News Forum - Yay May. Covid numbers down, arrival numbers up in Thailand.

[Thaiger]

May kicks off with an upbeat beginning in Thailand. Today’s May Day substitution public holiday saw the CCSA-reported daily Covid numbers drop below 10,000 for the first time since the start of February. And the number of daily deaths continues to fall below 100 after sitting over the milestone for most of April. 9,331 new Covid infections were reported in Thailand today along with 84 Covid-related deaths. There was another 6,240 positive results from ATK tests reported today bit that, too, indicates a falling trend as Thailand’s battle with the original Omicron variant now appears to be waning.  Before the […]

The story Yay May. Covid numbers down, arrival numbers up in Thailand. as seen on Thaiger News.

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[HighSo]

„Thailand is now joining most other South East Asian countries by opening up for entry of foreign travellers without any testing.“

 

Could TheThaiger please stop publishing such obvious misleading lines? I recognized this several times now.

While this might be true for the vaccinated people, a large bunch of people remain unvaccinated by choice. You are discriminating against them by excluding them from this general and just untrue expression quoted above. 
Just when Thailand drops all entry requirements like more than 40 other countries did now already, the quoted sentence would be true.

 

 

[Guest1]

1 hour ago, Thaiger said:

Today’s May Day substitution public holiday saw the CCSA-reported daily Covid numbers drop below 10,000 for the first time since the start of February

And that has absutely nothing to do with lesser testing, right? 

[Ramanathan.P]

"9,331 new Covid infections were reported in Thailand today along with 84 Covid-related deaths. There was another 6,240 positive results from ATK tests reported today but that, too, indicates a falling trend as Thailand’s battle with the original Omicron variant now appears to be waning."

The message is misleading...9331 + 6240 = 15,571....how can it be less than 10,000?.....

[Guest1]

2 hours ago, Ramanathan.P said:

"9,331 new Covid infections were reported in Thailand today along with 84 Covid-related deaths. There was another 6,240 positive results from ATK tests reported today but that, too, indicates a falling trend as Thailand’s battle with the original Omicron variant now appears to be waning."

The message is misleading...9331 + 6240 = 15,571....how can it be less than 10,000?.....

Nope, the message is clear: They still just count PCR test positives. PCR tests are going down in numbers, plus most (almost all) ATK-positives just don't get PCR tested. They are doing that for a long time, they continue doing it..

[Soidog]

49 minutes ago, Guest1 said:

Nope, the message is clear: They still just count PCR test positives. PCR tests are going down in numbers, plus most (almost all) ATK-positives just don't get PCR tested. They are doing that for a long time, they continue doing it..

Correct. I know lots of people here who have had Covid. Confirmed by ATK bought in the local pharmacy and never registered. If you add those cases to the official ATK tests, then the number of daily infections is most likely closer to 100,000 a day. 
 

The real issue for all of us however remains the risk of a more serious mutation. For as long as current vaccines simply reduce the likelihood of serious illness rather than reducing the chances of contracting the virus, that risk continues. Without sounding alarmist, we should not consider ourselves clear of this Pandemic until such vaccines are developed and rolled out. 

[JohnC]

In all honesty the only time I hear or read about covid these days is on here. 

Nobody mentions it at work or in the pub or nowhere.

I'd assume in the UK that there are still cases and deaths but I don't hear of them anymore. Probably because nobody cares about it anymore. 

I think the Thai pm has played a blinder in controlling the masses through fear mongering and is reluctant to give that control up so easily but he can't possibly keep it up. 

[Soidog]

1 minute ago, JohnC said:

 

In all honesty the only time I hear or read about covid these days is on here. 

Nobody mentions it at work or in the pub or nowhere.

 

Yes, coming to Thailand is like stepping back some 4 or 5 months in to the pandemic. Face masks. Hand sanitisers. Temperature checks. Business closures and restricted operating hours. Even seats at airports have big X’s on them telling you not to sit next to each other. I watched a football match on Thai TV the other night. The three pundits in the studio were all wearing N95 masks! People are even wearing masks against Covid while outdoors and on motorbikes. Utterly ridiculous and shows no understanding whatsoever.  

