Phuket adds and “clarifies” many restrictions, “no” booze

[Thaiger]

Phuket officials announced yesterday that they’re going to kick restrictions up a notch. The Covid protection measures include a new order stipulating all domestic arrivals from anywhere in the country need to provide evidence that they have tested negative for Covid before they are allowed admittance into Phuket. The order came out after 9 pm last night. It will come into effect tomorrow, or tonight at midnight. The heightened measures come after a meeting led by Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew on Sunday. There, the Phuket Communicable Disease Committee decided to tighten protection measures to further prevent Covid infections from entering […]

The post Phuket adds and “clarifies” many restrictions, “no” booze appeared first on Thaiger News.

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[Lifeboat]

Sandbox success!

[Dedinbed]

Sounding more like penal colony everyday .. 

Never mind I'm a celebrity , I'm a farang get me outta here .. 

Common touch playthings eh .?

does that mean you can only play the strumpet 'tween 8 and 8 .. 

[Martin]

Well, i'm glad that's all cleared up.

Jeez... just admit this isn't the time for holidays.

Thailand is not a poor country, i'm sure it has the resources to support its citizens and residents if channeled correctly. Spend your time providing support to locals and vaccinating and maybe in six months time you might be able to think about restarting tourism in a more sustainable way. 

 

[TobyAndrews]

Sound like a lot of fun, avoiding being arrested.

Person on government business can pass through checkpoints after hours of opening.

In addition others can who have permission from "higher ups." Does that include the Christian clergy?

[gummy]

9 minutes ago, Dedinbed said:

Sounding more like penal colony everyday .. 

Never mind I'm a celebrity , I'm a farang get me outta here .. 

Common touch playthings eh .?

does that mean you can only play the strumpet 'tween 8 and 8 .. 

I don't know any penal colony where the prisoners, in this case people designated as tourists, have money stolen from them and forced to take part in scams by the warders, in this case the Phuket mafia in cahoots with TAT and Thai government.

[ChristyS]

I thought the testing requirements had been in effect for several weeks now? And now some sort of doc is needed  from "local relevant authority"  to leave and get back on? Typically vague and confusing directives 

 I just want to leave  the first week of September relatively hassle and expense free- I need to drive a car back into Malaysia over the land border. 

Please just shut the entire country down for 5 weeks, get decent vaccines  and give people cash  or grocery coupons and let's be done with it.  Twatland's  leaders are  filthy filthy rich- time to get off some of the cash hordes made off criminalizing sex workers so as to facilitate mass corruption  

[JohninDublin]

I woke up to an email from Qatar Airways, telling me that my return flight home has been cancelled "for operational reasons". It transits through LHR. I'll take a wild guess, and believe it might possibly be related to the fact that for the last two days, the UK has posted the highest number of new cases on the planet.

I do have the option of rerouting using the "manage my booking" facility on the website, but the announced alcohol ban has become the deal breaker for me. 

I do see that there are those who will mock Phuket for the Sandbox scheme, but not me. The threshold set by Phuket to abandon this is 90 new infections per week. That's about 1 new case per 34k per day over 7 straight days. The UK rate on Saturday was 1 in 1236: 28X that of the Phuket threshold which has yet to be met so far. Today, the UK celebrates "Freedom Day" and virtually all restrictions are being lifted. If given these stats, people think that Phuket was crazy to adopt the Sandbox, that must make Bojo in the UK, a maniac of epically historic proportions.

I wish Phuket every success with the Sandbox, though I am not sure it will survive.

[TobyAndrews]

Yes ChristyS it must be hard for these exploited sex workers, according to you, who are also criminalised. Still it would be harder for them planting rice.

A suggestion ChristyS, Go to Malaysia tomorrow, and then you do not have to witness the poor sex workers. being exploited.

Don't come back. As you write - let's be done with it.

Edited July 19, 2021 by TobyAndrews
clarification.

[Remi]

Can someone help me here !

How can a country promote tourism and also promote that it is having record numbers of Covid transmission's

How does this work.

More testing more cases .

Oh the solution is In an injection that does not stop transmission and by the admission of the makers of the injection provides no cure.

So where do we go from here ??

[Soidog]

40 minutes ago, JohninDubin said:

I woke up to an email from Qatar Airways, telling me that my return flight home has been cancelled "for operational reasons". It transits through LHR. I'll take a wild guess, and believe it might possibly be related to the fact that for the last two days, the UK has posted the highest number of new cases on the planet.

I do have the option of rerouting using the "manage my booking" facility on the website, but the announced alcohol ban has become the deal breaker for me. 

