BBC News - Covid threat looms over Thailand's plans to open up to tourists

[Bob20]

BBC News - Covid threat looms over Thailand's plans to open up to tourists

Interesting read. By the sound of it, the UK isn't looking for relaxing the restrictions on travel to/from Thailand anytime soon either.

Source: BBC news

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58758310

[WilliamG]

11 minutes ago, Bob20 said:

By the sound of it, the UK isn't looking for relaxing the restrictions on travel to Thailand anytime soon either.

Surely the UK should worry about travel FROM Thailand, not TO it.

[Fluke]

Am I being pessimistic?

But when Thailand opens up, there's going to be a huge increase in infections and Thailand will have to accept that or go into lock down again . 

  Accepting many new infections and opening up will mean that the last 20 months have been a waste of time 

[Bob20]

1 hour ago, WilliamG said:

Surely the UK should worry about travel FROM Thailand, not TO it.

It's on the red-list and won't be coming off of it soon, so not much to worry there. Everyone returning to the UK from Thailand gets to stay in a nice room for near enough £2500. And going to Thailand from the UK is difficult as there are virtually no flights.

Basic point is that other countries are not stupid and see through the smoke and mirrors here.

Same as how the vaccination drive that the PM claimed did 1.44m jabs on 25 September, today shows up in the official figures as just short of 475.000!

[Griff1315]

Asked Boris when I can come home he said book yourself a nice Christmas dinner over there, enjoy a good new year and with some luck if the Thai government pulls its finger outta its ar#e you might be ok for an egg easter back in Blighty....

Thailand's not fooling anyone with its magic number routine you can fit UK tourists coming to Thailand in a hot air balloon.....

[vlad]

Yes its just the old tell em to come were ready. Meanwhile in the real world were going to Greece and Spain now. We are not be stupid enough to travel to Thailnad.

[Marc26]

1 hour ago, vlad said:

Yes its just the old tell em to come were ready. Meanwhile in the real world were going to Greece and Spain now. We are not be stupid enough to travel to Thailnad.

Well Spain and Greece have 2k cases per say while Thailand is still at 11k and were in the 20k just recently 

 

So of course those countries would be more ready....

[Poolie]

People can go wherever they want to go, no-one is saying otherwise.

Spend your money, enjoy yourself. Those who wish to fret, will fret, regardless.

[Rookiescot]

4 hours ago, Griff1315 said:

Asked Boris when I can come home he said book yourself a nice Christmas dinner over there, enjoy a good new year and with some luck if the Thai government pulls its finger outta its ar#e you might be ok for an egg easter back in Blighty....

Thailand's not fooling anyone with its magic number routine you can fit UK tourists coming to Thailand in a hot air balloon.....

They can all fit inside Boris?

[Bob20]

4 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

They can all fit inside Boris?

That would be a hot air buffoon

[vlad]

No one is fretting Poolie. Who is daft enough to return to the uk from a Red List Country like Thailand if you have to take 2 weeks off work and stump up over 2,500 pounds for the pleasure.

[JamesE]

10 hours ago, Fluke said:

Am I being pessimistic?

But when Thailand opens up, there's going to be a huge increase in infections and Thailand will have to accept that or go into lock down again . 

  Accepting many new infections and opening up will mean that the last 20 months have been a waste of time 

Maybe... But if Thailand enforces the vax requirement and tests then the risk from the foreign tourists will remain low. I'd be more concerned about domestic travelers who have much lower requirements for entry - they can be partially vaxxed - and no requirement for post-arrival testing. Any new cases are going to be a domestic problem, but if it gets back to July/August numbers, there will probably be new containment measures imposed.

[poohy]

8 hours ago, vlad said:

No one is fretting Poolie. Who is daft enough to return to the uk from a Red List Country like Thailand if you have to take 2 weeks off work and stump up over 2,500 pounds for the pleasure.

Family crisis ,family deaths,repatriation, relocations etc

[MrStretch]

17 hours ago, Fluke said:

Am I being pessimistic?