[JohnC]

16 minutes ago, Soidog said:

Yes, coming to Thailand is like stepping back some 4 or 5 months in to the pandemic. Face masks. Hand sanitisers. Temperature checks. Business closures and restricted operating hours. Even seats at airports have big X’s on them telling you not to sit next to each other. I watched a football match on Thai TV the other night. The three pundits in the studio were all wearing N95 masks! People are even wearing masks against Covid while outdoors and on motorbikes. Utterly ridiculous and shows no understanding whatsoever.  

I had to wear them N95 masks on easyjet flights into Munich and Amsterdam recently but not once was I asked for my  vaccination status by anyone, never mind a test. 

I appreciate Thailand does things differently but surely it has to get to that stage sooner rather than later. 

I couldn't wear a mask in that heat either. Don't know how you do it but I get that it's their rules and you have to do so until they drop the rule. Just hope they do it before my hols start

[rc1]

3 hours ago, Soidog said:

Yes, coming to Thailand is like stepping back some 4 or 5 months in to the pandemic. Face masks. Hand sanitisers. Temperature checks. Business closures and restricted operating hours. Even seats at airports have big X’s on them telling you not to sit next to each other. I watched a football match on Thai TV the other night. The three pundits in the studio were all wearing N95 masks! People are even wearing masks against Covid while outdoors and on motorbikes. Utterly ridiculous and shows no understanding whatsoever.  

Yes, it's getting more and more ludicrous every day in comparison.  

 

So far behind the rest of the world - opening up to tourism is one thing, but the fear needs to stop, the measures taken are just nonsensical at this point. 

[Manu]

10 hours ago, Soidog said:

Correct. I know lots of people here who have had Covid. Confirmed by ATK bought in the local pharmacy and never registered. If you add those cases to the official ATK tests, then the number of daily infections is most likely closer to 100,000 a day. 
 

The real issue for all of us however remains the risk of a more serious mutation. For as long as current vaccines simply reduce the likelihood of serious illness rather than reducing the chances of contracting the virus, that risk continues. Without sounding alarmist, we should not consider ourselves clear of this Pandemic until such vaccines are developed and rolled out. 

While your first paragraph is 100% right, the second does not match. I also know dozens who tested themselves the past 3 months because they had symptoms and simply stayed home without registering, including myself, (I know only 2 thai people who went to hospital so got registered. They were fine, just scared). If we take into account the many sniffy noses that never tested themselves and the even higher number of people who were infected with 0 symptoms, yes 100 000+ daily is indeed very easy to figure out. Omicron entered Thailand in December, so it simply happens in Thailand as it happened everywhere else worldwide.

So that means that, the past 3 months, it must have been millions infected (and again, like everywhere else). So what about natural immunity? Even Bill Gates said (surely nobody wants to argue with Saint Gates, right?) that Omicron was doing a great job, surely better than any of the currents vaccine that have 0 benefits for the majority of us. So I am afraid you are "sounding alarmist", and it is not like we do not know now who still die from Covid, vaccinated or not by the way, so yes hopefully they will find soon a proper effective vaccine for these people. I feel genuinely sad for you that you feel that "we should not consider ourselves clear of this Pandemic". I think the exact opposite. And I am surely not the only one. I am certain that you never worried about bad variants of Influenza previous to covid, that it ever even crossed your mind, living your life without thinking about this possibility, not sure why you should worry now.

[Manu]

8 hours ago, JohnC said:

 

I couldn't wear a mask in that heat either. Don't know how you do it but I get that it's their rules and you have to do so until they drop the rule. Just hope they do it before my hols start

I simply do not wear it, my Thai partner neither. Only when I really need to go to the few shops like 7/11 and Tesco (actually I always send my patner), most local shops do not care anymore, we all know each other anyway and also we all know that we pratically all had covid anyway the last 3 months. I guess it is easier to do so where I am than in BKK for example (so I simply do not go there). You are right, in the heat it is unbearable, I personally cannot breathe properly and they give me instant rashes. And indeed, when local tourists, mostly from BKK, come here weekends, I really do not know too how they manage to just go about in the fresh air on an island where crowds do not exist, in their cars, on their bikes, walking on the beach with that stupid mask on (I saw once a couple wearing it while kayaking off an empty beach - at that time, the island was completely deserted). It is so stupid, so ridiculous, it defines human logic. However logic seems to make a come back lately as less and less people living on the island are wearing it, at least on bikes, beaches and empty places.

