Medical expert warns of disaster if govt eases quarantine restrictions for tourists

[webfact]

Medical expert warns of disaster if govt eases quarantine restrictions for tourists

By The Nation

 

Dr Thira Woratanarat, from the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University

 

The government has clarified that the suggestion by the Minister of Tourism to reduce the quarantine period for tourists entering Thailand to seven days was yet to be considered.

 

Currently tourists are having to spend 14 days in quarantine.

 

Traisuree Taisaranakul, deputy government spokesperson, said that Tourism Ministrr Pipat Ratchakitprakarn's proposal to reduce quarantine for tourists to seven days was not being considered as of now, and measures to ease restrictions would be implemented only when the situation gets better.

 

The Special Tourist Visa scheme will be discussed by a meeting of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration on September 28, chaired by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha.

 

Dr Thira Woratanarat, from the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, expressed his concern in a Facebook post. He said global virus cases now averaged 350,000 per day, a million every three days.

 

Many European countries, including France, the UK, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Iran, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Indonesia continued to add thousands of new cases while Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Myanmar, Singapore and Australia were adding hundreds per day.

 

"In Thailand, if we decide to follow the proposal to reduce the quarantine time to seven days, it would be an invitation to disaster," Thira warned.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30395195

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-09-28

 

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[GeneH]

My question is this, are they even testing people in Thailand? I've heard stories of people crossing the Myanmar border with ease and no testing/quarantine. If this is true I would say they should start testing to find out what's really happening inside the country. While I have a bias opinion due to the fact I'm currently locked out of the country from seeing my wife I can only hope there is some solid solution soon because the economic situation will only become worse the longer the country is locked down.

[Meat Pie 47]

This article is nonsense, show me where Australia add hundreds new cases per day.

Only in Victoria the have a few dozens per day in Western Australia we had not a 

local transmission for months Norther Territory had none for months only a few 

in NSW nothing in SA or Tassie who writes this nonsense?

[PatOngo]

31 minutes ago, webfact said:

Dr Thira Woratanarat, from the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University,

 

32 minutes ago, webfact said:

Australia were adding hundreds per day.

That's BS doctor, get your facts straight! Stop spreading false information!

[scammed]

34 minutes ago, webfact said:

"In Thailand, if we decide to follow the proposal to reduce the quarantine time to seven days, it would be an invitation to disaster," Thira warned.

the only disaster stemming from this virus is

the knee jerk reaction by governments around the world

shutting down industry and impose curfew

[Meat Pie 47]

4 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

 

That's BS doctor, get your facts straight! Stop spreading false information!

read my post #3

[Meat Pie 47]

7 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

 

That's BS doctor, get your facts straight! Stop spreading false information!

Lets sue him for defamation ( I forgot Farangs can't do that) 

[blackcab]

Off topic posts have been removed.

[PatOngo]

2 minutes ago, Meat Pie 47 said:

Lets sue him for defamation ( I forgot Farangs can't do that) 

Let them lock tourists out, it's them that will suffer from it, not the tourists!

[NorthernRyland]

1 hour ago, GeneH said:

My question is this, are they even testing people in Thailand?

I assume they at least test hospitalizations with COVID like symptoms but I don't know how you would confirm that. My girlfriends place of work (government sector) tested all their employees and found zero positives.

 

I think the false positive rates for the test are 1%. That means if you tested the entire population of 68 million you would AT LEAST get back 680,000 positive tests.

 

It's my current theory is that COVID already blew threw Thailand early on when they were accepting tourists from China still. Many older people died but the Thai medical system didn't have the means/ability to analyze the deaths and they simply went uncounted.  We could confirm my theory if the government has excess death statistics but I don't know how to find those.

[Soikhaonoiken]

By keeping the borders closed, and insisting a 14 day quarantine on the forthcoming tourists (if any) will be disaster for the economy which is sinking fast at the moment.. 

 

[farang51]

30 minutes ago, genericptr said:

It's my current theory is that COVID already blew threw Thailand early on when they were accepting tourists from China still. Many older people died but the Thai medical system didn't have the means/ability to analyze the deaths and they simply went uncounted.  We could confirm my theory if the government has excess death statistics but I don't know how to find those.

Thailand did not have any excess deaths this year; thus, your theory is wrong.

 

Article in New York Times that says the number of deaths was normal from January to April:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html

 

Another media (I cannot link to that one) said in June that the number of deaths fell 8 percent in the period from October to June compared to the year before.

[bermondburi]

8 minutes ago, farang51 said:

Thailand did not have any excess deaths this year; thus, your theory is wrong.

 

Article in New York Times that says the number of deaths was normal from January to April:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html

 

Another media (I cannot link to that one) said in June that the number of deaths fell 8 percent in the period from October to June compared to the year before.

