Covid-19 News & Updates (Thailand and Southeast Asia only)

[DTHH]

I know myself and BB have commented. However, I'll throw the question out to the forum. Does anyone know of someone having COVID or do you know someone who in turn knows of a case?
Just curious.

Sadly and thankfully just ONE, my old boss here in Cha-am / Hua in. An Aussie hotelier who sadly perished in Khao Lak...wife and family from this area.
Actually, when that WAS reported it confirmed to me the numbers really are genuine.

[Big Boy]

News like this worries me https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... BbXVnTjzVI

We got away with it inviting Chinese at the height of their crisis, but will we be as lucky again?

[HHTel]

“After COVID eases, we plan to refresh the country’s image to a trusted destination where tourists will have peace of mind,” Tanes Petsuwan, the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT) deputy governor for marketing and communications, told Reuters.

The campaign, to be launched later in the year, will be aimed at young affluent travellers from places that are considered low-risk such as China, South Korea and Taiwan, Tanes said. It will highlight scenic beaches and parks, part of a “tourism bridge” that could emerge in Asia including Hong Kong and Japan.

Why should that worry you, BB. They've already accepted that tourists are not going to appear until around October. A lot can happen in the next 4 months (just look at the last 4 months). Even that far away and assuming COVID eases as stated, they're putting in what I'd say are sensible considerations. They will decide then which countries qualify for being 'low-risk'. Nowhere does it imply that countries are going to be invited at the height of their crisis

We got away with it inviting Chinese at the height of their crisis, but will we be as lucky again?

quite the opposite.

The UK despite their pretty dire situation is already organising 'travel bridges' with other countries.

I think you're worrying about something that has no substance.

[Big Boy]

What worries me is they are talking a sensible game now and ignoring it. They are also talking a sensible game for the future, but this country laughs in the face of regulations/procedures. Greed will take precedence over any regulations brought in.

[Nereus]

Hmm...…….?

Dutch cull minks linked to virus

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/19304 ... d-to-virus

Fur farm linked to what WHO thinks was first confirmed animal-to-human transmission

AMSTERDAM: Dutch mink farms have begun a government-ordered cull amid concern that animals infected with the coronavirus could transmit the illness to humans.

Infected minks have been found on 10 Dutch farms where the ferret-like animals are bred for their fur, according to the country’s Food & Wares Authority.

“All mink breeding farms where there is an infection will be cleared, and farms where there are no infections won’t be,” said spokeswoman Frederique Hermie.

The government ordered the cull of 10,000 minks on Wednesday after determining that the affected farms could become a long-term reservoir of disease.

The animals were first infected with the coronavirus by their handlers in April. In May, the government identified two cases in which humans had been infected by sick animals — the only animal-to-human transmissions known since the global outbreak began in China.

The cull involves farm workers in protective clothing using gas on mink mothers and pups. The bodies will be sent to a disposal plant and the farms will be disinfected.

Groups opposed to the fur trade say the outbreak is another reason to close all fur farms.

“We are calling for the 24 countries around the world that still allow mink farming to very rapidly evaluate the situation and evidence coming out of the Netherlands,” said Clair Bass, executive director of the Humane Society International.

The group says China, Denmark and Poland are the largest mink producers, with 60 million killed annually for their fur.

According to the Dutch Federation of Pelt Farmers, there are 140 mink farms in the Netherlands, exporting about US$100 million worth of fur a year.

Federation spokesman Wim Verhagen said the cull was “very hard for farmers to accept” as few infected animals show visible signs of sickness. The government is compensating affected farmers.

The Dutch government earlier banned the transport of minks and made Covid-19 testing mandatory on all farms across the country.

In 2016, the top Dutch court ordered the closure of all mink farms by 2024.

The worldwide anti-fur movement has been slowly chipping away at the market for mink coats and related products, though the decline has not been as great as activists had hoped, say industry analysts.

Slovenia and Serbia last year passed legislation to ban all fur farming, joining the ranks of like-minded countries including Norway and the UK.

California, meanwhile, is the first US state to ban the sale and manufacture of all fur products.

The US department store chain Macy’s has also said it intends to stop selling real-fur products at all of its stores, including the flagship Bloomingdales, by the end of the current fiscal year.

[PeteC]

Thailand needs to be cautious concerning this close neighbor, inclusive of land border crossings and illegal crossings.

Coronavirus: India overtakes Italy in cases amid easing of lockdown

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52946508

India has recorded close to 10,000 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking its total above that of Italy.

The country now has the sixth-highest number of confirmed cases in the world, 236,657. There have been 6,649 deaths.

The health system in Mumbai is on the verge of collapse while hospitals in the capital, Delhi, are reportedly running out of space.

Meanwhile, shopping centres, places of worship, restaurants and offices will be allowed to reopen from Monday.

For weeks, India's relatively low Covid-19 numbers had baffled experts. Despite the dense population, disease and underfunded public hospitals, there was no deluge of infections or fatalities.

Although India has the sixth highest number of cases, it is 12th in fatalities, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University.

