News Forum - 5 Omicron variant infections identified in Phuket

[Thaiger]

Phuket province has now identified 5 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 according to health officials on the island. All 5 infections were identified from the RT-PCR test that all international arrivals are administered as soon as they land in Thailand. The Omicron infections were found in people who arrived on December 13 and December 14. One infection was in a Thai national who was returning from a pilgrimage to Saudia Arabia via Qatar, while another was a Tunisian person from France. A third infection was found in a Swedish traveller coming from Sweden and the last 2 were […]

The story 5 Omicron variant infections identified in Phuket as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Rookiescot]

There is only one option.

Nuke the place from orbit.

[JustaGuy]

So mostly European travellers. Why are they still allowing flights from there if there is obviously a huge Omicron outbreak in Europe.

[TheDirtyDurian]

"All 5 travellers had travelled on flights routed through Saudi Arabia"

Something about this doesn't add up and I'm calling BS on the above.

I'm based in Saudi and no one flies through Saudi on route to Thailand. 

For one, there are no direct flights to Thailand from Saudi and if you were coming from UK, Germany, France etc you'd have to buy two separate tickets to go to Thailand because while Air France, Lufthansa, KLM, BA etc all have direct flights to Saudi you can't then go onto Thailand unless it's with another carrier. And Saudia doesn't fly to Thailand, although it does fly to Europe. 

So the facts are wrong there. 

[Guest1]

 

16 minutes ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

"All 5 travellers had travelled on flights routed through Saudi Arabia"

Something about this doesn't add up and I'm calling BS on the above.

I'm based in Saudi and no one flies through Saudi on route to Thailand. 

For one, there are no direct flights to Thailand from Saudi and if you were coming from UK, Germany, France etc you'd have to buy two separate tickets to go to Thailand because while Air France, Lufthansa, KLM, BA etc all have direct flights to Saudi you can't then go onto Thailand unless it's with another carrier. And Saudia doesn't fly to Thailand, although it does fly to Europe. 

So the facts are wrong there. 

My guess, the Thai coming from Saudi, via Quatar Air.

Thats where the confusion starts. Or ends, they all arrived with Quatar Air

Edited December 19, 2021 by Guest1

[Guest1]

There were 132 other passengers on the flight but no other positive tests for Omicron have been identified yet in Phuket.

 

All contained, they say. How many times did they test this people from the same flight? Seems like oeople can be negative on boarding, but be poditive on arrival. So there is a great, eh, big chance, that someone from sitting near one of the 5 might become positive after a little while, too.

And the parties are already starting.

Today, around 5pm, the new club at Karon Beach, Tann Terrace Phuket, hat music and dancing close to the klong. Few masks, mostly under the nose, young to middle age people.

And: Mixed, lots of locals, plus now lots of foreign tourists, too

Edited December 19, 2021 by Guest1

[vvdb.fr]

the people infected on the plane by these 5 people will be positive in a few days.

will they then be tested?

No... vaccinated, there is a good chance that they will be asymptomatic ...

It is the start of the epidemic in Phuket within a few weeks ...

[TheDirtyDurian]

1 hour ago, Guest1 said:

My guess, the Thai coming from Saudi, via Quatar Air.

Thats where the confusion starts. Or ends, they all arrived with Quatar Air

I'm not disputing the Thai person coming from Saudi via Qatar, but for the other 4 coming from Europe, there's no way anyone would fly that way. It's either lazy reporting or incorrect information. 

[ace035]

Lack of facts: Were they asymptomatic or have symptoms? So, all of them are in a hospital even asymptomatic. This will be a big-time scam if that happens so the hospital can get money out of COVID-19 insurance or get money from their pocket.

[Guest1]

2 hours ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

I'm not disputing the Thai person coming from Saudi via Qatar, but for the other 4 coming from Europe, there's no way anyone would fly that way. It's either lazy reporting or incorrect information. 

The confusion in here, I mean.

No one, except the Thai, flew  Saudi - Quatar - Phuket

All the others flew from their starting countries, to Quatar and transited there to the plane to Phuket.

