25 of almost 400 Thais who returned home rushed to hospital with high fever

[Tropposurfer]

13 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

Thats a bit harsh, not allowing foreigners back under any circumstances.

 

Anyway lets see in the daily reports over the next few days how many of these cases reported today actually develop COVID as there's been no reports yet of that. The 9 Thai's from the UK with high fevers who returned a week ago would have had tests by now so obviously no positive cases as there's been none reported.

 

To be honest I fail to see how this is a news story unless they tested them first to confirm they are infected. 

“That’s a bit harsh” ... so is multiple organ failure followed by death.

[KhaoYai]

1 hour ago, Tropposurfer said:

"That’s a bit harsh” ... so is multiple organ failure followed by death.

And how many of the grand total of 57 have suffered that fate?

[uhuh]

9 minutes ago, KhaoYai said:

And how many of the grand total of 57 have suffered that fate?

Yes, 57 dead is really nothing to write home about. 

They were only Thais, after all.

It suggest you follow them. One more doesn't matter. 

Disgusting. 

[Eibot]

Why don't you do mandatory testing on people coming in? 

[Mulambana]

22 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Being married, having kids with a Thai, retired or being a student are not valid reasons. 

Before getting a marriage visa, all foreigners knew under what conditions they are getting their "permission to stay" and for how long. If Thailand allows easy permanent residency for foreigners like Western countries, there will be mass sexobriminac migrants entry into the kingdom and Thailand wil be turned into another desease infected cess pool like Western countries. 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Mulambana

[superal]

12 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

Really? You will note that as usual, these are infections coming from abroad. 25 people out of 400 = 6.25%. Using the UK as a comparison (as you do), if that number of infections was a true state of affairs, then over 4.4 million people in the UK would also be presenting with Covid symptoms - clearly they are not.

 

In the usual Thai manner - everything bad is outside Thailand whilst only good comes from within.

 

I struggle to believe any of the figures relating to Covid 19 that Thailand puts out but putting that bias aside for a moment there could be a variety of reasons for the high percentage of arrivals to Thailand presenting with symptoms. They could become sick abroad and so wish to go home, they could become infected due to an understandable higher exposure through travel etc. etc.

 

Given that Thailand had the first case of Covid outside China on 13 January and the fact that very few measures were taken to control the virus until mid to late March - don't you find the number of internal infections a little hard to digest?

 

Corona virus is clearly very contagious and has virtually 'ripped' through other countries yet despite over 2 months with little or no controls, it failed to do the same in Thailand. How so?

 

There have been a number of examples that anywhere else, would have lead to huge increases in the number of infections. Take for example the exodus from Bangkok when the closure was announced.  It was accepted at that time that the virus was prevalent in Bangkok, thousands flocked to Mo Chit bus station and others to return to their provinces. They were shown packed closely together in many media photos and there was no social distancing on buses.  In any other country the result of that experience would have been thousands of infections - widespread across the country. Did you see any reports of that happening?

 

I have no proof of my assertions but the numbers just don't stack up and neither do a lot of things relating to Covid 19 and Thailand. 

 

 

Your doubts are understandable regarding the amount of covid 19 cases in Thailand . To counter your opinions I would offer the facts that hospitals throughout central south east Asia have not been inundated with virus patients on the same scale as hospitals in the western world . You are so correct that social distancing in Thailand is seldom carried out . Yet the infection rate is low especially since the lock down .  

There has to be more to s/e Asia infection rates that a coincidence . Popular theories are the high u/v levels here which kill the virus also bring high levels of immunity and vitamin D which make fighting the virus a much lesser task for the patient .   

At the beginning of this year when the virus started the weather in Europe was cool and immune systems were low because of the lack of sun . Coloured people deaths in Europe from the virus are of a much higher percentage than that of a white person because their skin gives a higher protection against the sun and their vitamin D levels are for that reason much lower .   

[Sheryl]

For all those complaining of "no follow up"

 

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1165972-thailand reports-nine-new-coronavirus-cases-no-new-deaths/

 

[uhuh]

15 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

there was no social distancing on buses.  