Low testing rates explained the former, but not the latter. The hope - which also encouraged the government to lift the lockdown - was that most of India's undetected infections would not be severe enough to require hospitalisation.

But the number of rising cases shows that the country could simply be witnessing a late peak in cases, experts say.

Many Indians have taken to social media to talk about patients struggling to receive medical attention, with some hospitals saying they do not even have testing kits left.

Critics say the recent spike in cases shows the lockdown, which was meant to give the government time to ramp up medical facilities and came at huge economic cost, has not worked.

But Gautam Menon, a professor and researcher on models of infectious diseases, earlier told the BBC that the country simply had no other choice.

"Beyond a point, it's hard to sustain a lockdown that has gone on for so long - economically, socially and psychologically," he said.

[Big Boy]

79077270_4490122367668262_3012191658233008919_o.jpg (92.1 KiB) Viewed 430 times

[PeteC]

^. The government on Sunday reported eight new coronavirus cases and no new deaths, taking the accumulated totals in Thailand to 3,112 infections and 58 deaths since the outbreak began in January.

The new cases were returnees - five from the United Arab Emirates, two from Kuwait and one from India - and were in quarantine, where most of Thailand's recent cases have been detected, said Panprapa Yongtrakul, an assistant spokeswoman for the government's Covid-19 Administration Centre.

Thailand has recorded zero new deaths for 13 days in a row, she said.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... -no-deaths

[HHTel]

That makes the last 69 cases all from quarantine. No local cases since May 25th.

[Big Boy]

Thailand has recorded zero new deaths for 13 days in a row, she said.

The last death was supposedly 2nd June. Even my maths tells me somebody is telling lies. Once they start contradicting their own figures, you have to wonder what else is false.

[Big Boy]

Oh, I've just read the link, and it has been changed to say new transmissions as opposed to new deaths.

Another Bangkok Post cock-up?

[sateeb]

Thailand has recorded zero new deaths for 13 days in a row, she said.

The last death was supposedly 2nd June. Even my maths tells me somebody is telling lies. Once they start contradicting their own figures, you have to wonder what else is false.

I think it's more a case of she mixed up, nothing sinister IMO

Thailand’s health ministry announced 8 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, with all new cases discovered in state quarantine for returning Thais from abroad.

The new discovery brings the total number of cases to 3,112.

It has now been 13 days since coronavirus case outside of state quarantine.


https://www.thaienquirer.com/14067/eigh ... uarantine/

[Big Boy]

I think it's more a case of she mixed up, nothing sinister IMO

4 critical mix ups in ust over a week, each one being more dramatic than the reality - maybe they're just trying too hard

[pharvey]

Well not saying Brazil is "miss-reporting"/under-reporting, but begs the question how many countries are - either deliberately or by poor governance? In part, this also relates to a question raised on the "Britain's Transition Away From The EU" thread.

Full Article: - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-52952686

Coronavirus: Hard-hit Brazil Removes Data Amid Rising Death Toll

"Brazil has removed months of data on Covid-19 from a government website amid criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the outbreak.

The health ministry said it would now only be reporting cases and deaths in the past 24 hours, no longer giving a total figure as most countries do.

Mr Bolsonaro said the cumulative data did not reflect the current picture.

Brazil has the world's second-highest number of cases, and has recently had more new deaths than any other nation.

The Latin American country has more than 640,000 confirmed infections, but the number is believed to be much higher because of insufficient testing. More than 35,000 people have died, the third-highest toll in the world."

[hhfarang]

Good news, for elephants and other wildlife...

"Elephants, Long Endangered by Thai Crowds, Reclaim a National Park

Tourist trails helped push elephants to their deaths in Thailand’s oldest nature preserve. The coronavirus lockdown is allowing them to roam freely again.



KHAO YAI, Thailand — For as long as the elephants could remember — and that is a long time — the path to the river snaked down the hillside through jungle so dense a troop of pachyderms could simply vanish.

But about three decades ago, humans decided they, too, wanted to get to the river, to gaze at the waterfalls that cascaded into the Khao Yai National Park in central Thailand. The humans paved over part of the elephants’ trail with cement. They built toilets and snack kiosks.

The elephants, though, still needed to reach the river. They hewed close to the old route, the one imprinted on generations of pachyderm brains, but not so close that the day-trippers, with their picnics of sticky rice and grilled pork, would see them.

It was a fatal diversion. The new trail passed a cliff and an area prone to flash floods. Elephant after elephant drowned. Last October, a baby elephant fell into the roiling waters. Others charged in to save the calf. All told, 11 elephants died.

Since the coronavirus pandemic accelerated in March, Khao Yai, Thailand’s oldest national park, has been closed to human visitors for the first time since it opened in 1962. Without the jeeps and the crowds, the park’s 300 or so elephants have been able to roam freely, venturing onto paths once packed with humans. Rarely spotted animals, like the Asian black bear or the gaur, the world’s largest bovine, have emerged, too.

“The park has been able to restore itself,” said Chananya Kanchanasaka, a national park department veterinarian. “We are excited to see the animals are coming out.”

