News Forum - 3 passengers test positive for Omicron when they arrive on Koh Samui

[Thaiger]

Three recent arrivals on the Gulf island of Koh Samui have been detected with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 – 2 British citizens and 1 Belgian. The 3 include a 54 year old British woman, a 55 year old Belgian man and a 56 year old British man. The 3 new cases are the first, not only for the holiday island, but also the first for the province of Surat Thani. The trio arrived last Thursday on separate flights. Case 1: The 54 year old British woman arrived with her husband. He has so far tested negative. They arrived via BKK […]

The story 3 passengers test positive for Omicron when they arrive on Koh Samui as seen on Thaiger News.

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[NCC1701A]

Bad boys, bad boys

Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do When they come for you

Bad boys, bad boys Whatcha gonna do,

whatcha gonna do When they come for you

[Flotown]

hey there community...

 

we are planning to arrive on Saturday via the test & go program. Assuming it will not hold until then, we would consider reverting to a sandbox stay for 7 days in a certain area. We are considering Khao lak for this and now my question is, if it is possible for me to arrive in BKK and then continue my travels one day later (as there are no connecting flights) to Phuket and then get picked up via hotel transfer to enter into the sandbox program.

 

I have reserved the Novotel at BKK Airport for one night. All is ofc SHA+ etc. 

 

Will I be able to leave the Novotel to continue my journey to Phuket?

 

any thoughts?

[Saunk]

49 minutes ago, Flotown said:

hey there community...

we are planning to arrive on Saturday via the test & go program. Assuming it will not hold until then, we would consider reverting to a sandbox stay for 7 days in a certain area. We are considering Khao lak for this and now my question is, if it is possible for me to arrive in BKK and then continue my travels one day later (as there are no connecting flights) to Phuket and then get picked up via hotel transfer to enter into the sandbox program.

I have reserved the Novotel at BKK Airport for one night. All is ofc SHA+ etc. 

Will I be able to leave the Novotel to continue my journey to Phuket?

any thoughts?

For something as important as this, why would you be looking for advice from random commenters on the internet? Strange.

[Poolie]

Obviously for the enthusiastic expertise of our community. There are 'scientists' on here, dont you know.

[Flotown]

8 minutes ago, Saunk said:

For something as important as this, why would you be looking for advice from random commenters on the internet? Strange.

hoping to get some people who are on the ground to give some insights on how things actually go. im not basing my decisions on it. Im also in touch with official channels, but we all know the speed of reply and so on... trying to get a feeling for if I want to still come (without test&go) or if I cancel my trip. 

[vlad]

Britons cannot board an Aircraft without testing 1st. The report says arrived in BKK first. So they either got infected onboard, or were infected in the Airport in BKK. Theres no way they brought it with them. Plus everyone in the UK has to display the NHS app and up to date test certs. Today the official Governments daily statement confirmed 50,000 new cases of Omicron 115 are in Hospital with Omicron and 10,000 cases are showing new daily infections all Omicron.

[vvdb.fr]

Omicron is just a little less bad than Delta, a little worse than the Wuhan version.

why don't you want it?

how many times nastier than the one in Wuhan (x2, x3 or x4)?

[Michael0510]

2 hours ago, Flotown said:

hey there community...

we are planning to arrive on Saturday via the test & go program. Assuming it will not hold until then, we would consider reverting to a sandbox stay for 7 days in a certain area. We are considering Khao lak for this and now my question is, if it is possible for me to arrive in BKK and then continue my travels one day later (as there are no connecting flights) to Phuket and then get picked up via hotel transfer to enter into the sandbox program.

I have reserved the Novotel at BKK Airport for one night. All is ofc SHA+ etc. 

Will I be able to leave the Novotel to continue my journey to Phuket?

It’s allowed under the test&go program right now.
It’s not allowed under the sandbox program right now. You can only transfer in BKK to Samui under sandbox conditions as BKK-USM is the only sealed route on domestic flights right now. That’s a fact.

If the test&go program was cancelled, there could be other changes as well. Maybe they will allow to transfer in BKK to Phuket as well in that case. Nobody knows. 

There is a chance, that Thailand won’t change the rules for test&go approvals, which were approved before the rules were changed. Nobody knows. 

[kmc]

So the virus escaped from an extremely protected laboratory in wuhan.  Yet travel bans, masks, and pcr tests will somehow prevent its spread?  Nonsense!

[BBY]

Looks to me that the hot spot is Singapore. All three have come through Singapore. 
 

 

[mjwalker]

1 hour ago, vlad said:

Britons cannot board an Aircraft without testing 1st. The report says arrived in BKK first. So they either got infected onboard, or were infected in the Airport in BKK. Theres no way they brought it with them. Plus everyone in the UK has to display the NHS app and up to date test certs. Today the official Governments daily statement confirmed 50,000 new cases of Omicron 115 are in Hospital with Omicron and 10,000 cases are showing new daily infections all Omicron.

no 50000 new cases today get your facts right first 8044 today  104 in hospital

[js89]

Given the speed at which Omicron has taken hold the world over, it's impossible to imagine that there's not already significant local transmission in Thailand, as the land borders are extremely porous. 

Maintaining a strict test-before-leave and test-when-arrive regime will slow down the importation of cases by air travel, but any wholesale reaction involving 14 day quarantines is not going to do anything material to slow the progression of Omicron in Thailand.

It's just a knee-jerk reaction by government officials (and I'm including countries like France and Germany here) that makes them feel like they're doing something when in effect they're as powerless to stop the rise of Omicron as Canute was to order back the waves. 

[JustaGuy]

Jeez. And how many people did they infect  while in transit in singapore? 

