Traditionally having an affair was a big taboo but with the rise of extra-marital dating sites and a more open-minded attitude towards sex in general that may no longer be the case.
Website The Richest crunched data from hook-up sites and Durex condoms to reveal the nationalities most likely to cheat.
But it seams having a steamy affair is not always as taboo as might be expected and the list shows the countries which are most often cited as having illicit affairs.
10. Finland 36%
Just scraping into the top ten Finland has an interesting view when it comes to having an affair.
The liaisons are called 'parallel relationships' and society is relatively open-minded when it comes to having a bit on the side.
A survey by Match.com found one in five married men had had affairs with at least ten women – seven times the rate among women.
9. United Kingdom 36%
The British aren't traditionally known for their fiery sex lives with other more passionate countries mocking our cooler national
But that may have changed.
In fact the owner of a leading website, Ashley Madison, which helps arrange extramarital affairs claims at least 1 million Brits are interested in cheating on their partners.
It's probably little comfort for concerned partners that Britons who cheat are far more likely to feel guilty than their European counterparts.
8. Spain 39%
The southern European country is associated with having a passionate and fiery temperament so it is perhaps surprising that Spain does not feature higher up the list.
However, while the influence of Spain's Catholic Church is waning, it seems to still hold some sway since extra-marital affairs remain somewhat taboo in the country.
7. Belgium 40%
According to magazine New Europe, Belgian married dating website Gleeden boasts 1.1million members, with advisor Chantal Bauwens saying cheating is no longer taboo in the country.
She said: 'It is no longer a "wrong" that allows the injured party to request separating due to the wrongs of the infidel,' she says. 'Is your spouse cheating on you? Yeah, so? Do the same or divorce!'
6. Norway 41%
According to dating website Victoria Milan which caters for married men and women looking to play away, Norwegians are less likely to use the site during the cold winter months.
But when the mercury rises it seems that so does Norwegians promiscuity.
5. France 43%
The Gallic people have always been thought of as fairly open-minded when it comes to matters of the heart.
In fact the traditional l'heure bleue refers to the hour after work when men would go and visit their mistress.
France is the only country in which most people believe affairs are morally acceptable and only 28 per cent of adulterers said they regretted their affairs.
When President Hollande was accused of nipping off on a scooter in the middle of the night to see his mistress his poll ratings, rather than take a nosedive, actually went up.
4. Germany 45%
It might come as a surprise that the Germans are more likely than the French to have affairs.
But it seems the French have some frisky neighbours who are perhaps just more discreet about playing away from home.
3. Italy 45%
The country that gave us the original ladies man Giacomo Casanova famed for bedding hundreds of women lays a strong claim to third place in the world ranking.
Italy also elected Silvio Berlusconi known as much for his Bunga Bunga parties as for his politics.
But it doesn't seem like the Italian's adultery is harming marital relations.
Although it has risen in recent years the country still has one of the lowest rates of divorce of any nation.
2. Denmark 46%
The Scandinavian country always scores highly on ratings which judge the happiness of its citizens, but it seems they also score highly when it comes to adultery.
Although it seems that the activities of those living in the capital Copenhagen maybe pushing up the average rate.
More than one-third of people residing in Copenhagen have been unfaithful to their partners.
Despite that almost half those who are married admit having an affair.
1. Thailand 56%
But it's Thailand which grabbed the top spot with 56% of the population admitting to being unfaithful.
Thailand has a whole host of being unfaithful including the traditional mia noi (minor wife).
The younger generation also enjoys the casual GIK culture where men and women have extra friends they spend time with aside from their partners. Not all of these relationships are sexual.
There has also been a growing sex-for-sale culture which is mainly aimed at men in massage parlours, clubs and brothels.
But in 2012 when a Durex survey suggested women were more adulterous than men they faced a backlash from the Thai media.
Of course just because a country doesn't feature in the top ten it doesn't mean there aren't plenty of men and women sneaking around there.
After footage of two office workers caught in a steamy encounter in New Zealand went viral it's perhaps surprising the southern hemisphere country didn't make the top ten.
Fears are rising that the government may not have the resources to cushion the effects of the third wave of the virus, currently spreading within key population centres, if it is not brought under control. There are also indications that it may pose a setback to the kingdom's plans to reopen to foreign tourists in 2021 which will leave the country in an even more fraught economic situation.
The third virus wave may be a calamity for Thailand if it manages to keep spreading within the 18 red zones or provinces which are also key centres of population and economic activity. The economic threat looming comes after more than a year of economic contraction. It now presents the government not only with another prospect of lost GDP but also danger as its budgetary room for manoeuvre is limited with a rising deficit, large numbers of asset-backed loans in the tourism sector that have been waiting for a strategically important asset warehousing scheme to be launched at the same time as reopening the country to a large number of foreign visitors again.