15 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

 

Given that Thailand had the first case of Covid outside China on 13 January and the fact that very few measures were taken to control the virus until mid to late March

People did wear a mask on those buses.  Some buses left some seats empty. Many buses did not stop on the way,  as they usual would.  Some provinces checked arrivals for symptoms. 

Most important: this was still early, on average,  hardly any one in Bangkok was infected.

 

Measures taken before mid March: masks became very common as of late February in Bangkok (on the BTS 90%). Temperature was taken everywhere,  many times a day. Disinfectant was everywhere. 

All of this was not done in the West, was actively refused by people and by governments, and is mostly still not done today in the West. 

 

Thailand did find that first patient outside of China because they did test. Italy waited for months, ignoring that Lombardy had the biggest Chinese expat community in the world. 

France much later said "oh, we found a patient who seems to have had covid already in December". What does this say about their testing? 

The US started testing,  found cases,  but then their president decided better not to test anymore, it might ruin his chances for reelection.

 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by uhuh

[Enlil]

most non contact infrared termometer they use around here are cheap chinese knock offs that are off few degrees or some there is no sensor at all it just randomly display temperature on lcd  screen.

[uhuh]

1 minute ago, Enlil said:

most non contact infrared termometer they use around here are cheap chinese knock offs that are off few degrees or some there is no sensor at all it just randomly display temperature on lcd  screen.

Fake news. 

 

Actually,  I had to buy a thermometer and send it to a company in Germany.  They needed one to reopen (check customers),  but couldn't buy one in Germany. 

 

Wasn't cheap either. 

 

[Enlil]

51 minutes ago, uhuh said:

Fake news. 

 

Actually,  I had to buy a thermometer and send it to a company in Germany.  They needed one to reopen (check customers),  but couldn't buy one in Germany. 

 

Wasn't cheap either. 

 

 

u dont know what u talking about, i can see thermometers they use in malls and shops, they cheap <deleted> from aliexpress china, they not certified, and even in seller description offten says not for human use, and on specs they got +/- 2 degrees C off the scale. Proper termometer for humans got 0.1 C error margins. Then many chinese termometers they use around use fake sensor that dont even measure anything, there was a video someone opened it up and there was no sensor, way it worked u press trigger and it displays random 36.2 36.7 37.1      each time different measure... Yeh u can buy good one but, the ones they use in 7/11 etc are cheap from aliexpess that give u fake readings. I already had 37.something on checkpoint, i had my own in car and showed him its 36.6  

[DrTuner]

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

For all those complaining of "no follow up"

 

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1165972-thailand reports-nine-new-coronavirus-cases-no-new-deaths/

 

I'd like to know what the other ones with fever had. They used to publish this in the very beginning, not sure if they retrospectively destroyed that info from the early reports, like they did with the pending diagnosis numbers.

[Woolsgibb60]

On 5/26/2020 at 2:41 AM, hotandsticky said:

This is exactly why Thailand is right to have the strict quarantine requirements.

 

 

This is why Thailand can control new outbreaks.

 

 

UK (and others) take note.

Why because thailand are good liars like the Chinese like see when the second wave comes because thailand didnt seem to hit a peak or a fall off like every countey in the world hit a peak but thailand never seem to hit a peak I wonder why so u explain why thailand never hit the peak

[DanangBanaHills57]

3 hours ago, uhuh said:

People did wear a mask on those buses.  Some buses left some seats empty. Many buses did not stop on the way,  as they usual would.  Some provinces checked arrivals for symptoms. 

Most important: this was still early, on average,  hardly any one in Bangkok was infected.

 

Measures taken before mid March: masks became very common as of late February in Bangkok (on the BTS 90%). Temperature was taken everywhere,  many times a day. Disinfectant was everywhere. 

All of this was not done in the West, was actively refused by people and by governments, and is mostly still not done today in the West. 

 

Thailand did find that first patient outside of China because they did test. Italy waited for months, ignoring that Lombardy had the biggest Chinese expat community in the world. 

