News Forum - Phuket officials order quarantine for more than 100 travellers from South Africa

[BraveNewFahrenheit]

17 hours ago, huhuarf said:

This is absolute insanity. Imagine being South African and jumping every hoop possible. Staying the night in an ASQ hotel for the night, test results come back you're good!  Great...now to enjoy the remainder of your two week holiday.  Nope, police show up and now you get to quarantine for two weeks.

Were you sitting next to someone with the virus?  No.  Did anyone on the plane even have it?  No.  Did your nation actually have scientists doing the work and being honest by showing the results to the world.  Yes. 

I don't understand what the problem is, most of the people WANTED this, you wanted lockdowns, endless testing, nonstop fearporn reporting every day about case numbers. This is the result of all of that.

[huhuarf]

37 minutes ago, BraveNewFahrenheit said:

I don't understand what the problem is, most of the people WANTED this, you wanted lockdowns, endless testing, nonstop fearporn reporting every day about case numbers. This is the result of all of that.

I don't think I said any of that.  Granted, I know it's easy for me to forget due to my sheer abundance of postings on Thaiger.

I've always said probably should get the jab and wear a mask out for the time being, otherwise let's keep business open and the economy moving.  We have to balance life with the need to have lives worth returning to.

[Manu]

19 hours ago, huhuarf said:

This is absolute insanity. Imagine being South African and jumping every hoop possible. Staying the night in an ASQ hotel for the night, test results come back you're good!  Great...now to enjoy the remainder of your two week holiday.  Nope, police show up and now you get to quarantine for two weeks.

Were you sitting next to someone with the virus?  No.  Did anyone on the plane even have it?  No.  Did your nation actually have scientists doing the work and being honest by showing the results to the world.  Yes. 

It has reached the stage when the word "insanity" is almost an understatement. Not sure if the article is not clear or if it is my head this morning, and noone else seems here seems to mention it, but it says:

Quote

More than 100 travellers from South Africa who entered Thailand over the past two weeks have been ordered to quarantine for 14 days as a preventative measure following the emergence of the Omicron variant. Nationwide, the Thai Immigration Bureau and the Public Health Ministry are working to track down a total of more than 780 people who travelled from African countries since November 15.

Along with the 126 people who travelled from South Africa, four people who entered Thailand from Namibia between November 15 and 27 are also ordered to quarantine for 14 days due to the risk of Omicron. All of the 130 travellers must undergo an RT-PCR test before they are released from quarantine.

Now even people who arrived over 2 weeks ago have to quarantine for 14 days starting now, or whenever they are all "tracked down"????? Am I understanding it right, here?

English is obviously not my first language so if anyone has any suggestion for a stronger word than "insanity", you are very welcome.

[Griff1315]

5 minutes ago, Manu said:

It has reached the stage when the word "insanity" is almost an understatement. Not sure 

English is obviously not my first language so if anyone has any suggestion for a stronger word than "insanity", you are very welcome.

"Thaianity" it's a big step up from insanity and only available in the LOS..

[NCC1701A]

well? how is the hunt going? 

it's not like 100 people could have interacted with that many people by now. 

not. 

 

[Lowseasonlover]

What if you only have one or two days left on your holiday and you get rounded up and banged in quarantine? 

[AussieBob]

1 hour ago, Lowseasonlover said:

What if you only have one or two days left on your holiday and you get rounded up and banged in quarantine? 

10-14 more days in Thailand!!  That is correct - it was confirmed in another thread somewhere.

Plus, if you test positive your home country may apply another quarantine when you arrive.

I just cannot understand how people are travelling internationally for a short holiday right now - especially to a country in SEAsia like Thailand. I wonder if any are going to Myanmar 

[Lowseasonlover]

5 minutes ago, AussieBob said:

10-14 more days in Thailand!!  That is correct - it was confirmed in another thread somewhere.

Plus, if you test positive your home country may apply another quarantine when you arrive.

I just cannot understand how people are travelling internationally for a short holiday right now - especially to a country in SEAsia like Thailand. I wonder if any are going to Myanmar 

Ive been putting my daughter off for ages, stay where you are it's safer

[TheDirtyDurian]

Is it coz I is black?