Someone writing this story got irritated by the pilgrimming Thai his route ;-)

 

[HiuMak]

10 hours ago, JustaGuy said:

So mostly European travellers. Why are they still allowing flights from there if there is obviously a huge Omicron outbreak in Europe.

Thailand Needs Tourist $$

[Chatogaster]

7 hours ago, ace035 said:

Lack of facts: Were they asymptomatic or have symptoms? So, all of them are in a hospital even asymptomatic. This will be a big-time scam if that happens so the hospital can get money out of COVID-19 insurance or get money from their pocket.

It is highly unlikely that any, let alone all 5 passengers had symptoms or medical conditions severe enough to warrant close supervision by nurses & doctors.

However, that doesn't make it a financial scam by or for hospitals. The sole reason is to quarantine the patients and make sure nobody is able to sneak out.

At least until Omicron has established itself in Thailand, being "asked" by an official to go to a hospital facility is a meaningless courtesy, i.e. it's a mandatory multiple-choice question that has only one box to tick. The same is probably true in all other countries that are still at an early stage.

 

[TimothyN]

11 hours ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

"All 5 travellers had travelled on flights routed through Saudi Arabia"

Something about this doesn't add up and I'm calling BS on the above.

I'm based in Saudi and no one flies through Saudi on route to Thailand. 

For one, there are no direct flights to Thailand from Saudi and if you were coming from UK, Germany, France etc you'd have to buy two separate tickets to go to Thailand because while Air France, Lufthansa, KLM, BA etc all have direct flights to Saudi you can't then go onto Thailand unless it's with another carrier. And Saudia doesn't fly to Thailand, although it does fly to Europe. 

So the facts are wrong there. 

All. in this story, had visited Mecca for the annual Haj. 

[TheDirtyDurian]

39 minutes ago, TimothyN said:

All. in this story, had visited Mecca for the annual Haj. 

They've updated the story now. It didn't read like that before. 

Still wrong about some things though. They may have visited Mecca for Umra, but they didn't visit for Haj. 

Haj is not until July 22 and happens at a fixed time every year. Umra can be done at any time. 

And if they all performed Umra, why they saying they came from European countries?

And they're all Thai Muslims it seems to me if they're going down to Pattani

Some things still don't add up exactly.

[TheDirtyDurian]

5 minutes ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

They've updated the story now. It didn't read like that before. 

Still wrong about some things though. They may have visited Mecca for Umra, but they didn't visit for Haj. 

Haj is not until July 22 and happens at a fixed time every year. Umra can be done at any time. 

And if they all performed Umra, why they saying they came from European countries?

And they're all Thai Muslims it seems to me if they're going down to Pattani

Some things still don't add up exactly.

BP now saying they're all Thai, and all came from Saudi. As I suspected...

[Shark]

16 minutes ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

BP now saying they're all Thai, and all came from Saudi. As I suspected...

4 are thai and 4 are Europeans as per BP:

 

Quote

He added that four foreign visitors to Phuket also tested positive for Omicron on Dec 17. They arrived on four separate airlines and entered Phuket under the Test & Go scheme. They are an American, a Swede, a Tunisian, and a German.

 

[TheDirtyDurian]

15 minutes ago, Shark said:

4 are thai and 4 are Europeans as per BP:

It's confusing how the story is presented in the BP but that's not what they're saying. The four Europeans are separate and arrived on a different day. 

[Shark]

2 minutes ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

It's confusing how the story is presented in the BP but that's not what they're saying. The four Europeans are separate and arrived on a different day. 

the difference is that BP talks about 8 Omnicron and Thaiger 5.

[TheDirtyDurian]

4 minutes ago, TheDirtyDurian said:

It's confusing how the story is presented in the BP but that's not what they're saying. The four Europeans are separate and arrived on a different day. 

 

[Shark]

Just now, TheDirtyDurian said:

Your right let's give up on this news thing in Thailand it doesn't seem to work. Shoot all the reporters done/done.

[TheDirtyDurian]

1 minute ago, Shark said:

Your right let's give up on this news thing in Thailand it doesn't seem to work. Shoot all the reporters done/done.

Troo dat. Gonna have another earl grey.