France much later said "oh, we found a patient who seems to have had covid already in December". What does this say about their testing? 

The US started testing,  found cases,  but then their president decided better not to test anymore, it might ruin his chances for reelection.

 

 

The biggest Chinese expat community in the world outside china is in Lombardy,Italy? Now, where is the source of this info from? Wikileak? White House? Donald Trump? 

 

[Sheryl]

5 hours ago, uhuh said:

......Most important: this was still early, on average,  hardly any one in Bangkok was infected...

 

 

That part is almost certainly not true. 

 

We now know from studies in Western countries, as well as in China, that the virus was present and circulating in the population well before anyone noticed. Based on known travel patterns between Wuhan and Thailand  -- and what we now know was the actual start of the infection in Wuhan i.e.November, there is virtually  no way it could not have been well established in at least the areas receiving  Chinese travellers by early to mid December. I frankly think it may already have been past its peak when the Thai measures began.  The same applies to Cambodia. In fact I think I may have had COVID in Phnom Penh in January.

 

For reasons not known for sure, there have been very few serious cases and deaths from COVID in mainland SE Asia and it is unlikely this is due to few infections.

 

 The extent to which this is so will become more apparent if and when there are statstically representative population based studies of antibody levels. 

 

Many possible factors:

Heat and humidity may have slowed the rate of spread (fewer cases at any one time= easy not to motice anything was happening)

Ditto comparatively low population density outside of Banngok

Younger population age structure

Cross immunity from the SARs outbreak

And quite possibly other factors not yet identified

 

This is not to belittle the efforts made, but at least the travel bans were later than they should have been. Other countries which took measures at around the same time were hit quite hard. 

 

Public health measures are important but in any pandemic there are also elements of good and bad luck

 

 

 

 

 

[geriatrickid]

On 5/25/2020 at 10:10 PM, zeamonkey said:

So all these thais are getting sick on the flight???? There is plenty of screening at the airports they left from, so why arent they getting treated there??  One big hoax

There is no screening  at departure airports for patients who may have infectious diseases.

There may be a few questions or even a temperature scan, but these are not  effective screening measures. Screening requires  an antigen or a PCR  test.

 

Because you do not understand or are ignorant or are frightened, you call it a hoax.  I am tired of the ignorant claims of a hoax and you should be held responsible for spreading a blatant lie.

 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by geriatrickid

[DrTuner]

42 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

For reasons not known for sure, there have been very few serious cases and deaths from COVID in mainland SE Asia and it is unlikely this is due to few infections.

 

 The extent to which this is so will become more apparent if and when there are statstically representative population based studies of antibody levels. 

Those antibody tests might now be late, even if they wanted to do a study. It's been 6 months and antibodies from other coronaviruses are shown to start waning by then. And, "too expensive", at 300-400b/test.

 

My going theory is still that Thailand got a lesser strain, supported by this:

 

Now that I saw the BBC charts that show the timeline:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52103747

 

Coupled with the animation in Nextstrain: https://nextstrain.org/ncov

 

It's starting to look like Thailand was one of the early infection hubs spreading the D614 variant, from somewhere around November until mid March. 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by DrTuner

[Bender Rodriguez]

On 5/26/2020 at 8:11 AM, webfact said:

while the rest were transported to quarantine facilities in Chon Buri.

I wonder if you are forced there

 

1) do you pay out of pocket your forced stay?

2) do they drive you back to suvi when your 14 days is up ?

[KhaoYai]

7 hours ago, uhuh said:

Measures taken before mid March: masks became very common as of late February in Bangkok (on the BTS 90%). Temperature was taken everywhere,  many times a day. Disinfectant was everywhere. 

All of this was not done in the West, was actively refused by people and by governments, and is mostly still not done today in the West. 

I was in Thailand early March and travelled extensively - including Bangkok and Hua Hin. Yes there were a lot of people wearing masks, including myself. The Masks however, were not mandatory - people chose to wear them.  I saw no disinfectant anywhere that I travelled.