[astro]

1 hour ago, kmc said:

So the virus escaped from an extremely protected laboratory in wuhan. 

Well, who knows?

Quote

Yet travel bans, masks, and pcr tests will somehow prevent its spread?  Nonsense!

The objective is to slow it down so that the resources for treatment will be there, which has worked in some countries, in others not for a variety of reasons.

[TorontoJeff]

6 hours ago, Flotown said:

hey there community...

we are planning to arrive on Saturday via the test & go program. Assuming it will not hold until then, we would consider reverting to a sandbox stay for 7 days in a certain area. We are considering Khao lak for this and now my question is, if it is possible for me to arrive in BKK and then continue my travels one day later (as there are no connecting flights) to Phuket and then get picked up via hotel transfer to enter into the sandbox program.

I have reserved the Novotel at BKK Airport for one night. All is ofc SHA+ etc. 

Will I be able to leave the Novotel to continue my journey to Phuket?

any thoughts?

Whatever the policy is now,  it will probably be different when you board and then change again while you are in flight.  I was planning first week of Jan to Samui for 3 months but I'm just going to stay here in Canada and freeze my balls off for now.

Edited December 20, 2021 by TorontoJeff

[AlexPTY]

until we will death and hospitalization stats from Omicron, i would suggest to stop screaming about it

[Canadianonthego]

2 hours ago, TorontoJeff said:

Whatever the policy is now,  it will probably be different when you board and then change again while you are in flight.  I was planning first week of Jan to Samui for 3 months but I'm just going to stay here in Canada and freeze my balls off for now.

 I'm in the same boat ... I'm in Canada and leave Jan 10 for a month and I'm approved for the "test & go" as well ( have Thai pass) and it looks like the Thai gov't is going to enforce sandbox protocol tomorrow which means I will now have to extend my stay in Bangkok to 7 days and lose my hotel reservation in Sumai thats already paid for ( my travel cancellation company Manulife says they will not cover the loss ) and I will lose my flights to and from as well .  I am to continue to Krabi for another week and that I should be able to make but still so many questions 

I guess we will all have to reapply for the Thai Pass because of the changes , it took long enough to get the pass (10 days ) and now with everyone reapplying it will overwhelm the system .

Then we have to find hotels that are SHA+ and reserve for 7 days . Problem is the departure time is coming so fast that trying to find new hotels for the 7 days is going to be difficult because so many of them are already booked for the 1 day "stay & go " and they will not have rooms available to extend from the 1 day to the 7 days . I checked my hotel for the 1 day and they do not have any rooms left for me to extend 7 days so I will lose my reservation and my money at that hotel as a result 

 Another problem thats might happen is ......so we lose the 1 day " stay & go " and rebook a 7 day quarantine and then say the Thai gov't changes again and this time locks the country down which will result not only in the loss of your 1 day " stay & go " but also the 7 day quarantine and you lose money again after making the necessary changes  .... this is going to be one very expensive loss it appears and there are no refunds or rebooking date changes allowed on my itinerary 

 I don't even know what to do now as it may become a huge gong show for everyone as we scramble but have a feeling lots of us are going to get hit with a loss 

 Omicron is proving to not make people very sick ... the majority say they feel like they have a cold ...thats it . Most people do not even know they have it because the symptoms are so mild and they are not getting tested .

Countries locking down to avoid it are doing it unnecessarily as the medical community is telling governments not to lock down at this point as they are not seeing cases overwelming the hospitals as of yet like the Delta did 

 Vaccines like Astra Zennica , J & J and Sinovac are not very efficient vaccines as they are 60% effective or less and alot of the people getting sick have these vaccines 

 I just want some direction as to what to do .... a last minute change is going to throw most people into chaos trying to sort it all out .  The government should allow those already with passes to continue and anyone applying for passes after Dec 21 should fall into the new rules 7 day quarantine program as there are so many people going to lose their money and insurance companies are not covering trip cancellation or interruption with this change 

[Thomazz59]

Visit Vietnam... 

 

[stuhan]

I hope things stay will stay as they are until after the new year, i reckon that's when the poo is going to hit the fan with Omicron.

[kalyan]

Where is the Origin of OMicron ?

China

America

Africa 

 

No Country is accused of hiding the truth this time ?  they did escaped from another lab? came from Bat, came from monkey, came from market ?

 

I did not hear any story about OMicron ?  Who gave the Virus so fast an name ?

 

 

[Sensibilia]

2 hours ago, AlexPTY said:

until we will death and hospitalization stats from Omicron, i would suggest to stop screaming about it

By then it will be too late to control even a little bit, being proactive is our best chance at slowing spread

[socal]

I don't really believe that they know its Omicron. Why would they ? Did they have some Omicron test in Koh Samui ? How does a standard test identify "Omicron" ?

Edited December 21, 2021 by socal

[socal]

1 hour ago, kalyan said:

Where is the Origin of OMicron ?

China

America

Africa 

No Country is accused of hiding the truth this time ?  they did escaped from another lab? came from Bat, came from monkey, came from market ?

I did not hear any story about OMicron ?  Who gave the Virus so fast an name ?

They just name a new one after the Greek alphabet. The same original virus just keeps reinventing itself says the experts.

 

https://www.scotsman.com/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-who-renames-covid-19-variants-with-greek-letters-to-avoid-stigma-3256488

[Guest1]

1 hour ago, kalyan said:

Where is the Origin of OMicron ?

China

America

Africa 

No Country is accused of hiding the truth this time ?  they did escaped from another lab? came from Bat, came from monkey, came from market ?

I did not hear any story about OMicron ?  Who gave the Virus so fast an name ?

And what is the reason that you did interrupt your winter dormancy?