Pattaya Mismanaged Music Festival Crowds; Now Mayor Blames Fans for Covid-19 Outbreak
More people congregated for the first week of the Pattaya Music Festival outside the gates than inside, with the city making no effort on the disease-control front.
Pattaya will continue its plans for weekly events through the year-end even though its mismanagement of the crowd at the Pattaya Music Festival led to coronavirus cases among concertgoers.
In the first two weeks of the four-week concert series last month, Pattaya drastically limited the number of people allowed into the seating area near the stage – 150 the first week and 500 the second – and required those people who did get in to be fully vaccinated and tested for Covid-19.
No precautions of any sort were taken for those who couldn't get in. Crowds instead massed outside the fences with no social distancing, vaccination or testing required.
The result has been some of those people congregating on the beach came down with Covid-19. Chonburi health officials this week urged everyone who were in the sandy mosh pit on the beach to get tested.
Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome on Friday blamed the music fans, not himself or the city, for the infections, admonishing people for "not complying with disease-control measures", including not wearing face masks and grouping together.
Photos showed the overwhelming majority of people were wearing masks.
Sonthaya said future events will see a stepped-up police presence outside stage areas to cut crowding and ensure face mask use.
The original version of this story appears in the Pattaya Mail, a Bangkok Herald
PHUKET: News of police 'robbing' foreigners through traffic fines touched a nerve this week, as the Phuket Provincial Police felt compelled to publicly respond to just one post online, by a Thai.
The response prompted a strong reaction from the foreign community in Phuket, and abroad, noting that the same old game was nothing new, already well known for years.
The claim by the Phuket Provincial Police that the traffic police officers in question in the post online were only enforcing traffic regulations to help reduce the number of accidents on the roads, hence helping to preserve life and limb of foreigners and Thais alike, was laughable.
If the police were sincere about reducing road accidents in Phuket we would actually see moving violations served. As for the strong emphasis in the response that the police are not overly selective in targeting foreigners, that notion would be dispelled by spending just one afternoon watching police at Chalong Circle performing their "road safety duty".
The fact that the public response from the Phuket Provincial Police was unsigned by any named officer, or any official for that matter, only strengthens the perception that police are going to keep their distance from this one. Maybe they already know what everyone else understands.
Like any well-run scam, the systemic fining of foreign tourists for traffic violations – namely not having a valid driver's licence recognised by Thai authorities – depends on the rules actually being genuine and posted publicly to safeguard those profiting from the operation. Not doing so is called is called entrapment.
This the police certainly have in their favour. Warnings about the requirements for being able to legally drive in Thailand are posted in travel advisories, on travel blogs, chat rooms and elsewhere all over the internet. The problem is that many tourists do not bother checking before coming here, and the police know it.
A genuine effort to prevent the fallout from tourists telling all their friends about their "Amazing Thailand" experience in being fined by the Royal Thai Police has been launched before . The campaign targeted motorbike rental shops to ensure that tourists have the appropriate licence to legally drive in Thailand before being allowed to rent a vehicle out to the tourist. The irony was that the aim of the campaign was to focus on keeping tourists legal, not on the officers raking in the fines. (See stories here, here and here.)
One idea promoted for many years is to warn tourists of this requirement in the destination arrival briefing while they are still on the plane on their approach to Phuket, that is while they are still a "captive audience".
The same arrival briefing should also warn them of the need to wear a face mask while in public areas in Thailand, and that the initial fine is up to B1,000, not B20,000 as widely announced earlier this week. That should help correct errant behaviour by and – and onto – unsuspecting tourists.
Expats here have little excuse. Learn the law, stay legal and do not give corrupt officers the opportunity to land themselves a bonus. If the officer is intent on extortion, force him to go the mile. The extra effort required goes against the motivation for a shakedown. The idea is to get easy money.
Once the officer is forced to file a genuine report for the alleged transgression, the opportunity to make any extra money is gone and the accused has the right to deny the claim against them by the police in court, just like anywhere else.
World travel destinations are moving to block flights from up to 10 African countries following the discovery of the Omicron Covid-19 variant this week. Officially, the new variant is designated B1.1.529. This is the latest information about the current status on Omicron.
The new Covid-19 mutation was first reported to the World Health Organisation on Wednesday this week, by scientists from South Africa. Whilst it has been reported first in South Africa it has not yet been determined where the mutation may have emerged.
Early evidence and genome sequencing is suggesting the Omicron variant has a higher re-infection risk than early strains of the Covid-19 coronavirus. With more than 30 different mutations on the virus' spike protein, the part that binds to a human cell and infecting it, Omicron "could both be more transmissible and have more mechanisms to evade immunity already conferred by vaccines or prior infection", according to Dr. Angelique Coetzee, head of the South African Medical Association.
The earliest known case of the Omicron Covid variant was on November 9, according to the WHO, and the mutation was first detected last Wednesday in South Africa. While the delta variant is still the dominant strain worldwide, accounting for 99.9 percent of current cases in the US for example, the discovery of Omicron coincides with a surge of new South African infections, an over 1,000 percent increase over the past 2 weeks.
In response, countries around the world are racing to introduce flight and travel bans on southern African countries in an effort to contain the variant's spread. The swift response threw travel plans out of the African continent into confusion as airlines cancelled outbound flights.
