Covid-19: Justice minister appeals to Anutin to vaccinate entire "ballooning" prison population

[webfact]

 

Channel 7 reported that Thailand's notoriously overcrowded and harsh  prison system has now experienced more than 10,000 Covid-19 infections. 

 

There are fears that the reality is that it is much more with the public in some areas very concerned that infections will spill out into the general community. 

 

The media said that justice minister Somsak Thepsuthin has appealed to DPM and health minister Anutin Charnvirakul to vaccinate all inmates in the system. 

 

Channel 7 said that this was 300,000 plus but information online suggests it is more like 380,000.

 

Infections have now officially broken out in 15 prisons, up from a previous count of eight.

 

Worst affected is the central prison in Chiang Mai that houses 6,331 inmates. 60% tested positive - 3,793 people in one prison with Covid. 

 

Senior figures in the Chiang Mai leadership have attempted to allay public fears and promised to eradicate the outbreak within 2 weeks with quarantine measures. 

 

Somsak has stepped up testing - 55,000 was the latest count. He is scurrying to announce realistic figures for infections amid wide scale public skepticism.

 

Thailand's prison population almost doubled between 2015 and now. 

 

Wikipedia information from the Thailand Department of Corrections suggested it was 217,000 six years ago but had ballooned to 374,052 by early 2020.

 

Of these 288,648 were in for drugs offences. 

 

Now the correction department are saying the figure is around 380,000. Almost 20% are in pre-trial detention. 

 

The increase in the prison population in Thailand has been fuelled by the huge trade in methamphetamines from Thailand's neighbors into the kingdom then also onto third countries. 

 

Many inside prisons are users, dealers and small scale traffickers.

 

Ya Ba (methamphetamine pills mixed with caffeine) and "ice" (crystal meth) are major concerns for Thailand's police, drug enforcement agencies, the prison system and the general public. 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-05-18

 

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[scubascuba3]

555 Prisoners get vaccinated ahead of farang expats and tourists

[Poet]

35 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

555 Prisoners get vaccinated ahead of farang expats and tourists

Well, epidemiologically, that makes the most sense. That is where Thailand's cases seem to be concentrated.

Overall, Thailand only has 615 active cases per million population, lower than all the large European countries, even the UK.

 

[kotsak]

Question: How many prisoners got seriously sick due to the virus?

[scubascuba3]

1 hour ago, Poet said:

Overall, Thailand only has 615 active cases per million population, lower than all the large European countries, even the UK.

 

Early days maybe, their record is going further down the toilet daily

[Poet]

17 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Early days maybe, their record is going further down the toilet daily

Perhaps. I have always presumed that testing was extremely limited in Thailand. It is possible, however, that things are not as bad as most Thais currently fear. Something appears to have kept them relatively safe last year, possibly the climate. I suspect the current hysteria is unwarranted here just as it was in the West.

[Brunolem]

Since most of the prison population appears to be in the drug business, they sure know how to handle a syringe.

 

This could simplify the vaccination process, since no nurses, already in insufficient numbers, would be required...just hand them the vials and the syringes, and they will take care of the rest...

[bkk6060]

Sadly, like everything regarding his way too late.

[smedly]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Infections have now officially broken out in 15 prisons, up from a previous count of eight.

they haven't just broken out - the problem has only recently been revealed while they were trying to keep a lid on it

[smedly]

59 minutes ago, Poet said:

Perhaps. I have always presumed that testing was extremely limited in Thailand. It is possible, however, that things are not as bad as most Thais currently fear. Something appears to have kept them relatively safe last year, possibly the climate. I suspect the current hysteria is unwarranted here just as it was in the West.

India is quite hot I believe 

[Poet]

6 minutes ago, smedly said:

India is quite hot I believe 

As I said, something seems to have worked in Thailand's favor, possibly the climate, possibly something else.

You might not have spent much time in India. While it is, indeed, hot, few parts of the country have a climate quite like Thailand (and, of course, Thailand itself is quite varied). We might discover that humidity is a bigger factor than heat.

Also worth noting that, despite the media drumbeat over the past couple of weeks, infection levels in India, at 0.24%, are far below most European countries and about 1/7 of the US.

[Dazinoz]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

There are fears that the reality is that it is much more with the public in some areas very concerned that infections will spill out into the general community. 

Ok, I am getting lost. I have read many times from different sources that if you are vaccinated you CAN still get the virus and you CAN still pass it on, its just you don't get as sick if you get it.

 

So they want to give all the inmates a vaccine that seems to be in short supply at the present time instead of poor old grandma who has never done a thing wrong in her life. Stop them getting as sick but ok for grandma to die.