But when Thailand opens up, there's going to be a huge increase in infections and Thailand will have to accept that or go into lock down again . 

  Accepting many new infections and opening up will mean that the last 20 months have been a waste of time 

My thinking, as well.

[AussieBob]

18 hours ago, Fluke said:

Am I being pessimistic?

But when Thailand opens up, there's going to be a huge increase in infections and Thailand will have to accept that or go into lock down again . 

  Accepting many new infections and opening up will mean that the last 20 months have been a waste of time 

Not really.  The truth is that when Thailand opens up to both internal and external tourists, they will go one of two ways - massive increase in infections or a slight increase and then steady as she goes. The problem is that with such a low rate of vaccinations at this time, those unvaccinated people that get infected are far more likely to need hospital level medical help. That will be the key number - not the number of infections (unless a massive jump) - but the number of ICU patients and deaths.  That is how they are now viewing it all over the world, especially in countries that desperately need the money form tourism.  Once vaccination rates reach a certain level, then each country will open up for travellers (inside and outside), and those key numbers listed above will determine how they manage things going forward after opening things back up.

[Lowseasonlover]

Will be interesting to see what happens with the vegetarian festival starts in Phuket

[Bob20]

1 hour ago, MrStretch said:

My thinking, as well.

Numbers of infections won't be the problem. That number will go up regardless. But it's the ICU occupation and death toll that will determine success or failure.

Opening up early will overstretch the services and cause the death toll to go up significantly, followed by new restrictions.

Giving it a little more time until a higher number of people have been vaccinated will avoid that.

[Fluke]

11 hours ago, JamesE said:

Maybe... But if Thailand enforces the vax requirement and tests then the risk from the foreign tourists will remain low. I'd be more concerned about domestic travelers who have much lower requirements for entry - they can be partially vaxxed - and no requirement for post-arrival testing. Any new cases are going to be a domestic problem, but if it gets back to July/August numbers, there will probably be new containment measures imposed.

On a recent incoming flight from China , six people tested positive for Covid on arrival , even though they were negative upon departure

[Bob20]

Just now, Fluke said:

On a recent incoming flight from China , six people tested positive for Covid on arrival , even though they were negative upon departure

Well two terms:

Incubation period

Sinovac

[JamesE]

20 minutes ago, Bob20 said:

Well two terms:

Incubation period

Sinovac

They weren't negative, they had a piece of paper that said they were negative. This is why PCR tests on arrival are going to be with us for a long while.

[Bob20]

Just now, JamesE said:

They weren't negative, they had a piece of paper that said they were negative. This is why PCR tests on arrival are going to be with us for a long while.

I took fluke at face value.

On fake test results and fake vaccination documents I've already written some posts weeks ago. And some here claimed to know how to obtain then and would use them.

Safety second

[Fluke]

37 minutes ago, JamesE said:

They weren't negative, they had a piece of paper that said they were negative. This is why PCR tests on arrival are going to be with us for a long while.

They may have been Covid negative when they took the tests and then got infected either before the flight or actually on the flight , one of the Chinese guys died with Covid , although his death was caused by something else

[Poolie]

44 minutes ago, Fluke said:

They may have been Covid negative when they took the tests and then got infected either before the flight or actually on the flight , one of the Chinese guys died with Covid , although his death was caused by something else

When was this? Recently? I have no idea.

According to all the 'experts' on here, China has banned their citizens from overseas travel.

Not the case, as far as I know.

[Fluke]

2 minutes ago, Poolie said:

When was this? Recently? I have no idea.

According to all the 'experts' on here, China has banned their citizens from overseas travel.

Not the case, as far as I know.

Last week .

Flights are still arriving in Thailand from China 

[Poolie]

4 minutes ago, Fluke said:

Last week .

Flights are still arriving in Thailand from China 

I thought so. There's nothing in the news here, or any friends telling me we can't travel. Just to be aware of the quarantine on return.