools is that they tend to have the kids sitting very closely together and are usually located in department stores or shopping malls where, unlike schools, hygiene is not a high priority. Perhaps the same reasoning came into play on the net cafes.

[hammered]

Usual politcal nonsense. Opposition (with no idea) for politcal point scoring criticises government for doing nothing re the flu. The government responds with some nonsensical closures of things.

Dont ever expect politicans to actually put the country first

As concerned parents, trying to do what we can, we did pull our kid out of tutorial school 3 weeks ago. We know we can't completely shelter her (or ourselves), but you do what you can do. The reason for the tutorial schools is that they tend to have the kids sitting very closely together and are usually located in department stores or shopping malls where, unlike schools, hygiene is not a high priority. Perhaps the same reasoning came into play on the net cafes.

Guess its a good idea if you worry. My tendency though is to think it is all overhyped right now

[Scott]

Well, it seems that the gov'ts attempt at making sure people didn't panic was a smashing success!

[JetsetBkk]

...this whole statment just makes the goverment look extremly stupid !

Sad, isn't it, the kind of people running this country.

[baht&sold]

Well, it seems that the gov'ts attempt at making sure people didn't panic was a smashing success!

Well, it seems no mystery, as local media, web boards, Puea Thai MP's and reds all seek to cynically 'profit' from GLEEFULLY spreading flu-fear...

Edited July 10, 2009 by baht&sold

[Scott]

I personally believe the usefulness of closing these places is not particularly effective. I am, however, happy to see the gov't reacting in a way that is designed to protect a vulnerable group of people. Whether we like it or not, things that affect children are emotional and the gov't needs to be seen as doing what it can to prevent or slow the transmission of the flu. Tutorial schools are one place to start.

The problem is that many children can make an informed decision and many parents won't.

In reality, there isn't a lot that can be done to prevent this flu, but it might be very wise to slow its spread down and to keep the health system functioning well and with a minimum amount of stress.