The Prime Minister, Prayut Chan ocha, over the weekend, tasked key agencies with sourcing more vaccine doses from the United States and Russia where the Sputnik V vaccine has been reported as having a 91% efficacy rate. It comes as the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has announced a tightening of restrictions on business concerns particularly in the 18 red zones of infection from the third wave of infection including the closure of schools. Economic concerns are growing with fears that a reopening of the kingdom to foreign tourism will be set back with plummeting consumer confidence spelling further damage to domestic spending.
'It's too early to say.'
These were the words of Bank of Thailand senior director Chayawadee Chai-Anant even before the extent of this massive third wave became apparent, on Friday, April 9th as she warned the economy may have contracted in the first quarter and that conceivably, this year, 2021 could see another sharp economic setback for Thailand.
There are growing fears for the Thai economy as the scale of this third wave of the virus emerges and the government grapples with its implications.
Third-wave could see a sharp contraction in the second quarter of 2021 as it hits the economy's heart
Senior economists are now openly suggesting that the second quarter of 2021 will see a sharp contraction of the economy as well as what is believed to be a contraction in the first quarter after the loss of the foreign tourism industry hit Thailand particularly hard in January and February 2021 compared to the economy's performance in 2020.
Despite the scale of the disaster, the government has been trying to minimise economic disruption where possible, even though the restrictions announced over the weekend by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) for the 18 red zone provinces will impact that area of the country, accounting for 50% of the economy, hard.
This virus wave has struck at the heart of the kingdom's GDP generating capabilities particularly Bangkok and surrounding provinces as well as the key foreign tourism hotspots.
New restrictions come into effect in Thailand from Sunday as PM prioritises finding vaccine supplies
Schools have been closed for two weeks with large gatherings banned as well as new, limited opening hours for convenience stores and other commercial outlets.
'This is to keep businesses alive,' said Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin as he announced the new measures.
They come into effect from Sunday and according to the National Security Council chief, General Natthapon Nakpanich, Prime Minister Prayut Chan ocha is prepared to take further steps.
On Sunday, it was reported the Prime Minister has urged key agencies to locate more vaccine doses from American agencies and from Russia whose Sputnik V vaccine is reported to be 91% effective according to a peer-review study published in the UK medical journal The Lancet.
'I've told the Government Pharmaceuticals Organization and the Food and Drug Administration to coordinate and facilitate them,' General Prayut said.
Over the weekend, Thailand had yet to reach the level of 1% of the population having received the first dose as the figure of 605,279 or 0.87% of the official population was released on Saturday.
Health minister says 3rd wave could be controlled within two weeks with the public's co-operation
The Minister of Public Health, Anutin Charnvirakul, has meanwhile urged the public to cooperate and talked about the ability to bring the third wave under control within two weeks depending on public co-operation
This could be a bit optimistic.
The current situation is particularly dire for the government which had a near ฿500 billion deficit in the opening months of 2021 and which is limited in its borrowing capacity despite its relatively low debt to GDP ratio and the urgings of more progressive economists.
Even before the third wave broke out and as its extent is becoming evident, the consumer confidence index had dipped in January recovering in February with overall consumer spending still off by 3.3%.
Consumer confidence was already slipping
Consumer spending may now drop further and by at least ฿100 billion if a new coronavirus outbreak lasts for two months, possibly sinking the economy in the current quarter, the President of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC), Dr Thanavath Phonvichai, said earlier in the month.
Consumer confidence fell back to 48.5 in March after a rise to 49.4 in the previous month, according to a survey by the institute.
At the outset of this new wave, Dr Thanavath had already accepted that it could lead to a second quarter of contraction in 2021 and predicted at least a loss of ฿100 billion in consumer spending.
Hopes for a quick rebound but Thailand could be facing a second year of sharp economic contraction
At a press conference, the economist suggested the government and the economy could rebound if the third wave was seen off early.
'Sentiment is expected to drop for at least three months before picking up if the Covid situation eases quickly,' he said.
While Dr Thanavath conceded that a second-quarter contraction may result, he suggested that growth of 2% to 2.5% could be achieved this year if the situation was brought under control within two months.
The senior director at the Bank of Thailand, Chayawadee Chai-Anant has, on the other hand, warned that the threat posed by the virus and its more infectious variants could leave Thailand facing another, even sharper contraction this year if the vaccine rollout fails to take off and if the virus continues to wreak havoc with business operations and consumer confidence.
Reopening of Thailand to tourism now in jeopardy
There is also now a real fear that the planned reopening of the kingdom to foreign tourists from October 1st with a July 1st reopening in Phuket, has been placed in jeopardy.
