Covid alert issued for Thai smile flight from Bangkok to Phuket, arrived last Thursday

[Thaiger]

Phuket officials have issued an alert for all passengers who were on the Thai Smile flight WE201 that went from Bangkok to Phuket on Thursday, July 1. The passengers are being asked to get tested for Covid-19 ASAP at the nearest government hospital. The alert extends to any customers that went into 2 different Starbucks at the Floresta and Festival buildings at Central Phuket on 4 different occasions. PHOTO: Phuket Province Covid Information Center/Facebook The alert comes from the Official Phuket Information Centre yesterday evening following the confirmation of cases on the flight/coffee shop. Their Facebook post announced that if […]

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[EdwardV]

Well that didn’t take long. 

[Vwwv]

And so it begins

[vlad]

Interesting to confirm if it was a Thai that was infected and not vaccinated. Wonder if it was a Tourist, how long his photo and identity would be splashed across the local press.  Who was the minister who claimed Falangs traveling to Phuket are likely to be Spreading the virus.

Edited July 4, 2021 by vlad

[Martin]

I'm confused. Surely the track and trace apps that everyone entering Phuket is required to install on their phones, with location on, should be able to find these people straight away, without it becoming newsworthy. 

That was the whole point of the apps, or so we were told. Could it be that actually the apps are pretty worthless  at tracking and tracing you? 

[HolyCowCm]

Thai Smile and 2 Starbucks and....... This would certainly not be just a few people with how many days and times listed, but a one-two-three and everyone else and then multiply on going. Time to change to box litter. 

[Slacker77]

Wow, kinda strange that an infected could sneak by all the tests to go to phuket  with an inbound flight :(

Well let's hope no one else got infected on the trip and the Phuket opening going well .

Have a great sunday now , time for cycling a couple of hours .

[vlad]

Wait for it TAT confirms the Thai Smile passenger was a Expat traveling to Phuket to visit family and our Track and Trace App worked perfectly and we were able to quarantine him in the Airport.

[EverHopeful]

This is actually great. Zero infections because everyone vaccinated or a few infections but zero hospitalized and no deaths.

See, the vaccine works. When will we wake up?

Thank god for Signapore.  Looks like the next holiday destination. 

[Stonker]

 

2 hours ago, Martin said:

I'm confused. Surely the track and trace apps that everyone entering Phuket is required to install on their phones, with location on, should be able to find these people straight away, without it becoming newsworthy. 

That was the whole point of the apps, or so we were told. Could it be that actually the apps are pretty worthless  at tracking and tracing you? 

I'm confused too, but for different reasons.

 

The flight from Bangkok to Phuket was on 1 July, and the airline should be able to trace the other passengers very easily.

 

But the alert is also for people visiting Starbucks in Phuket on 25, 27, 28 and 29 June, the week beforehand.

 

I can only guess that these are separate, unconnected incidents / alerts - one involving the arrival on the flight on 1 July, and the others involving a fanatical Starbucks fan who did nothing but go to Starbucks for a week and spent the rest of the week in isolation, travelling in full PPE.

 

All a bit odd.

 

For what it's worth, there's no reason why anyone apart from new arrivals would have the track'n'trace app on their phone as I think it's only mandatory for new arrivals, not everyone on Phuket.

 

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Stonker
typo

[vlad]

What has not been reported is was it a Thai National that was allowed to travel through different provinces without being picked up before boarding the flight in Bkk. Or is it a case of the Governor or TAT spokesman losing face if a Thai National brought it into Phuket. When a few weeks ago the Governor issued a letter clearly aimed at Expats and tourists that he will not tolerate any of these spreading covid.

[Stonker]

2 hours ago, vlad said:

... was it a Thai National that was allowed to travel through different provinces without being picked up before boarding the flight in Bkk. Or is it a case of the Governor or TAT spokesman losing face if a Thai National brought it into Phuket.

Why would they "lose face"?  The vast majority of cases in Phuket are domestic, and nobody's ever made any secret of that or tried to hide it in any way.