But the BBC had an article after that putting excess deaths at 2400. And a Thai scientist in Australia had a paper where they could have been 10k+

[ukrules]

Look at a map, here's the list of total reported deaths per country in the region as of Sep 28, 2020

 

Inside the region :

 

Myanmar 226
Laos 0 ?
Thailand 59
Vietnam 35
Cambodia 0 ?

Malaysia 134
Singapore 27

 

Bordering the region - a little too far away from the 'special area' perhaps :

 

Bangladesh 5161
China 4739 ?
Philippines 5344
Indonesia 10386

 

Why is there a huge continuous region on the map where hardly any people die from COVID?

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by ukrules

[farang51]

7 minutes ago, bermondburi said:

But the BBC had an article after that putting excess deaths at 2400

Must be this article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53073046

 

7 minutes ago, bermondburi said:

And a Thai scientist in Australia had a paper where they could have been 10k+

Any link to that?

[Cali farong]

Why would they need to reduce lockup to 7 days.  From what other articles have said there are thousands of super wealthy tourists waiting to fly in and don’t mind the restrictions.  Personally I can’t wait to enjoy 14 days of virtual Thai cooking classes and yoga instruction.  Guess I should tell the butler to call the pilot and get the gulfstream ready to fly.  Yippee 

[NorthernRyland]

42 minutes ago, farang51 said:

Thailand did not have any excess deaths this year; thus, your theory is wrong.

So what's the explanation? Did the masks actually work or did they simply close the borders before any infected people could enter?

 

If we trust the numbers the Thai government releases is another matter all together.

[NorthernRyland]

47 minutes ago, farang51 said:

Article in New York Times that says the number of deaths was normal from January to April:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html

Also it's worth noting that COVID is basically over since June in most countries. These charts more of less confirm this. We've been flogging that tail for about 3 months now.

 

Of course now the public heath officials will insist that if we change our protocols that we'll see another wave identical to the first. That means masks and lockdowns for many more months to come.

[farang51]

8 minutes ago, genericptr said:

So what's the explanation? Did the masks actually work or did they simply close the borders before any infected people could enter?

Hard to say. Could be the hot and the humid weather, pure luck, the wai ...

9 minutes ago, genericptr said:

If we trust the numbers the Thai government releases is another matter all together.

I think most countries count too few; nonetheless, I haven't seen anyone in here reporting more people in the hospitals or the morgue than usual. So, even if the numbers may be too low, I am sure they are nowhere near the numbers in many other countries.

 

9 minutes ago, genericptr said:

Also it's worth noting that COVID is basically over since June in most countries.

Many countries have a new spike at the moment. I believe it will be an error to change the quarantine to 7 days; 10 days make more sense as you have a negative test 1-3 days before travelling.  And they will probably add a day making it 11 days (the current 14 days quarantine is actually 15 days).

[NorthernRyland]

2 minutes ago, farang51 said:

Many countries have a new spike at the moment.

Portugal and Belgium seem to having something going on. The US is so large that is spans northern to tropical climates so the peaks are spread out more but still pretty much over. 

 

If our goals are 0 deaths than we're literally going to be in masks for the rest of our lives.

 

Here's my town I'm in now. Absolute state of panic here. They're probably going to shut down the entire university for the year at the current rate.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/18-22-year-olds-banned-gathering-boulder-colorado-after-coronavirus-n1240975

[uncle_tom]

A couple of hours ago, I received a text message from a low born, but very intelligent and successful lady I've known for nearly twenty years now from Issan.

 

Her message was simple: The people are getting desperate now - do the farangs want to come back?

 

I replied yes - 100%..

[simon43]

If our goals are 0 deaths than we're literally going to be in masks for the rest of our lives.

 

Here in Laos, there have been precisely zero deaths from Covid-19.  Why?  Because the country locked down early and people adhered to those lockdown rules and wearing masks etc.

 

Now the lockdown is finished and the wearing of masks etc is no longer a rule, but a recommendation.  Masks are only worn when shopping and removed when exiting the store.  Most people adhere to this advice.

 

If this simple action can ensure a Covid-free country, then it's a small price to pay.

 

[simon43]

40 minutes ago, uncle_tom said:

A couple of hours ago, I received a text message from a low born, but very intelligent and successful lady I've known for nearly twenty years now from Issan.

 

Her message was simple: The people are getting desperate now - do the farangs want to come back?

 

I replied yes - 100%..

Do they?  I think many foreigners will remember how they have been treated in Thailand and will give the country a pass in favour of other countries....

[Puchaiyank]

Why not allow all tourists to come to Thailand on holiday?  Make them sign a "hold harmless" agreement to acknowledge they may be eliminated if caught trying to bring covid into the country...

