Covid-19 News & Updates

[Lev]

All off-topic posts and links to rival websites removed.

Please. Covid NEWS.

[Big Boy]

Today's Brief:

[PeteC]

Little to nothing about this in the Thai news.

No handicap as South Koreans swing through Thailand's 'golf quarantine'

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKBN2AP0HY

SEOUL (Reuters) - At six in the morning, Heo Kwang-eum tees off another day in Thailand in coronavirus quarantine - literally. He’s one of dozens of South Korean visitors spending two weeks in isolation playing golf at a resort an hour north of Bangkok.

The 66-year-old businessman is one of the first group of 41 Korean travellers to arrive in Thailand under a ‘golf quarantine’ programme devised by the Thai government to boost its ailing tourism sector during the pandemic.

At the Artitaya Country Club, the visitors were tested three days after arrival last week, and face at least two more tests before they can exit quarantine. With bars and other resort facilities closed, there’s no prospect of a gathering for Heo and other visiting golf fans to thrash out the missed birdies, bogeys and shanks of the day, but spirits remain high.

“It’s a huge golf course here,” said Heo, speaking in his room before a packed lunch break to refuel before heading out for his second round of the day, playing off a handicap of 10.

“Think of 41 Koreans golfing as you roam around the course, served by over 100 employees. It’s like emperor’s golfing,” said Heo, kitted out in a hot pink golf shirt and shorts in a more subdued shade of pink.

Heo said other countries should also adopt the Thai campaign and boost tourism by cutting days of confinement and allowing people to take walks or jog within a boundary.

“It’s extremely hard to go golfing in Korea these days because of COVID,” said Heo, due to spend another month in Thailand on business after completing quarantine. “Here it’s a golf paradise.”

The 2.49 million won ($2,240) price of the package - paid for by the golfers - is reasonable comparing with the cost of a 14-day isolation period spent cooped up in a regular hotel room, Ku Jung-keun, general manager of the Artitaya Country Club, told Reuters.

“The golf quarantine offers three safe (coronavirus) tests and time to enjoy golfing. Doctors provide daily health check-ups for the guests, too,” said Ku.

The next group departs in two weeks, the golf club’s Seoul operations director Hong Soon-bong says.

“We have around 100 rooms available for up to 150 people. We are receiving three times more inquiries (than in usual periods) about the package,” Hong said.

“Since the COVID outbreak last February, our company reported little to no sales,” he said. “It was very difficult, but we came to hope again through this opportunity.”

[buksida]

Off-topic comments removed, we have a sub-forum for golf discussion.

Danish virologist defends media comments that Chatuchak could be birthplace of Covid-19
Danish virologist Thea Fischer has defended comments that she made to a Danish media outlet that the Covid-19 virus could have originated in Chatuchak Weekend Market by saying that she was misquoted and misrepresented.

Following reports in the Danish media outlet Politiken, Fischer said that she was only using Chatuchak as an example of “these markets” in Asia where there is exotic wildlife stacked next to each other and where such virus can make the jump from species to species.

“The headline and information in the article….distort the message…” Fischer tweeted.

“Im not pointing at that specific market only stating the there is a high chance that infections cross species animal to animal or animal to humans at such markets,” said Fischer in another tweet.

Fischer had come under significant criticism on social media both abroad and in Thailand by people who have pointed out that it is widely accepted that the Covid-19 virus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

One should also point out that the distance between Wuhan and Thailand is over 2,000 kilometers. “These markets and places like these” are startling generalizations made by a senior public health official and would be akin to saying the markets in Copenhagen and the markets in Casablanca, Morocco are probably the same.

https://www.thaienquirer.com/24684/dani ... -covid-19/

[Big Boy]

Briefs are few and far between now – this will be the last unless something important happens. Interesting the Danes are claiming Covid originated in Bangkok:

[handdrummer]

Briefs are few and far between now – this will be the last unless something important happens. Interesting the Danes are claiming Covid originated in Bangkok:

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 4,
"There's something rotten in the state of Denmark."

[Big Boy]

Does this mean we're back in the orange?

Official #COVID19 update in #Thailand on Friday:
Since 15 December 2020
21,572 people infected (+8 imported cases & +37 local cases)
979 of these cases were imported
23 dead +0
Since January 2020
25,809 cases
774 people still in care
83 deaths
Province update on Friday: 37 local cases.
5 proactive case:
Samut Sakhon 5
32 “walk-in” hospital cases:
Samut Sakhon 14
Nakhon Nayok 5
Bangkok 3
Chai Nat 3
Nakhon Pathom 3
Saraburi 2
Prachuap Khiri Khan 1
Samut Prakan 1

[hhinner]

^^ Dutch guy in Hua Hin.

From Hua Hin Covid FB page -


Includes timeline.

In Thai.

[Big Boy]

News article (in Thai), but translates pretty well https://www.banmuang.co.th/news/region/ ... K_YpCVQ_GE

[dtaai-maai]

Does this mean we're back in the orange?

Official #COVID19 update in #Thailand on Friday:
Since 15 December 2020
21,572 people infected (+8 imported cases & +37 local cases)
979 of these cases were imported
23 dead +0
Since January 2020
25,809 cases
774 people still in care
83 deaths
Province update on Friday: 37 local cases.
5 proactive case:
Samut Sakhon 5
32 “walk-in” hospital cases:
Samut Sakhon 14
Nakhon Nayok 5
Bangkok 3
Chai Nat 3
Nakhon Pathom 3
Saraburi 2
Prachuap Khiri Khan 1
Samut Prakan 1

I'd still prefer to see the 'above average' figures, which strike me as the most effective way of measuring the Covid impact.

[Big Boy]

My 'poor' translation of the timeline make the guy seem like a pretty low risk. They have isolated those he came into close contact with, which weren't very many.

[caller]

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[HHTel]

Any more news on this covid case in HH?
The timeline shows that he went for a test at Bangkok Hospital last Tuesday. It doesn't give any info regarding contacts by his wife and kids. Dropping his kids off at school but doesn't mention which school.
An awful lot of information missing!

[Big Boy]

I've been looking closely at the timeline of this latest victim. Like the lady we had before:

time.png (16.23 KiB) Viewed 770 times

However, the biggest mystery to me is why he went for a test at all. Every report I read states something like, "He was asymptomatic, showing no kind of symptoms." He'd have been tested several times during ASQ, if he had no symptoms, why would he go to get tested again?

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted he did get checked.

[hhinner]

I've been looking closely at the timeline of this latest victim. Like the lady we had before:

time.png

However, the biggest mystery to me is why he went for a test at all. Every report I read states something like, "He was asymptomatic, showing no kind of symptoms." He'd have been tested several times during ASQ, if he had no symptoms, why would he go to get tested again?

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted he did get checked.

I read somewhere that he went for a test required to fly out of Thailand. To somewhere in Europe, I think.