 

As I reported in another thread, Chan-O-Cha was on TV demonstrating that people's temperature was being taken at the airports. My wife and I travelled to Vietnam and back - outbound no temp check whatsoever - inbound, my flight was full and as we walked into the airport there were about 40 to 50 people in front of us. We were funnelled into a checkpoint where a girl was standing with a temp gun. She checked 1 out of those 40 to 50 people and spent most of the time talking to her friends. No idea if people behind us were checked.

 

On leaving both Thailand and leaving Vietnam we were asked if we'd visited China or Italy recently. We hadn't but it we could have been lying to avoid problems. A simple passport check would have establishished the truth - neither of our passports were checked.

 

Your comments regarding the West are true but hardly relevant. Many western countries have been lax in their response but we are discusing Thailand - its not a competition.

[shy coconut]

On 5/26/2020 at 2:48 AM, Bkk Brian said:

There will be no follow up on this, same as the 9 Thais who arrived from the UK with high fevers just a week ago. Almost sounds to me like Thailand is attempting to emphasis how dangerous other countries are compared to them.

Dear me, do you spend your whole life getting angry about everything?

[uhuh]

4 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

  I saw no disinfectant anywhere that I travelled.

The Thailand you were traveling as a tourist seems to bre different from the Thailand I am living in. 

Or am I just hallucinating?

 

4 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

 

Your comments regarding the West are true but hardly relevant. Many western countries have been lax in their response but we are discusing Thailand - its not a competition.

Very relevant in these threads, which are full of postings how stupid Thai people are,  how incompetent their government,  how their statistics are all lies,  how it is impossible that the pandemic in Thailand has been proceeding the way the officials say.

 

For so many here it is so hard to accept that people like Dr Taweesin or Dr Bum etc might maybe, just maybe, tell something close to the truth. It just doesn't fit into the view of the white man's superiority.

 

 

[uhuh]

6 hours ago, Sheryl said:

That part is almost certainly not true. 

 

We now know from studies in Western countries, as well as in China, that the virus was present and circulating in the population well before anyone noticed. Based on known travel patterns between Wuhan and Thailand  -- and what we now know was the actual start of the infection in Wuhan i.e.November, there is virtually  no way it could not have been well established in at least the areas receiving  Chinese travellers by early to mid December. I frankly think it may already have been past its peak when the Thai measures began.  The same applies to Cambodia. In fact I think I may have had COVID in Phnom Penh in January.

 

For reasons not known for sure, there have been very few serious cases and deaths from COVID in mainland SE Asia and it is unlikely this is due to few infections.

 

 The extent to which this is so will become more apparent if and when there are statstically representative population based studies of antibody levels. 

 

Many possible factors:

Heat and humidity may have slowed the rate of spread (fewer cases at any one time= easy not to motice anything was happening)

Ditto comparatively low population density outside of Banngok

Younger population age structure

Cross immunity from the SARs outbreak

And quite possibly other factors not yet identified

 

This is not to belittle the efforts made, but at least the travel bans were later than they should have been. Other countries which took measures at around the same time were hit quite hard. 

 

Public health measures are important but in any pandemic there are also elements of good and bad luck

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/03/world/asia/coronavirus-spread-where-why.html

 

The Europeans have tried to find earlier cases of covid.

Except for the French case from Christmas they found nothing.  And the work-up of this case was done poorly (third post in the tweets below). Germany (Charité, which developed the PCR for CoV), Hong Kong (which since SARS collaborates with them) and Taiwan (for obvious reasons) looked and didn't find anything. 

A lot of anecdotal evidence,  I have seen reports from China of lots of extremely early cases from Wuhan and Beijing (November/December). But when it comes to hard lab data - nothing. 

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/kakape/status/1262871743972114432

The second post there suspects a low dispersion factor as reason for sometimes very slow progression (look how long it took for Latam, Russia or Turkey to take off).

 

[n00dle]

56 minutes ago, uhuh said:

The Thailand you were traveling as a tourist seems to bre different from the Thailand I am living in. 