[FarFlungFalang]

4 hours ago, Meat Pie 47 said:

This article is nonsense, show me where Australia add hundreds new cases per day.

Only in Victoria the have a few dozens per day in Western Australia we had not a 

local transmission for months Norther Territory had none for months only a few 

in NSW nothing in SA or Tassie who writes this nonsense?

Someone must be posting incorrect information which carries severe penalties in this country,I wonder if any action will be taken.

[FarFlungFalang]

3 hours ago, farang51 said:

Thailand did not have any excess deaths this year; thus, your theory is wrong.

 

Article in New York Times that says the number of deaths was normal from January to April:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html

 

Another media (I cannot link to that one) said in June that the number of deaths fell 8 percent in the period from October to June compared to the year before.

Don't know about the correctness of the graphs in this link but they have Thailand at 47,000 monthly deaths which is second behind the US.A later graph has 47,000 weekly deaths as well.

Edited September 28, 2020 by FarFlungFalang

[CGW]

5 minutes ago, FarFlungFalang said:

Someone must be posting incorrect information which carries severe penalties in this country,I wonder if any action will be taken.

You appear to doubt the CDC, You have a 99.99% of not getting sick, you appear to be determined to not believe that fact, do you like being scared, wearing a mask and losing your freedom? I wonder what action you will take to refute facts?

PS Are you also a Mask Policeman? ???? 

[rupert the bear]

a few points here ,the economy is falling apart,peoples lives have been ruined.no support is given to unemployed people at all now whilst some members of society are zillionaires.they do nothing for their own.the tourist business is the bedrock of the economy whether u like it or not,people have a right to work not poverty as the govt gives them nothing although it has a lot.this must stop,the region has so few cases it can be opened up from japan to india thru viet hk taiwan philippines malaysia and singapore.people will need a neg test within 72 hrs and test again on entry.all clear u wait your test result in quarantine at a reasonable price,stop this insanity of racist rip offs for the empty hotels.i can stay at a 5 star hotel here for 900 B a night look at the net booking will show you. everyone knows you r game,its one of thailands no 1s.we see arguements about whether covids here,well the govt do not test the rates below 1% of the pop one of the lowest in the world,why?false positives are common,of the 700k test done we would get at least 20k false but none.why?the chinese in millions were here and the govt would not remove them no matter what anyone said.why?thats a reservoir of infection and when the govt sacked millions of workers they massed at rail and bus stations.at a time it was very prevalent.pneumonia deaths suddenly shot up then they went down.why?borders are porous and chinese and burmese run across all the time the camb and lao sides too so......thailand and its self importance and lies ...a never ending story ask boss.or the guy with all the expensive watches.this is a culture of dishonesty within govt ,its at every level so whys this any different?close your eyes and you see nothing,dont look at the poverty or suffering dont look at the mega rich dont look at a collapsing economy and businesses ,close those eyes its just not there.we will have to learn to live with it,its endemic now get on with it and spare us the supercillious lies,prepare to deal with cases,across the world econs have opened up in different ways from india to sweden.WHO is an edifice with no credibility,listen to what they didnt say to taiwan,they said no human/human transmission,flights from china no problem.nope theyre done cooked their own goose just jobs for the china boys.this whole covid deal is full of lies corruption and money,vaccines they may or may not work depending on where they come from,figs that have been manufactured to fit an agenda ask UK about that and here,its gone on everywhere,in USA so ins comps cash in.its never ending.the simple fact is its here endemic and we need to help the frail and weak and the rest of us get on with it.

[FarFlungFalang]

19 minutes ago, CGW said:

You appear to doubt the CDC, You have a 99.99% of not getting sick, you appear to be determined to not believe that fact, do you like being scared, wearing a mask and losing your freedom? I wonder what action you will take to refute facts?

PS Are you also a Mask Policeman? ???? 

Act actually I do like to scare myself but I think you may have misunderstood as I'm referencing the American guy who was arrested by Thai police for posting incorrect information in a hotel review.For the record my record stands for all to see on the matters in regards to this pandemic which is why I had a bit of a laugh when reading you post.My motto was "beware the cure" right from the early days.My catch cry is "It's just the Flu"

[CGW]

2 minutes ago, FarFlungFalang said:

Act actually I do like to scare myself but I think you may have misunderstood as I'm referencing the American guy who was arrested by Thai police for posting incorrect information in a hotel review.For the record my record stands for all to see on the matters in regards to this pandemic which is why I had a bit of a laugh when reading you post.My motto was "beware the cure" right from the early days.My catch cry is "It's just the Flu"

I apologise if I misunderstood.

You will be pleased to note that "Flu" cases are down by a huge amount this year, wonder why that is?