 

2 hours ago, vlad said:

When a few weeks ago the Governor issued a letter clearly aimed at Expats and tourists that he will not tolerate any of these spreading covid.

And why shouldn't he, after he'd issued exactly the same instruction in Thai to Thais and anyone else who can read Thai, since few expats and tourists can?

 

Wouldn't he have been remiss not to do so?

 

You don't spell it out, but the idea that Thais generally blame expats and tourists for spreading Covid just doesn't hold up.  A few do, but I doubt it's more than the few in the West who blame Asians and it's probably a lot less.

 

 

[SnapDragon]

2 minutes ago, Stonker said:

You don't spell it out, but the idea that Thais generally blame expats and tourists for spreading Covid just doesn't hold up.  A few do, but I doubt it's more than the few in the West who blame Asians and it's probably a lot less.

I agree with this.

The vast majority of Thais near me are quite relaxed about C-19. They only wear masks when they go to town to stop hassle with the police .

As for the UK; the people don't really blame anyone. Some accept the situation; some don't. Not many apportion blame.

[Soidog]

8 minutes ago, Stonker said:

Why would they "lose face"?  The vast majority of cases in Phuket are domestic, and nobody's ever made any secret of that or tried to hide it in any way.

And why shouldn't he, after he'd issued exactly the same instruction in Thai to Thais and anyone else who can read Thai, since few expats and tourists can?

Wouldn't he have been remiss not to do so?

You don't spell it out, but the idea that Thais generally blame expats and tourists for spreading Covid just doesn't hold up.  A few do, but I doubt it's more than the few in the West who blame Asians and it's probably a lot less.

Fair points with the exception of less people in Thailand blaming expats for the virus spread compared to westerners blaming Asians. There are around 68 million Thais but will over 680 million “Westerners”. You’d therefore expect more comments from westerners.  

[Stonker]

4 hours ago, snapdragon said:

I agree with this.

The vast majority of Thais near me are quite relaxed about C-19. They only wear masks when they go to town to stop hassle with the police .

Just in case there's any confusion, that is absolutely NOT what I'm saying and is the complete reverse of my own experience here.

[Stonker]

4 hours ago, Soidog said:

Fair points with the exception of less people in Thailand blaming expats for the virus spread compared to westerners blaming Asians. There are around 68 million Thais but will over 680 million “Westerners”. You’d therefore expect more comments from westerners.  

I was talking comparatively, not counting the comments on social media or the number of assaults across the US, Europe, the UK, etc compared to the number in Thailand.

 

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[Norton]

10 hours ago, Martin said:

I'm confused. Surely the track and trace apps that everyone entering Phuket is required to install on their phones, with location on, should be able to find these people straight away, without it becoming newsworthy. 

That was the whole point of the apps, or so we were told. Could it be that actually the apps are pretty worthless  at tracking and tracing you? 

Well...  the Thailand Plus app might just be useless and I base that on the reactions of those who are supposed to be utilizing it as a resource and they ignore it all together.   Their focus is primarily on the Morchana app and that might be working as intended.  Maybe... ;)

[JamesE]

5 minutes ago, Norton said:

Well...  the Thailand Plus app might just be useless and I base that on the reactions of those who are supposed to be utilizing it as a resource and they ignore it all together.   Their focus is primarily on the Morchana app and that might be working as intended.  Maybe... ;)

It depends... The app can be installed and not running. You can "forget" to scan in and out. There has to be somebody behind the curtain who knows how to get the data out. Any number of ways to lose people.

What I don't understand is that all the location data is already being compiled by the mobile carriers, ISPs, and miscellaneous interactions we all do in our day-to-day. I'm surprised that information hasn't been pulled together. It is publicly available. I mean, sure, it probably takes a really big PC to analyze the metric-ton of data that's involved but you already got pinged when you got off the plane so it's pretty easily doable.