Or am I just hallucinating?

Key words are early march.

[n00dle]

On 5/26/2020 at 9:31 PM, KhaoYai said:

I've been connected to Thailand long enough to know that whichever government is in place, they rarely tell the truth when something adversely affects their country.

Well if things were worse wouldnt there be greater evidence of a die off or high infection rates amongst thaivisa members?

 

This forum is the very definition of high risk, why havent more members succumbed?

[uhuh]

7 minutes ago, n00dle said:

Key words are early march.

I was talking about early March

[daveAustin]

On 5/26/2020 at 3:27 AM, Bkk Brian said:

What has the UK got to do with it. Why single the UK out?  This is about Thai's returning home from Japan, South Korea and Maldives.

Because that's what sad old envious numpties do; this is really the bash the Brits forum. Probably an aussie, or even worse a gone-tropo pom. Just bung them on ignore. There's sustained tripe on here regards this - largely aimed at US/UK - when people should probably focus their ire on the place that changed their lives. 

 

Regards op, they do tend to a show of the imported cases for some reason.

[KhaoYai]

3 hours ago, n00dle said:

This forum is the very definition of high risk, why havent more members succumbed?

You make a valid point. I will admit that although I have struggled to believe the figures the Thai government puts out, there are times when I wonder if they might just be somewhere near the truth. I say that because although it would not be the first time they have expected the world to believe ludicrous stories (certain murders etc.) and told obvious and childish lies - after all this time, to stick to their guns on the amount of deaths may possibly be even too far fetched. I remain unconvinced but as time goes by, for me the pendelum is swinging towards their figures being nearer the truth. I say nearer because Thailand is not famous for 'joined up' government so the thought that an accurate reporting system is in place just doesn't work for me.

 

What keeps me thinking that the figures are way too low is not only the comparison with other countries - its the fact that the lockdown and flight bans continue - balanced against the economic harm.  I suspect that for most countries that have had the infection, numbers such as Thailand's would mean an end to most restrictions. If they are hoping for continuos zero infections with borders open or closed, I suspect they'll be disappointed - Covid 19 is likley to be with us for a long time yet. Although Covid 19 is clearly very contagious, it has some relationship to common flu - a disease that so far remains uncured.

[KhaoYai]

4 hours ago, uhuh said:

The Thailand you were traveling as a tourist seems to bre different from the Thailand I am living in. 

Or am I just hallucinating?

I have no idea if you are hallucinating or not but I have no reason to lie. I passed through Suvarnabhumi twice and Don Mueang twice. I wasn't particularly travelling as a normal tourist.  On arrival I stayed in Bangkok, went to Vietnam the next day, back to Thailand 2 days later and picked up a rental minibus at the airport before travelling to my home near Khao Yai.  Next day I went to Buriram and Korat picking up members of a (Thai) friends family and travelled to her wedding in Hua Hin. Back to Buriram 3 days later and evetually back to Bangkok to return the van. I stayed in Bangkok again before my flight back to the UK on 11 March

 

In total I covered over 3000 km, visited 3 major cities and the capital twice. I attended a wedding at a major hotel, visited supermarkets, bars and a nightclub. I also went to a Bangkok district office to register my own marriage.

 

Not once did I see any disinfecting going on or any other measures for that matter. In Bangkok most people were wearing masks, Buriram and Korat - quite a lot but not everyone and in Hua Hin very few people were wearing them, although I spent most of that weekend at a wedding venue.

 

I saw 1 person get their temperature checked during 4 visits to Thai airports - despite the bluster that Chan-O-Cha made on TV and as I stated before, my movements were only verbally checked.

Edited May 27, 2020 by KhaoYai

[uhuh]

9 hours ago, daveAustin said:

 Probably an aussie, or even worse a gone-tropo pom. 

Thank you for the compliments!! ????

[uhuh]

Entering Paragon  Feb 18, the other entrances were closed,  complete with temperature scanner,  disinfectant, masks.

That was standard in Bangkok at that time.