Covid-19 News & Updates

[PeteC]

Note: The below link will lead to the full, updated story sometime around 1500 hours this afternoon

8,587 new Covid cases, 22 more deaths

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... ore-deaths

[PeteC]

https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/

Screen Shot 2022-02-02 at 08.06.00.png

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[joelle]

Each province's daily domestic COVID-19 cases update in Thailand on Wednesday February 2nd 2022.
Infographic from Scandinavian Facebook page: Thaipodden

[PeteC]

Note: The below link will lead to the full, updated story sometime around 1500 hours this afternoon

9,172 new Covid cases, 21 more deaths

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... ore-deaths

[PeteC]

https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/

Screen Shot 2022-02-03 at 08.05.53.png

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[Big Boy]

Today's Brief:

[HHTel]

She tried to explain the reason for the day 5 hotel quarantine. However, it made absolutely no sense.

[PeteC]

She tried to explain the reason for the day 5 hotel quarantine. However, it made absolutely no sense.

It makes sense in that it guarantees revenue for a select group of hotels, plus various hospitals if a positive test and they slam the people into one instead of self quarantine.

[PeteC]

Note: The below link will lead to the full, updated story sometime around 1500 hours this afternoon

9,909 new Covid cases, 22 more deaths

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... ore-deaths

[PeteC]

https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/

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[joelle]

Note: The below link will lead to the full, updated story sometime around 1500 hours this afternoon

9,909 new Covid cases, 22 more deaths

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... ore-deaths

creeping up steadily but surely, let's hope it will not reach extreme figures again and with it more restrictions

[PeteC]

I think the officials here have yet to grasp Omicron and its effects, or lack thereof. I think the numbers will still go up dramatically, perhaps to 20-30 thousand a day as they mentioned as a possibility a few weeks ago.

They need to keep watching the UK and Europe and learn from what they are doing and not doing.

Edit: I have to add in that those numbers we are given each day is no where close to the true number of active cases in the country, they are the reported cases. If the true daily number is already double that I wouldn't be surprised. People are not getting that sick, and they are not running in panic to report anything to anyone. They basically are taking care of themselves. We personally know several.

[Dannie Boy]

I think the officials here have yet to grasp Omicron and its effects, or lack thereof. I think the numbers will still go up dramatically, perhaps to 20-30 thousand a day as they mentioned as a possibility a few weeks ago.

They need to keep watching the UK and Europe and learn from what they are doing and not doing.

Edit: I have to add in that those numbers we are given each day is no where near close to the true number of active cases in the country, they are the reported cases. If the true daily number is already double that I wouldn't be surprised.

Watching is one thing, learning completely different - when you read about the people testing positive and being thrown into jail (hospitel), they obviously haven’t got a clue!!

[REEM]

Warning against traveling to Thailand.

February 3, 2022 - by Gregers Møller - 29 Comments.

Travelers to Thailand whose PCR tests return a positive are in a very high risk of being caught up in a web of rules that nobody warned them of before their departure.

The SHA+ and ASQ hotels where the travelers are required to stay, must all have contracts with a specific hospital, usually a private hospital. If a traveler staying at their hotel tests positive, the guest has no choice but to be hospitalized at that specific hospital for 7-10 days at their own cost – usually around 10.000 THB per day. In most cases, tourists are requested to pay upfront this amount and coordinate insurance claims by themselves later – holding the risk of not being compensated for their hospital expenses.

Sharing hotel room in close contact with a COVID patient also subjects you to quarantine 7-10 days as a high risk close contact person. This is usually not included in the insurance coverage so it would be completely at your own cost.

The PCR tests are performed by the hospital who has the exclusive rights to receive all the patients from the hotel they stay at. You must do two PCR tests on the first day and the fifth day of your traveling, and the authorities prefer that you test both times at the same hotel.

Some travelers question, if the PCR tests follow same procedures as back in their home countries, since many find the positive result when arriving Thailand, when they just tested negative 48 hours ago before flight departure.