[Incognito]

Bingo.  It's the analyzing that is not up to snuff.  Hypothetical question...  what if a passenger has a phone that does not have international access and is essentially a brick.  How is the tracking performed?  It isn't. Well,  unless the powers that be have someone in bluetooth vicinity?  More than likely it might all be for show, non?    Does it matter though?   The country needs to recover economically before reaching a point of no return. 
 

[Norton]

1 hour ago, Stonker said:

I was talking comparatively, not counting the comments on social media or the number of assaults across the US, Europe, the UK, etc compared to the number in Thailand.

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

What number od assaults are you referring to and who are the perpetrators?

[BIGGLES]

If you look at the arrival board info, then most of the flights are from Bangkok, presumably carrying domestic passengers.

Given the state of play in Bangkok with Covid, why is this happening?

Anybody travelling to Phuket, should be fully vaccinated  and have a negative pcr test, 72 hours before departure. Makes no difference if they are a national or not.

So we have two flights now depositing covid in Phuket. The vietjet one and this. Then the Etihad flight flying non vaccinated people with vaccinated. But its OK, as the non vaccinated were going on to Bangkok. I thought entry into Thailand was only via the "sandbox" no matter what your nationality. 

4 days into this, it starts to unravel. I really hope I'm wrong, and it does not go totally tits up!

Not looking too clever at the moment, but hey its early days.

[Soidog]

1 hour ago, Stonker said:

I was talking comparatively, not counting the comments on social media or the number of assaults across the US, Europe, the UK, etc compared to the number in Thailand.

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

In your comparisons are you also including the 4 Million dead around the world as a result of Chinese mis-management of the initial Covid 19 outbreak? 
 

No, what you were doing, as you always do Simon Small/Issan John, is looking to dissect what people say, line by line and pick holes in the details rather than the overall sentiment of the comments. I knew what you meant, but decided to give you some of your own medicine. 
 

Welcome back !  

[vlad]

Stonker the letter was wrote by the Governor if you read the letter it is clearly aimed at Expat and Tourist, even the PM's own health minister called us dirty falangs who are not welcome in the kingdom, what do you think that message was meant to mean Norton, and as for attacks were not discussing attacks in the US or the UK the attacks were made by Thia tuk tuk drivers and security staff supposedly to protect guests not beat them all in Patong. Do you think we get protection from these attacks ??

[JamesE]

1 hour ago, Incognito said:

Bingo.  It's the analyzing that is not up to snuff.  Hypothetical question...  what if a passenger has a phone that does not have international access and is essentially a brick.  How is the tracking performed?  It isn't. Well,  unless the powers that be have someone in bluetooth vicinity?  More than likely it might all be for show, non?    Does it matter though?   The country needs to recover economically before reaching a point of no return. 
 

Doesn't matter. All phones (when they're turned on) report to a tower or a WiFi network. This exposes information about the phone even though it may not be precise. The magic happens when Big Data compares all phones in an area and statistics kicks in. So if you have the "dumb" phone in a restaurant and there are nine other phones in the same restaurant with similar tower profiles, then, statistically speaking, you are in the restaurant. Then, when you pay with a credit card and your phone changes profile when you leave, then they now know it's your phone and have a name and address associated with the non-locatable phone to trace you back to your hotel/house to inform you that you need to get tested.

[Norton]

1 hour ago, vlad said:

Stonker the letter was wrote by the Governor if you read the letter it is clearly aimed at Expat and Tourist, even the PM's own health minister called us dirty falangs who are not welcome in the kingdom, what do you think that message was meant to mean Norton, and as for attacks were not discussing attacks in the US or the UK the attacks were made by Thia tuk tuk drivers and security staff supposedly to protect guests not beat them all in Patong. Do you think we get protection from these attacks ??

Well now!  Everyone seems to get upset about the "Dirty Farangs" quote.  Get over it...  as a farang (speaking as a farang who's been around a bot) I've even thought about it when I've seen some backpackers who are fucking twisted, high... and thought, "mang, yooz need a shower (and a nap)!"   

The "perpetrators" seemed to have struck a chord...  my apologies.  I didn't realize patong was getting rabid on foreigners.  Interesting.