[bert bloggs]

Just reported on bloomberg that they are discussing freeing 50,000 prisoners from Thai prisons ,that should help spread it 

[Dogmatix]

The increase in the prison population in Thailand has been fuelled by the huge trade in methamphetamines from Thailand's neighbors into the kingdom then also onto third countries.

 

It's always someone else's fault in Thailand.  Nothing to do with social injustice,  stupid drug laws or propensity to let the big fish drug dealers including police, military and politicians ply their trade undisturbed.

 

[Dogmatix]

37 minutes ago, Dazinoz said:

Ok, I am getting lost. I have read many times from different sources that if you are vaccinated you CAN still get the virus and you CAN still pass it on, its just you don't get as sick if you get it.

 

So they want to give all the inmates a vaccine that seems to be in short supply at the present time instead of poor old grandma who has never done a thing wrong in her life. Stop them getting as sick but ok for grandma to die.

 

They couldn't give a damn about the prisoners or grandma but they are rushing around like headless chickens looking for PR ideas to improve their reputation.

[Dazinoz]

4 minutes ago, Dogmatix said:

 

They couldn't give a damn about the prisoners or grandma but they are rushing around like headless chickens looking for PR ideas to improve their reputation.

At least make believable PR ideas.

 

[timendres]

53 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

Just reported on bloomberg that they are discussing freeing 50,000 prisoners from Thai prisons ,that should help spread it 

 

HIV comes to mind...

[timendres]

1 hour ago, Poet said:

As I said, something seems to have worked in Thailand's favor, possibly the climate, possibly something else.

You might not have spent much time in India. While it is, indeed, hot, few parts of the country have a climate quite like Thailand (and, of course, Thailand itself is quite varied). We might discover that humidity is a bigger factor than heat.

Also worth noting that, despite the media drumbeat over the past couple of weeks, infection levels in India, at 0.24%, are far below most European countries and about 1/7 of the US.

 

Possibly a serious lack of testing?

[geistfunke]

4 hours ago, kotsak said:

Question: How many prisoners got seriously sick due to the virus?

As we all know about 0.1 - 0.2%, the rest of over 99% have no particular problems.

[Poet]

11 minutes ago, timendres said:

 

Possibly a serious lack of testing?

I suspect that may, indeed, have been the ultimate magic ????

[Deli]

The country's prison situation is as big cluster f##k for decades already and nobody gave a rat's <deleted>. It's not a surprise that now crazy nbrs are coming up. Some people may say prisoners  deserve to be in prision... well, think twice, as there are people inside who do NOT deserve to be inside. Others, however, should have been excecuted long time ago.

[Poet]

1 minute ago, geistfunke said:

As we all know about 0.1 - 0.2%, the rest of over 99% have no particular problems.

The prison population would be significantly younger than the general population. Average age of Covid death is around 84, problems tail off dramatically under 65. Some young men or women in prison may have comorbidities, but the level of serious illness, requiring medical attention, would be extremely low.

 

[zhounan]

Prisoners and military personnel have always been the perfect guinea pigs for experimental therapies.

[Cake Monster]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Now the correction department are saying the figure is around 380,000. Almost 20% are in pre-trial detention. 

These people will not receive Vaccines over and above the rest of the population.

Firstly they will be looked upon as lowly, and not worthy of being Vaccinated, and Secondly, they are all locked up, so what harm can they do to the population.

Let them take care of themselves will be the attitude toward these Prisoners with the minimum of basic care provided.

[BostonRob2]

4 hours ago, timendres said:

 

HIV comes to mind...

What's that supposed to mean?

[billd766]

6 hours ago, Poet said:

Perhaps. I have always presumed that testing was extremely limited in Thailand. It is possible, however, that things are not as bad as most Thais currently fear. Something appears to have kept them relatively safe last year, possibly the climate. I suspect the current hysteria is unwarranted here just as it was in the West.

What kept them "clear" was no or little testing. If you don't test you won't find.

 

In the West they started testing as many people as they could and found thousands. However they also were at the front with vaccines. Where is Thailand with vaccines now?

 

Until Panusaya was released and said that she had caught Covid in prison, nobody mentioned prisons and Covid and the government played down that she caught it whilst in prison.

 

Now only a few days later how many prisoners have Covid. Thousands since they started testing and they have had to admit it and lose face.

[rucker4012]

Kudos for great idea. Forget that they are miscreants. Conditions in most Thai prisons not conducive for social distancing.

[Stargeezr]

As someone said earlier, this could be the perfect test bed for Sinovax, and the other vaccines that

need more testing. the prisoners will likely take any vaccine that they are offered, as they mostly want to

live long enough to get out of prison in the future.

Geezer