Pandemic lockdowns have given nature a breather all around the world, bringing animals to unexpected places. Cougars toured the deserted streets of Santiago, the Chilean capital. Wild boars have strolled through the lanes of Haifa, Israel. Fish catches off Vietnam are teeming again.

In Thailand, nature rebounded quickly, too. In late April, a herd of about 30 dugong — a relatively rare marine mammal — showed up off a cape once crowded with tourist boats. Leatherback turtles and blacktip reef sharks have returned to other holiday hot spots, too. (In other places, elephants and monkeys that normally play a part in the tourist trade are suffering, however.)

The reprieve for Thailand’s wildlife has provoked a debate in a country where the bond with nature has long been framed as one of domination, either the jungle consuming people or people consuming the jungle.

Beyond the pillaging of its own rain forests, Thailand is a key way station on global wildlife trafficking routes, with horns, tusks and scales from as far away as Africa making their way to China.

Wild elephants from the region’s forests are trapped and mentally broken down to perform tricks for tourists. Poaching and logging are rampant in Thailand.

In 2018, a Thai construction tycoon was found in a wildlife sanctuary west of Khao Yai with a cache of weapons and the remains of a black leopard, a barking deer and a pheasant. A leopard’s tail was discovered in a soup pot.

Over the years, as park visitors have been educated on how to approach nature, their behavior has improved, said Somporn Chaikarn, a Khao Yai senior ranger who has worked here for 33 years.

“Tourists don’t drive drunk in the park anymore,” he said. “That’s a big improvement.”

Early in his career, Mr. Somporn, 57, helped build the path down to the Haew Narok waterfall so visitors could gaze up at the cascades that tumble down a nearly 550-foot descent.

Over the years, park employees have tried to reroute the elephants from their old trail, building concrete posts and other barriers. They have installed checkpoints. But elephants kept returning because many of the 108 species of plant they like to eat in the park flourish there.

“You cannot stop an elephant if it really wants to do something,” Mr. Somporn said.

Thais, he said, have a special relationship with Elephas maximus. Thailand’s great warrior kings had their favorite elephants to ride during battle. Back when the country was known as Siam, its flag featured a white elephant on a red background.

“We like them because they are cute and because they helped us during times of war,” Mr. Somporn said.

Khao Yai, which covers about 155 square miles and is part of a larger UNESCO World Heritage Site, is believed to have the largest population of wild elephants of any national park in Thailand.

As roads were built through the park, the elephants liked to walk on the warm asphalt and began to treat passing cars as playthings, said Kanchit Srinopawan, who was the head of the park until March and now is the director of the office of natural resources and environment for Prachin Buri Province.

“They like sedans, especially, because of the perfect size,” said Mr. Kanchit, showing a picture on his phone of a bull elephant mounting a Mercedes-Benz.

Last October, the first sign of trouble came when, amid unusually late monsoonal downpours, a panicked trumpeting echoed from the Haew Narok waterfall. The name means Hell’s Ravine. Floods made reaching the area impossible but some of the rangers had a hunch about what had happened. Every year, one or two elephants die in the fierce currents, they said. And in 1992, a baby slipped and seven others followed to try to rescue it. All eight died.

This time around, a baby elephant, around 3 years old, slipped trying to cross the river and plunged nearly 200 feet to the second tier of the waterfall. One after another, members of the herd tried to save the calf. The only elephants in the group that did not jump in were another baby and its mother. The panicked cries eventually quieted, and the rains stopped. But floodwaters still impeded the rangers. Days later, they found six bodies. Days after that, a drone located five more.

“The deaths of the 11 elephants were preventable and the mismanagement by the park was preventable,” said Kemthong Morat, a prominent Thai conservationist who went on a hunger strike to bring attention to their safety. “They seem to forget that the national park’s purpose is for research and conservation. Khao Yai’s big tourism revenues made them forget the main purpose of the park.”

Mr. Kanchit, the former park director, disagreed.

“The environmental groups say that we focus too much on tourists, not on the elephants, but we need a balance,” he said. “We also have to take care of the people who love wildlife and want to enjoy unspoiled nature.”

As for the coronavirus lockdown bringing new life to Khao Yai, Mr. Kanchit said that the area where tourists roam constitutes only 0.1 percent of the park.

“These wild animals are coming out and walking around, which we never saw before,” he said. “I would not dispute that.”

But, he added, “What is happening in the areas of the forest that we humans never touch? Are they not rejuvenating naturally?”

When Khao Yai is open, the parking lots and outdoor canteens are often crowded with sambar deer foraging through piles of candy wrappers and discarded juice boxes.

The park’s official Facebook account has celebrated how otters have returned to sunbathe in the river and chipmunk pups to gambol in the branches. The shy serow, which resembles a missing link between a goat and an antelope, is scampering through meadows, as is the dhole, a springy Asian wild dog.

With few cars around, the elephants, the park’s dominant species, stroll the roads, chomping on foliage without needing to retreat to dangerous corners of the forest where cliffs meet waterfalls.

“We should consider if we should close down the park every year,” said Ms. Chananya, the national park veterinarian. “Nature can restore itself to its fullest.” "

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/worl ... 8fb8a6f127