[vlad]

How easy is it to find 500+ people who entered Thailand from Africa ?? just ask all the hotels were there guests are from its not Rocket Science Chan O Instead its got that desperate he is asking people on the street if any Africans have suddenly been around 555.

[Stonker]

15 hours ago, huhuarf said:

I'll double check with HR, but I think they told us that we're exempt from the social security scheme, so naturally didn't sign us up. I guess they can dodge that stuff for some reason.  They did also tell me awhile ago when I asked that absolutely our insurance policy doesn't have the mandatory 50k USD Covid component, which filled with with confidence heh.

The only bells working legally so paying taxes, but "exempt from the Social Security Scheme, so naturally didn't sign us up" rings is alarm bells - even more so if the insurance policy you came in on isn't valid and they provided it!

Way outside the scope of this topic, but something smells wrong here - not with you at all, but with your employer. 

[Tea]

21 hours ago, AussieBob said:

Yet another example of why visiting Thailand for short holiday right now is not a good idea.  If a local Provincial Governor can unilaterally decide to detain people because they come from a country and enforce a 14 day quarantine at their expense, that shows how bad things can get in Thailand, and how quickly. Omicron has been detected in 20 countries according to Google - are people from all those countries also going to be unilaterally detained/quarantined - after passing all the tests and hurdles to get into the country?!!  Unbelievable.

The latest Google search today indicated that the Omicron mutation was first detected on 11th November in Botswana by a Sth African Doc. It has apparently got the most adaptations of any variant detected so far and that is why WHO released an alert - because it looks like it will be more contagious than the rest - but they dont know yet. But as far as is known, no one has been entered into ICU or died of this mutation. It will take another 2-4 weeks before they know whether it is as big a concern as it is being treated - hopefully not.

Today I watched the 'South Park - Post Covid' TV Movie - very funny and also very topical - it is set 40 years into the future (and Covid still aint gone by then).  Highly recommended viewing if you like that sense of humour. Sensitive Snowflakes should avoid it. 

Where were you able to watch it? I found snippets but not the whole episode. The parts I've watched are hilarious!

[Stonker]

21 hours ago, AussieBob said:

Omicron has been detected in 20 countries according to Google - are people from all those countries also going to be unilaterally detained/quarantined - after passing all the tests and hurdles to get into the country?!!  Unbelievable

That's the policy in S Korea, reportedly.

3 hours ago, AussieBob said:

I just cannot understand how people are travelling internationally for a short holiday right now - especially to a country in SEAsia like Thailand. I wonder if any are going to Myanmar 

Absolutely - not only could you get badly caught out while abroad, costing you a fortnight's quarantine, but you could face the same on your return, at a possible cost of up to $5,000 each for your month in solitary!

[Lowseasonlover]

Seems like they have rounded a few up already still a few on the missing list

[Chatogaster]

 

Finding people who arrived between November 15 and 27 in order to quarantine them for 2 weeks? The article is clear on that but it 's an idea that seemed too ludicrous to be true.

I don't enjoy the effort it takes me to read Thai, but I decided to read the Facebook post that was provided as reference. It  turned out it merely states they want to find them in order to take an extra PCR-test (which boils down to a 1 day quarantine, assuming it's negative).

Now that actually does make sense if you're looking for easy and obvious ways to figure out if Omicron has already arrived.

 

[AussieBob]

4 hours ago, Tea said:

Where were you able to watch it? I found snippets but not the whole episode. The parts I've watched are hilarious!

Downloading pirated movies in illegal and I do not agree with doing that.

[AussieBob]

1 hour ago, Chatogaster said:

Finding people who arrived between November 15 and 27 in order to quarantine them for 2 weeks? The article is clear on that but it 's an idea that seemed too ludicrous to be true.

I don't enjoy the effort it takes me to read Thai, but I decided to read the Facebook post that was provided as reference. It  turned out it merely states they want to find them in order to take an extra PCR-test (which boils down to a 1 day quarantine, assuming it's negative).