All travelers believe they are adequately insured because when they applied for the Thailand Pass, their health insurance was approved. But when the traveler arrives here, it some times turns out that although the Thai embassy or consulate had accepted their insurance policy, they are not covered anyway because of the fine print in the insurance policy. Sometimes, the insurance only covers if the patient has symptoms or is hospitalized in a hospital, not a ‘hospitel’. The Thai hospitals will keep the patient in quarantine regardless of symptoms and for the maximum days they can charge for, all solely depending on the opinion of the doctors’ team at the assigned hospital your hotel is associated with.

In other situations, it has turned out that the insurance only covers if the patient is admitted to a public hospital. But the patient has no right to refuse to be hospitalized at the private hospital or hospitel facility which has obtained an exclusive contract with their hotel. Also in this case, the traveler will have to pay the amount at around 100.000 THB themselves.

A resident Dane in Bangkok who has been part of a network to come to the rescue of these unfortunate travelers who were trapped in this web of rules says to ScandAsia, that frankly she has come to the sad conclusion that the safest thing to do is not to fly to Thailand on a Thailand Pass until this hotel-hospital alliance is broken or the insurance policies that the embassies accept follow standards that are in compliance with these hotel-hospital contracts.

For a while, she and her network was able to extract patients with residence in Thailand from the grip of the hospitals “who only follow the rules” and transfer them to self isolation in their homes or to public hospitals, but this loophole was recently plugged.

There are so many special situations and describing them all is not possible here, she says. But she wants to add one piece of useful advice:

If you have had Covid in the past 2-3 months before your arrival to Thailand then you must remember to bring along with you PCR proof and preferably a medical recovery certificate stating your Covid history in detail with a doctor’s signature. This documentation may help you not to become yet another unfair victim of the medical care protocol. If you show this evidence and insist that your positive result is most likely because the test is picking up dead cells from your past infection, you may be able to avoid being detained.



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About Gregers Møller
Editor-in-Chief • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

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29 Comments on “Warning against traveling to Thailand”
Ian G says:February 4, 2022 at 14:42
I can confirm the experiences of people who have arrived into Phuket as correct. In my case the whole arrival experience took no more than 40 minutes. Everyone is seated after getting off the plane, documents checked and through then over to passport control & baggage collection. After exiting the building your PCR test is taken and I was picked up by pre arranged taxi to my hotel. I got the result after 6 hours and took the day 6 test at my choice of local clinic. I can now travel anywhere in Thailand. If you are a knuckle dragging moron who believes in scams/rip offs everywhere please don’t come to Thailand and do us all a favour..

John says:February 4, 2022 at 14:29
A mixed bag of responses here. Not sure what to believe exactly, but since it’s Thailand and every hospital/hotel/stakeholder does things a bit differently (as it the case with each individual immigration office) I am of the opinion that while some people have been treated as harshly as the warning suggests, others have been treated better.

That being said, the risks are high. I have warned people I know well including family members to NOT even think about coming here, until such time these measures no longer apply. If they continue to apply indefinitely (which could very well be the case), then Thailand travel will essentially no longer be possible. Should I find myself leaving Thailand for any reason, it will be a one way journey. Therefore, I’m staying put until restrictions ease.

The world has changed. It’s sad but it is what it is. Luckily there are still plenty of countries left to choose from, where one can enter relatively freely without encountering any of this nonsense. Mexico is probably the best example I can think of.



https://scandasia.com/warning-against-t ... -thailand/

[PeteC]

I'm really not surprised by any of the above, and of course not everyone will have the same good or bad experience. We have our own in-house example from Mikeburysteds in the "Flying to/from Thailand" thread.

There is just a lot that smells fishy at the moment with this link up between hotel and hospital, and the accuracy of the PCR test administered upon arrival, and the lack of a follow up confirming test.

As I mentioned in another post(s), bring test kits in your luggage to double check results in the event the hotel/hospital test upon arrival is positive.