This was confirmed on Saturday by the Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn who cited a lack of vaccines as a key reason.
Current Finance Ministry projections are for 5 million visitors to be seen in Thailand this year while the Bank of Thailand has been suggesting a figure closer to 3 million.
Latest wave is hitting key population centres
Respected economic thinkers are beginning to express alarm at the situation that is developing with some suggesting that this third wave has the capacity to inflict far more than the ฿100 billion loss estimated at the outset in recent weeks due to lack of consumer spending.
They point to the level of fear that this third wave is generating as it hits key population centres and areas of economic activity.
Concern is also being expressed about the government's ability to address the third wave without recourse to excessive further borrowing or exceeding a debt limit which it is by law prohibited to do.
It is currently thought that the government debt level is at 53.3% of GDP which is, in fact, below the 57% forecast last year.
However, it is facing higher current deficits due to a depressed economy with higher burdens and a legal borrowing limit set at 60% of GDP.
Asset warehouse scheme to refloat the tourism industry is critically important to the economy
The government had been planning a strategically important asset warehousing scheme to relaunch the tourism sector and provide support to the thousands of borrowers in the industry and their bankers.
The estimated cost of this scheme was ฿100 billion. In addition, the government had earmarked ฿400 billion to ฿500 billion for soft loans to the business sector.
This is part of the ฿1 trillion fund organised last year to protect the kingdom's economy and to allow for a relaunch this year.
The budgetary pressure now on the government, on a day to day basis, for the next 8 months means, it will have little extra to offer the population or business concerns reeling from the effects of the third wave.
It could well find itself also constrained by a reduced tax take from a still contracting economy.
At the same time, the current situation will further exacerbate Thailand's chronic household debt problem estimated at 90% of GDP at the end of 2020.
The Bank of Thailand Governor, Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput, in October last year, identified this as a key concern amid raised unemployment numbers caused by the first wave.
Failure to revive foreign tourism this year will see permanent loss and further structural change
The third wave leaves the economy with a heightened prospect of foreign tourism not rebounding this year.
This will spell heavier economic damage to the already ravaged sector and may make the planned asset warehousing scheme impractical. This may see more permanent closures and fire sales in an industry that has already suffered massive structural change.
The delay caused by this third wave will also aggravate the financial losses incurred by banks and lenders caused by a collapse in asset values.
While many industry insiders suggest that it will take three years for things to fully recover, it may also be the case that we may never see a return to the halcyon days of Thailand's tourism sector that grew from the 1960s on the basis of rising demand and the popular expansion of air travel worldwide which this pandemic has decimated and, in the longer term, left a question mark over.
Third-wave may be just as devastating as the first economically with a larger number of infections
Some economic thinkers are worried that this wave may be just as devastating as the first wave economically as it is hitting an already damaged economy in addition to the geographical spread of the hotspots which has seen the virus targeting large population centres which will lead to the public quickly curtailing its economic activity.
We have already seen this virus wave hitting the Royal Thai Police and other key state agencies with a sharp spike in hospitalisations.
The government is facing a tight budgetary situation and may not, this time, be able to step in to provide assistance.
Economists have estimated the second round of the virus cost Thailand ฿200 billion while the first wave cost it ฿900 billion.
Economic crisis bigger and more dangerous
The cost of this massive third wave might be anywhere between these two figures but with new restrictions announced on Sunday and rocketing rates of infection, things look quite bleak.
We are now entering a situation where knock-on secondary economic effects may become a factor and another ball for the country's economic planners to juggle.
If the country fails to ramp up its vaccine campaign and the growing third wave gets worse, leading to further economic retreat, Thailand may be left facing a crisis even bigger but also more dangerous than last year.
-Flight operators must have a plan to immediately inform all passengers if a customer was found to have Covid-19 and take proper precautions around this.
This order is effective immediately and has no end date currently, only stated as being until further notice.
It is imperative to dispel any ambiguity about how vaccine efficacy shown in trials translates into protecting individuals and populations. The mRNA-based Pfizer
3vaccines were shown to have 94–95% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, calculated as 100 × (1 minus the attack rate with vaccine divided by the attack rate with placebo). It means that in a population such as the one enrolled in the trials, with a cumulated COVID-19 attack rate over a period of 3 months of about 1% without a vaccine, we would expect roughly 0·05% of vaccinated people would get diseased. It does not mean that 95% of people are protected from disease with the vaccine—a general misconception of vaccine protection also found in a Lancet Infectious Diseases Editorial.
4 In the examples used in the Editorial, those protected are those who would have become diseased with COVID-19 had they not been vaccinated. This distinction is all the more important as, although we know the risk reduction achieved by these vaccines under trial conditions, we do not know whether and how it could vary if the vaccines were deployed on populations with different exposures, transmission levels, and attack rates.