Now that actually does make sense if you're looking for easy and obvious ways to figure out if Omicron has already arrived.

Good point and that makes sense. But the original message was they were doing to be locked up (quarantined) - bad for tourism - yet another bad message. And it is no wonder they cannot find some of them - if they do test positive they will get locked up.   

[Chatogaster]

31 minutes ago, AussieBob said:

Good point and that makes sense. But the original message was they were doing to be locked up (quarantined) - bad for tourism - yet another bad message. And it is no wonder they cannot find some of them - if they do test positive they will get locked up.   

Are you claiming that the post was edited? (I admit I was tempted earlier today to check the way-back machine just to make sure about the posts {Thaiger's and mine}... but I decided against it as it seemed a futile & paranoid activity). If you're right, I'd really like to see more (&better) source references by Thaiger (like a screenshot that doesn't include "see more" just before it gets interesting)

[AussieBob]

11 hours ago, Chatogaster said:

Are you claiming that the post was edited? (I admit I was tempted earlier today to check the way-back machine just to make sure about the posts {Thaiger's and mine}... but I decided against it as it seemed a futile & paranoid activity). If you're right, I'd really like to see more (&better) source references by Thaiger (like a screenshot that doesn't include "see more" just before it gets interesting)

Yes they did.  Amazing as it sounds - the Phuket Health Authority did exactly that. 

Headline:  "Phuket officials order quarantine for more than 100 travellers from South Africa"

First line of story: "More than 100 travellers from South Africa who entered Thailand over the past two weeks have been ordered to quarantine for 14 days as a preventative measure following the emergence of the Omicron variant. " 

This was stated by the Phuket Health Emergency Operations Centre in a Facebook post:

 

 

[HiuMak]

people who are vaccinated from SA are now treated like no-vaxed. sigh

[JustaGuy]

On 12/2/2021 at 6:23 AM, huhuarf said:

This is absolute insanity. Imagine being South African and jumping every hoop possible. Staying the night in an ASQ hotel for the night, test results come back you're good!  Great...now to enjoy the remainder of your two week holiday.  Nope, police show up and now you get to quarantine for two weeks.

Were you sitting next to someone with the virus?  No.  Did anyone on the plane even have it?  No.  Did your nation actually have scientists doing the work and being honest by showing the results to the world.  Yes. 

Nonetheless, infections are doubling in South Africa every 4 days. It's prudent. I would expect South Africa to be totally banned shortly.

[Manu]

2 hours ago, HiuMak said:

people who are vaccinated from SA are now treated like no-vaxed. sigh

We are all future non-vaccinated to be treated that way when we all eventually reach the time for the 3rd dose, the 4th, etc...

[Manu]

31 minutes ago, JustaGuy said:

Nonetheless, infections are doubling in South Africa every 4 days. It's prudent. I would expect South Africa to be totally banned shortly.

Number of deaths from covid in South Africa yesterday 3rd December: 3, for a population of 60 millions. After restricting movments to individuals who have decided not to be vaccinated, this is a new one: a whole country, 60 million people see their movements now restricted although they are currently doing far much better than the very countries implementing these restrictions (meaning: death rate hugely lower in SA than those countries implementing these restrictions). Where and when is this madness going to end???

[TheDirtyDurian]

18 hours ago, AussieBob said:

Downloading pirated movies in illegal and I do not agree with doing that.

Who says he downloaded it? He could have streamed it

[AussieBob]

4 hours ago, Manu said:

Number of deaths from covid in South Africa yesterday 3rd December: 3, for a population of 60 millions. After restricting movments to individuals who have decided not to be vaccinated, this is a new one: a whole country, 60 million people see their movements now restricted although they are currently doing far much better than the very countries implementing these restrictions (meaning: death rate hugely lower in SA than those countries implementing these restrictions). Where and when is this madness going to end???

Covid Pandemic? My best guess is late 2022 early 2023.

But if you mean irrational stupid media coverage and knee-jerk idiotic Govt actions - I am sorry but that is permanent.