I do see that there are those who will mock Phuket for the Sandbox scheme, but not me. The threshold set by Phuket to abandon this is 90 new infections per week. That's about 1 new case per 34k per day over 7 straight days. The UK rate on Saturday was 1 in 1236: 28X that of the Phuket threshold which has yet to be met so far. Today, the UK celebrates "Freedom Day" and virtually all restrictions are being lifted. If given these stats, people think that Phuket was crazy to adopt the Sandbox, that must make Bojo in the UK, a maniac of epically historic proportions.

I wish Phuket every success with the Sandbox, though I am not sure it will survive.

What are the number of tests performed in Thailand and the U.K. each day? I can tell you the U.K.  it’s around the 800,000 to 1,000,000 each day. I have no idea what Thailand is. This is the issue. The more you test, the more you find. 
 

The attached graph shows what the case numbers would be in each European country if it tested to the same level as the U.K.  make sure you don’t transit through Amsterdam or Madrid. 
 

 

[HolyCowCm]

Still tooting the Sinovac horn as ok. They need to get passed that and be real man or woman for once. Looking like most the biggest majority of Thai think the whole lot needs to go from the tippy top and that control council down to these wretched little governors with the big man complex. But of course as usual they will lay the blame on everyone else but themselves or their Red Masters from where the gift came from and keeps on giving the world..

[JohninDublin]

17 minutes ago, Soidog said:

What are the number of tests performed in Thailand and the U.K. each day? I can tell you the U.K.  it’s around the 800,000 to 1,000,000 each day. I have no idea what Thailand is. This is the issue. The more you test, the more you find. 
 

The attached graph shows what the case numbers would be in each European country if it tested to the same level as the U.K.  make sure you don’t transit through Amsterdam or Madrid. 
 

You and I have had this debate before albeit in another form. Should we be surprised that countries with open borders in Schengen may have hidden cases? Or should we be surprised that a country that had absolute control over it's borders did nothing to even begin to disrupt that as a source of infection for 5 months?

Phuket does have absolute control of it's borders and it appears that they are doing a pretty good job at detection of imported case. If you want to tell me that there is no way we can know the true figures, it's impossible to argue against what is in effect guesswork. But with the UK reporting 1 new case per 1250 inhabitants for the past two days, Phuket would have to be reporting 350 new infections daily to keep pace with the UK. Do you think that Phuket is  unaware of the plague proportions that are occurring there if that is the case?

But my point was never about TH-v-UK testing. It was about the mainly avoidable level of infections that were imported because we failed to take advantage of our status as an Island with border controls. And as I said, the alcohol ban being a deal-breaker for me, I do not have to worry about transiting through other countries.

[AlexPTY]

"... fully vaccinated with 1 dose of..." he just trying to fit it in a padlock again and gain

[Soidog]

18 minutes ago, JohninDubin said:

You and I have had this debate before albeit in another form. Should we be surprised that countries with open borders in Schengen may have hidden cases? Or should we be surprised that a country that had absolute control over it's borders did nothing to even begin to disrupt that as a source of infection for 5 months?

Phuket does have absolute control of it's borders and it appears that they are doing a pretty good job at detection of imported case. If you want to tell me that there is no way we can know the true figures, it's impossible to argue against what is in effect guesswork. But with the UK reporting 1 new case per 1250 inhabitants for the past two days, Phuket would have to be reporting 350 new infections daily to keep pace with the UK. Do you think that Phuket is  unaware of the plague proportions that are occurring there if that is the case?

But my point was never about TH-v-UK testing. It was about the mainly avoidable level of infections that were imported because we failed to take advantage of our status as an Island with border controls. And as I said, the alcohol ban being a deal-breaker for me, I do not have to worry about transiting through other countries.

Yes I recall the same debate and I wasn’t prepared to accept a comparison between a small island the size of the Isle of Wight,  to an open liberal democracy like the U.K. with a population of 67 million, a G7 country which is connected to mainland Europe and a massive immigrant population who wants the right to travel and return home. 
 

That said, do I think they U.K. got its initial response to Covid right? No I don’t. But that’s past now and the country is moving on

Edited July 19, 2021 by Soidog
Typo

[Malc-Thai]

Does this mean now phukets festival of colour for the month has been cancled !

[JohninDublin]

1 hour ago, Soidog said:

Yes I recall the same debate and I wasn’t prepared to accept a comparison between a small island the size of the Isle of Wight,  to an open liberal democracy like the U.K. with a population of 67 million, a G7 country which is connected to mainland Europe and a massive immigrant population who wants the right to travel and return home. 
 

