COVID 19 Related to THAILAND Posts

[Evil Penevil]

Bangsaen cancels all official Songkran activities, asks people not to throw water due to Covid-19 Coronavirus

By Adam Judd

-March 5, 2020

Bangsaen-Mr. Narongchai Khunpluem, President of Saen Suk Municipality in Chonburi, has announced via his social media channels that the Wan Lai (Songkran) Festival activities set for April 16th and 17th in Bangsaen has been cancelled.

He stated that this is due to concern about potential spread of the Covid-19 Coronavirus and the government’s general direction to prevent mass gatherings. Typically the Songkran Festival in Bangsaen attracts tens of thousands of party goers and is the biggest holiday of the year in Thailand.

Mr. Khunpluem also said that although he understands people will privately celebrate the festival at their homes, bars and nightclubs as it is the Thai people’s New Year, he pleads with them not to throw water as it may spread the virus and instead celebrate the holiday traditionally. He also noted that water trucks or riding in pickups throwing water is prohibited this year.

This announcement was only for the Bangsaen area and is not a national announcement. Pattaya City has said they would address Songkran tomorrow, Friday the 6th of March after a meeting. In Pattaya, Songkran is traditionally the single biggest tourist event of the year attracting hundreds of thousands of party goers. It’s key to note that the actual HOLIDAY is not cancelled, as it is the New Year, but all local government events, concerts, activities, gatherings, etc are and water play has been asked to not take place.

The Pattaya News notes that the news is devastating for those who enjoy the festival and the tourism industry, as Songkran has been getting bigger yearly and last year grew 15% more than the prior and was the most financially successful Songkran ever. Last year Songkran earned 22.07 Billion Baht for the country.

(Source)

Edited March 5, 2020 by Evil Penevil

[Freee!!]

4 minutes ago, Jambo said:

"Mañana" : translates as "Afternoon Delights" before a night out on the piss in exotic Playa de Las Americas in Linekers bar! 🤣

Be that as it may, in standard English it literally translates as "tomorrow" (just like the Farsi "Pardah"), the practical translations is more like "sometime in the future".

[Jambo]

3 minutes ago, Freee!! said:

Be that as it may, in standard English it literally translates as "tomorrow" (just like the Farsi "Pardah"), the practical translations is more like "sometime in the future".

Thanks.

Filed away in case I need another Farsi lesson, however unlikely.

 

 

[coxyhog]

39 minutes ago, Jambo said:

"Mañana" : translates as "Afternoon Delights" before a night out on the piss in exotic Playa de Las Americas in Linekers bar! 🤣

Bukra inshallah is one I remember well.

[Evil Penevil]

U.S. races to ramp up coronavirus response as 11th death confirmed

 

UPDATED ON: MARCH 5, 2020 / 6:47 AM / CBS NEWS

Congress was poised to approve $8.3 billion dollars in supplemental spending Thursday to help bolster U.S. defenses against an increasingly pervasive and increasingly deadly outbreak of the new coronavirus.

Eleven people have died of the COVID-19 disease in the U.S., all but one in Washington state. California declared a state of emergency after the first death was confirmed there Wednesday. A cruise ship that the victim had traveled on was being held off shore in San Francisco, while all passengers are tested for the virus.

There were at least 160 people with the coronavirus in 17 states as of Thursday. Globally, the epidemic has spread to 80 countries, infecting at least 95,000 people and killing over 3,200. But more than 50,000 coronavirus patients have recovered and been released from isolation, and experts continue to debate the lethality of the disease.

Officials say the only way to understand it is to test a lot more people, and the U.S. government is working to catch up with other nations where widespread testing has been carried out for weeks. Vice President Mike Pence said 1.5 million more test kits would be available in the U.S. by the end of the week.
 
China, the country where the outbreak started, appeared to be over the worst of the epidemic, with daily death and infection rates declining. Elsewhere, including in the U.S., those rates were still ramping up, and the disease's impact on everyday life was mounting.

Some of America's biggest corporations have told employees in West Coast offices to work from home. The United Nations education agency UNESCO said more than 290 million children were out of school around the world thanks to closures in more than 20 countries. Countless sporting events, business conferences, concerts and other large gatherings have been scrapped as significant outbreaks in the U.S., South Korea, Iran and Italy continue to grow.

EP note:  You can find a lot more updates at this site.