Simple mathematics helps. If we vaccinated a population of 100 000 and protected 95% of them, that would leave 5000 individuals diseased over 3 months, which is almost the current overall COVID-19 case rate in the UK. Rather, a 95% vaccine efficacy means that instead of 1000 COVID-19 cases in a population of 100 000 without vaccine (from the placebo arm of the abovementioned trials, approximately 1% would be ill with COVID-19 and 99% would not) we would expect 50 cases (99·95% of the population is disease-free, at least for 3 months).
Accurate description of effects is not hair-splitting; it is much-needed exactness to avoid adding confusion to an extraordinarily complicated and tense scientific and societal debate around COVID-19 vaccines.
I declare no competing interests.
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Safety and efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA covid-19 vaccine.
As the number of new COVID-19 cases surges this month, the government is rushing to find more vaccines for Thais. On Friday (April 16), Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha took it upon himself to list the various vaccine brands Thailand is currently trying to procure.
Prayut declared the government had already made a move for Russia's Sputnik V, China's Convidecia and Sinopharm's vaccines, India's Covaxin, and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Now, Thailand must wait to find out whether the manufacturers will agree to provide supplies amid the huge global demand for COVID vaccines.
However, Prayut hinted that the chances of procuring Sputnik V and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are high thanks to Thailand's strong foreign relations.
Sputnik V
Developed by Russia's state-run Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Sputnik V in August 2020 became the world's first COVID-19 vaccine registered for use. Today, this viral-vector vaccine has been authorised for use in over 60 states including Russia, India, Ghana and Hungary. Inoculation requires two doses and its price per dose is about US$9.75 (Bt305).
According to https://sputnikvaccine.com, Sputnik V is one of only three vaccines in the world with efficacy of over 90 per cent. A trial involving 19,866 volunteers – who received either both doses of Sputnik V or a placebo – found the vaccine's ability to prevent symptomatic COVID-19 stood at 91.6 per cent.
However, its efficacy is still being questioned because Russia has not yet made crucial primary data available to independent drug-testing authorities.
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech is the first to be approved for emergency use by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Evidence from clinical trials shows it is 95 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. Inoculation requires two shots. Its price per dose is about $20 (Bt627).
Utilising relatively new mRNA technology, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is recommended for people aged 16 years and older but doses must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
Thailand is ramping up its COVID-19 vaccination drive following an unprecedented surge in infections since April 5, with Thursday (April 15) bringing a record 24-hour high of 1,535 new cases. Official records show that only 247,850 people in Thailand had received their first jab as of April 5 – but that number more than doubled to 581,311 by April 15.
Convidecia
Developed by China's CanSino Biologics, this vector vaccine has already been authorised for use in China, Mexico, Pakistan, Hungary and Chile.
In February 2021, data released from Phase III trials with 30,000 participants showed the vaccine was 90.98 per cent effective against severe COVID-19 and 65.7 per cent effective against moderate cases. Better still, it requires just a single dose costing about $27.15 (Bt850).
Sinopharm vaccine
Commonly known as Sinopharm, Chinese state-owned enterprise China National Biotec Group (CNBG) is developing two inactivated-virus COVID-19 vaccines. However, given Thailand's urgent need for a vaccine, Prayut must have been referring to BBIBP-CorV.
Widely dubbed the Sinopharm vaccine, BBIBP-CorV is 79.3 per cent effective in preventing people from developing symptoms. It has already been approved for use in several countries including China, Pakistan, the Philippines, Hungary, and the United Arab Emirates. Inoculation requires two doses, each costing about $36 (Bt1,130).
Covaxin
Manufactured by Bharat Biotech, Covaxin is India's first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. This inactivated-virus jab demonstrated 81-per-cent interim efficacy in preventing COVID-19 after the second dose. Each dose costs just a few dollars.
Importantly, analysis by India's National Institute of Virology indicates that Covaxin-induced antibodies can neutralise the UK variant strains and other variants. Thailand's latest surge in infections is being driven by the super-contagious UK strain.
Covaxin will likely be shipped through government-to-government deals to Mongolia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Bahrain, Oman, Maldives and Mauritius soon.
View of a vial of India's COVAXIN vaccine against COVID-19 at the public hospital in Villa Elisa, Paraguay, on April 14, 2021. (Photo by NORBERTO DUARTE / AFP)
What's next?
Prayut explained that all vaccines used in Thailand would have to be registered with the Food and Drug Administration. At present, only three brands are registered with the Thai FDA – AstraZeneca, Sinovac, and Johnson and Johnson.