That said, do I think they U.K. got its initial response to Covid right? No I don’t. But that’s past now and the country is moving on

The problem is inherently the same. Both Islands have border controls. One chose to optimise these. The other did not.

The UK deserves praise for its furlough scheme and the vax roll-out. But would we have needed these so badly if border controls had been implemented from the beginning? Especially given our long history of plague importations?

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

But Phuket Sandbox is still welcoming UK “Tourists” even though they are on the DDC High Risk list. Strange that Thai Airways are still flying to Phuket Sandbox from the UK. Looks like the Tourism Authority of Thailand has control of what is high risk and what is not.

[ThaiFoodGuy]

3 hours ago, Soidog said:

The more you test, the more you find.

This is a discussion I have with many people, frequently, who praise Thailand for keeping COVID case numbers so low. Last year, they simply weren't testing people inside the country. The only tests being administered were on arrivals of anyone trying to get in. Now they're doing more proactive testing, but it's still mostly on people who are trying to get a negative test result so they can work or travel. Thailand was lauded for its low numbers while having truly no idea what those numbers actually were.

My 2nd issue with this is that it's difficult to feel sympathy for the level of hysteria over a virus that is so terrifying, you have to get a test to find out if you've even had it...

[Soidog]

2 hours ago, AdvocatusDiaboli said:

But Phuket Sandbox is still welcoming UK “Tourists” even though they are on the DDC High Risk list. Strange that Thai Airways are still flying to Phuket Sandbox from the UK. Looks like the Tourism Authority of Thailand has control of what is high risk and what is not.

I think the definition of risk is based on three things:

1) Positive case numbers 

2) Vaccinations completed.

3) Trust in the data. 
 

On that basis you could say the U.K. is high risk for (1). But for items (2&3) it’s very low risk. Therefore, overall you’d classify it as medium risk perhaps ?

[Soidog]

2 hours ago, JohninDubin said:

The problem is inherently the same. Both Islands have border controls. One chose to optimise these. The other did not.

The UK deserves praise for its furlough scheme and the vax roll-out. But would we have needed these so badly if border controls had been implemented from the beginning? Especially given our long history of plague importations?

Can’t disagree with that. Like you I was totally shocked when I returned to the U.K. last year. Breezed in like it was any other day. I don’t even recall seeing any hand wash or much in the way of signs at T3 in London. Compare that to Suvarnabhumi where I had my temperature checked 6 times before I even got to the gate. 

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

1 minute ago, Soidog said:

I think the definition of risk is based on three things:

1) Positive case numbers 

2) Vaccinations completed.

3) Trust in the data. 

But rather than think, have a read how the DDC determines low, medium and high risk.

https://ddc.moph.go.th/uploads/ckeditor2//files/จัดกลุ่มประเทศตามความเสี่ยง กรมควบคุมโรค .pdf

2&3 don’t play into it. That link is to the latest DDC release.

[JohninDublin]

2 minutes ago, Soidog said:

Can’t disagree with that. Like you I was totally shocked when I returned to the U.K. last year. Breezed in like it was any other day. I don’t even recall seeing any hand wash or much in the way of signs at T3 in London. Compare that to Suvarnabhumi where I had my temperature checked 6 times before I even got to the gate. 

As they say in Thaliand: For me it was "same same" when I transited through LHR last year.

As always, a pleasure to debate with you. 

[Soidog]

33 minutes ago, JohninDubin said:

As they say in Thaliand: For me it was "same same" when I transited through LHR last year.

As always, a pleasure to debate with you. 

 

33 minutes ago, JohninDubin said:

As always, a pleasure to debate with you

Thank you, and likewise.  It’s good to be able to debate and disagree without being disagreeable. I actually think we are agreeing on much more here than it may seem. To be straight about how Boris handled things. I think he dropped several large bollocks. He’s a guy that doesn’t like delivering bad news and I think he’s a weak leader. Wrong man at the wrong time in the wrong place. I just wish we had better options (Donald J Trump isn’t doing much at the moment)

[Soidog]

41 minutes ago, AdvocatusDiaboli said:

But rather than think, have a read how the DDC determines low, medium and high risk.

https://ddc.moph.go.th/uploads/ckeditor2//files/จัดกลุ่มประเทศตามความเสี่ยง กรมควบคุมโรค .pdf

2&3 don’t play into it. That link is to the latest DDC release.

But this is Thailand. And a fair few Brits go there on holiday. And AZ is a mate of some powerful people in Thailand. And rich Thais own things like Leicester City Football club. The U.K. is by that definition a high risk. But it’s same same but different to other countries.