[Thai Spice]

1 hour ago, coxyhog said:

Bukra inshallah is one I remember well.

Tomorrow if it is Allah's will....

Favorite answer from my mechanics when I worked in Cairo....

[Krapow]

On 3/3/2020 at 10:54 PM, Krapow said:

You may laugh, but Turkey is doing similar, in fact if you don't have a residency permit, you will not be allowed to enter Turkey at all from some countries, Italy included. Also if you have been there in the last 14 days, no entry to Turkey.

If you have a residency permit, you have to get tested on arrival, and even if negative, you still have to self isolate or full quarantine for 14 days. 

It'll not be just Thailand and Turkey doing it ...

Just read Indonesia doing something similar as well, though fewer countries. Think Italy is one of them.

[tommy dee]

the pressure on city hall has been enormous from both sides, the other ebing the very powerful hoteliers groups.  bang sane mayor is our mayors brother.  petchabun too has banned SK water fun.  this all makes our local decision an easier one to make as it wont be breaking new ground.  but it was obvious that it had and would be made for over a month

 

and two cases in the rpvince, both non thais arriving here, doesnt help either.  holiday inn and royal cliff both have made huge close downs of part of their operations.. this is ongoing and scarey for all,  even tho just a flu ( as they say)..  best guess is that things wont pick up till after next high season.  thats according to the airlines

[tommy dee]

On 3/1/2020 at 8:36 PM, Evil Penevil said:

I don't have any faith in the figures from China, but I do believe the stats from CDC about the overall flu situation in the U.S.  What do you find suspicious about the CDC figures?

Evil

lets not go there :)

[Bazle]

I've asked a few people this question, but haven't had a satisfactory answer yet.

A few days ago, I saw PM Boris say that he was being told that the Covid-19 problem would peak in 2 or 3 months' time in the UK.

By definition, cases must fall after the peak. What is going to cause the fall to happen?

[Freee!!]

6 minutes ago, Bazle said:

I've asked a few people this question, but haven't had a satisfactory answer yet.

A few days ago, I saw PM Boris say that he was being told that the Covid-19 problem would peak in 2 or 3 months' time in the UK.

By definition, cases must fall after the peak. What is going to cause the fall to happen?

Decline in new infections, see the situation in the PRC.

[Bazle]

3 minutes ago, Freee!! said:

Decline in new infections, see the situation in the PRC.

But what is going to cause that to happen in the UK?

[Thai Spice]

5 hours ago, Krapow said:

Just read Indonesia doing something similar as well, though fewer countries. Think Italy is one of them.

The exact terms :

 

"She said travelers from Tehran, Qom and Gilan in Iran, Lombardi, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Marche and Piedmont in Italy, and Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do in South Korea are banned from entering Indonesia.

"For everyone's safety, Indonesia bans the entry and transit of travelers who in the last 14 days have been to [these regions]," Retno said.

The ban is effective starting from March 8.

Travelers not from the aforementioned cities must provide a clean bill of health from a health authority in their countries upon check-in at the airport, or they will be denied from entering Indonesia."

https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-bans-travelers-from-iran-italy-south-korea-as-covid19-continues-to-spread-around-the-globe

 

[Thai Spice]

Do as I say, but not as I do.....

[Thai Spice]

And in the name of.prevention, now anything goes....

South Korea has always been a very authoritarian country but still...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-asia-51733145

As South Korea battles a snowballing number of Covid-19 cases, the government is letting people know if they were in the vicinity of a patient. But the volume of information has led to some awkward moments and now there is as much fear of social stigma as of illness, as Hyung Eun Kim of BBC News Korean reports.

 

[Evil Penevil]

4 hours ago, Bazle said:

But what is going to cause that to happen in the UK?

Basically, it will run out of people to infect. If COVID-19 is similar to other flu-like pandemics,  fewer and fewer people will be susceptible to infection as time passes because of natural or acquired immunity and other protective measures.  Fewer people catching the disease also means there will be fewer to pass it on. While it may not die out entirely,  the number of new cases will shrink to the point it's no longer a pandemic or even an epidemic.  That's what happened with past influenza pandemics like the Spanish flu (1918-20); Asian flu (1957-58); HongKong flu (1968-69); and swine flu (aka H1N1, 2009).

The Spanish flu pandemic is estimated to have killed 50 million people and infected 500 million, or 1/3 of the world's population at the time. 