[Soidog]

1 hour ago, Manu said:

While your first paragraph is 100% right, the second does not match

Sorry Manu but what was a mismatch with my second sentence? It read: Confirmed by ATK bought in the local pharmacy and never registered

What I’m saying is that lots of people who had symptoms simply went along to their pharmacy, bought them ATK for 50 baht, tested at home and if positive they

1 hour ago, Manu said:

So I am afraid you are "sounding alarmist"

My comment about not wishing to sound alarmist was in reference to future mutations, not the current wave of Omicron. You referenced Bill Gates and he recently said: 

"We haven't even seen the worst of it," he said in an interview.

While not wanting to be a "voice of doom and gloom", the risk of a more virulent variant emerging is "way above 5%", the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist told the Financial Times.

 

This is what I was referring to when I said I didn’t wish to sound alarmist. 
 

As for not thinking about strains of influenza, you are right. The whole world never really thought about any such scenario apart from those who’s job it was to do so. Even then the world was unprepared. Now we have all lived through Covid, it is inconceivable that we will all just switch our minds off to such future threats. That doesn’t mean I’m going to sit and worry. I’ve said that we have the best vaccines available and it’s time to move on. Rip off the keep your distance stickers. Throw the masks in the bin and take down the temperature checks. Open up all business and let’s get back to the real normal.
 

This is a forum for opinions and debate. I’m simply trying to have a sensible and educated debate. If you wish to take the view of “Don’t worry, be happy” about everything, then nothing much more to debate. 

[TWS60]

A buffet offering Doom and Gloom to Rainbows and Lollipops. 

It's just about money.  Loads of moderately educated digital nomads creating "content" for websites desperate to fill white space. 

Comment sections are far more interesting and entertaining.

[DiJoDavO]

On 5/3/2022 at 12:17 AM, JohnC said:

I couldn't wear a mask in that heat either. Don't know how you do it but I get that it's their rules and you have to do so until they drop the rule. Just hope they do it before my hols start

It's not even a rule. It's more like an advice. And people don't dare to put it off because of the shaming they'll get from others. No one other than the people themselves keep each other in line here. 

[DiJoDavO]

Lol, where are the HUGE Songkran Covid-19 numbers predicted? They were gonna be HUGE they said. Or are they now going to tell us it's so low because people wore their masks and didn't splash water and didn't drink alcohol?

The Thaiger being stuck here in 2020 I guess. It's 2022, time for being scared of Russia. China is waiting for 2023 again, and 2024 global warming again.

People are bombarded with scary news to the current point where Russia literally is talking about WWIII and people are like, yep, whatever...

When real danger is coming, no one is ready. Something about crying wolf... 

[Guest1]

On 5/3/2022 at 12:17 AM, JohnC said:

I couldn't wear a mask in that heat either.

 

On 5/3/2022 at 9:14 AM, Manu said:

You are right, in the heat it is unbearable, I personally cannot breathe properly and they give me instant rashes.

Both of you could try a shrink, to get over this delusion? I mean, only if you would wanted to, of course!

 

[Manu]

What does that even means? Is there a point? 

[Guevara]

On 5/2/2022 at 1:55 PM, Guest1 said:

And that has absutely nothing to do with lesser testing, right? 

And the bead missing from the abacus

[Guevara]

17 minutes ago, Manu said:

Delusion? What the bloody hell man… Guest 1 the cleaver guy making a pointless cleaver comment. How cleaver are you? You are cleverer than me if you wish to be? Anyone else? Anyone? Enjoy. The title is yours. You get a crown if you are ok saying the same in my face. Plonker.

Are you dyslexic, psychotic or taking something illicit. I'm not defending other comments, merely attempting to understand your rant.