Evil

[Bazle]

2 hours ago, Evil Penevil said:

Basically, it will run out of people to infect. If COVID-19 is similar to other flu-like pandemics,  fewer and fewer people will be susceptible to infection as time passes because of natural or acquired immunity and other protective measures.  Fewer people catching the disease also means there will be fewer to pass it on. While it may not die out entirely,  the number of new cases will shrink to the point it's no longer a pandemic or even an epidemic.  That's what happened with past influenza pandemics like the Spanish flu (1918-20); Asian flu (1957-58); HongKong flu (1968-69); and swine flu (aka H1N1, 2009)

Thanks, but surely that's not going to happen in a 2 to 3 month timescale?

[tko]

10 hours ago, Bazle said:

Thanks, but surely that's not going to happen in a 2 to 3 month timescale?

That looks like the timescale for China.  They've had steadily declining new infections, starting 2-3 months from their first reports.  One can only hope.

 

[coxyhog]

https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/03/coronavirus-london-tube-sadiq-khan-12339239/?fbclid=IwAR1mNdUpLyPxOSCtVPWZLMbSRLam9QEOaLBx_SxGMIeyjvc3hbTwp3zWaeo

The idiot mayor of London says there is very little risk of catching the virus on the tube & bus in London.

Is he serious?....Rush hour on the tube when you're pressed together,face to face like sardines?

[Lemondropkid]

1 hour ago, coxyhog said:

https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/03/coronavirus-london-tube-sadiq-khan-12339239/?fbclid=IwAR1mNdUpLyPxOSCtVPWZLMbSRLam9QEOaLBx_SxGMIeyjvc3hbTwp3zWaeo

The idiot mayor of London says there is very little risk of catching the virus on the tube & bus in London.

Is he serious?....Rush hour on the tube when you're pressed together,face to face like sardines?

That's reckless with regards the Tube, and astonishingly stupid.  The best way to catch any of the regular flu viruses that do the rounds is a couple of rush hour trips

This virus is more contagious  than flu and has a higher mortality rate, to suggest there's no risk, really defies believe- even for the a typical, venal, self-serving politician

 

[Horizondave]

25 minutes ago, Lemondropkid said:

That's reckless with regards the Tube, and astonishingly stupid.  The best way to catch any of the regular flu viruses that do the rounds is a couple of rush hour trips

This virus is more contagious  than flu and has a higher mortality rate, to suggest there's no risk, really defies believe- even for the a typical, venal, self-serving politician

 

Yes, bloke is a complete dumb ass. The health advice for people of my age is to avoid public transport if possible and also large crowds.  OK, my chances are still slim but suggesting it is safe to travel on the tube with little risk is a just a tad too reckless.

[Stillearly]

 

[Krapow]

Book THAI With Confidence - No Change Fees for New Bookings

 

Thai Airways·Friday, 6 March 2020·2 minutes

In light of the recent worldwide developments, we understand how important it is for our customers to have greater flexibility when travelling.

We want passengers to be able to book THAI with confidence and as a result, we have introduced a flexible fare rules policy for all new bookings made on THAI between 5th March 2020 and 31st March 2020, for departures from any European destination to any THAI or THAI Smile worldwide destination.

This flexible policy means that THAI will waive the applicable change fees for bookings made within this period should passengers wish to postpone their trip.

Passengers have the option to change their flight date for the period between 5th March 2020 and 30th September 2020, subject to availability.

Some important information:

· The waiver of change fees is valid for bookings made between 5th March 2020 and 31st March 2020, for departures from any European destination.

· Travel can be rebooked between 5th March 2020 and 30th September 2020

· Changes must be made before the date of departure

· A fare difference may apply subject to booking class availability on the rebooked itinerary

· Rebooking may only be possible if the same fare type as indicated on ticket conditions is available. If the change to a higher fare type is needed, passengers may need to pay the fare difference

· Applicable refund fees will apply as per the ticket conditions

· This temporary rule does not replace the existing policies in place for bookings made prior to 5th March 2020.

 

Please note that if you have booked through a travel agent, you will need to contact them directly for any changes.

If booked through our website, then our Reservations team can assist with changes. They can be reached on 0330 400 4022.

THAI has also released a number of promotional fares simultaneously to allow you book with confidence.

[Krapow]

@galenkia sends the latest memo round to his Camden Goth crew!

[Stillearly]

Meanwhile in Australia...