In Thailand, the Thailand Pass website now says…. "the issuance of Thailand Pass for travelers from the following 8 countries will be temporarily suspended…
1. Botswana
2. Eswatini
3. Lesotho
4. Malawi
5. Mozambique
6. Namibia
7. South Africa
8. Zimbabwe
People coming from all other countries in the African region must now pay for 14 day alternative quarantine when they arrive in Thailand. The announcement followed other Asian countries tightening borders over the latest concerns.
The Israel PM Naftali Bennett has announced "sweeping travel restrictions covering most of Africa" following the indemnification of a positive Omicron case on Friday.
"We are on the verge of a state of emergency."
The UK's health secretary Sajid Javid has announced that 2 people in the UK have been found infected with the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron.
The new variant has also been identified in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel. Several other EU destinations, including Germany and the Czech Republic, say they are investigating suspected Omicron cases.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control made a statement on Friday, saying that, "given the variant's immune escape potential and potentially increased transmissibility advantage compared to Delta (Covid variant), there is a high to very high risk it will spread in Europe.
More worrying, 2 flights carrying up to 600 passengers out of South Africa – 1 from Cape Town and 1 from Johannesburg – landed on Friday at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. Dutch health authorities have now confirmed 61 of the passengers tested positive for Covid-19, but it hasn't been determined if they've been infected with the Omicron variant.
"The combination of mutations represents a significant potential risk to accelerate the waning of natural and vaccine-induced immunity".
Omicron is the latest variant of Covid-19, but it won't be the last. The biggest issue for health authorities now is to find out if Omicron has additional resistance to the current Covid vaccines being used around the world.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health on Rhode Island, US, believes the variant will create a situation where "vaccines will be rendered useless." Yesterday he said "there's more reason for concern with Omicron".
"We have seen a lot of variants pop up over the last 5, 6 months, and most of them have not amounted to much. This looks different. It's acting differently, it looks like it's much more contagious than even the Delta variant."
Moderna, manufactuers of one of the mRNA Covid vaccines, made a statement late on Friday, saying the new Omicron variant is "believed to increase transmissibility and mutations seen in the Beta and Delta variants that are believed to promote immune escape".
AstraZeneca, which is also manufactured in Thailand, is saying that it's looking to understand the impact Omicron has on its vaccine. AZ is not currently authorised for use in the US.
"AstraZeneca is also already conducting research in Botswana and Eswatini, that will enable us to collect real world data of Vaxzevria against this new virus variant," a spokesperson for the company said Friday.
AZ is also testing its antibody treatment, AZD7442, against the variant.
BioNTech, the German company that partnered with Pfizer to produce its mRNA Covid vaccine, are also testing the impact of Omicron on their vaccine. They expect preliminary results in the next few weeks.
Johnson & Johnson announced in a statement that the company was also testing the effectiveness of its vaccine against the new variant.
Thailand's Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) approved the easing of entry rules for international arrivals, including returning Thais and foreign residents, under all three schemes – TEST & GO, Sandbox Programme, and Quarantine – effective from 16 December, 2021.
The TAT Newsroom will be providing full details on each of the entry schemes as soon as the official announcement on the Royal Thai Government Gazette is available. In the meantime, below is the information announced by the CCSA.
Exemption from Quarantine (TEST & GO)
What's New:In addition to arrival by air, travellers will be allowed to enter by land (at Nong Khai's border checkpoint, starting 24 December, 2021) and sea provided that they meet the vaccination and testing requirements.
The current 1-night waiting period in a hotel and a confirmed payment (for 1-night stay at SHA++ hotel, 1 RT-PCR test, and pre-arranged airport transfer)will no longer be required.
On arrival testing will be changed to an ATK method.
Travellers under 6 years of age, travelling with parents with a negative RT-PCR test result within 72 hours before travelling, are not required to have a pre-arrival negative RT-PCR test result and can have saliva test when entering to the Kingdom.
Travellers 6-11 years of age, travelling with parents, must have a negative RT-PCR test result within 72 hours before travelling.
Travellers 12-17 years of age, travelling with parents, are not required to be vaccinated but must have a negative RT-PCR test result within 72 hours before travelling. Those unaccompanied must get vaccinated with at least one dose of an approved vaccine and must have a negative RT-PCR test result.
Travellers previously infected within 3 months before travelling must have a medical certificate of recovery or get vaccinated with at least one dose of an approved vaccine for an unspecified period of times before travelling.
Remain Unchanged:Travel from the approved countries/territories (currently 63) where travellers must have stayed for 21 days or more. Returning Thais and foreign residents, who previously travelled from Thailand, are exempt from this requirement.
An insurance policy with coverage no less than US$50,000. Thais and foreign residents who have national healthcare coverage are exempt from this requirement.
Everyone 18 years of age and older should get fully vaccinated for COVID-19 with an approved vaccine at least 14 days before travelling to Thailand, and must have a negative RT-PCR test result 72 hours before the travel date.
Living in the Blue Zone (Sandbox Destinations)
What's New:In addition to arrival by air, travellers will be allowed to enter by land (at Nong Khai's border checkpoint, starting 24 December, 2021) and sea provided that they meet the vaccination and testing requirements.
The mandatory stay will be reduced to 5 days from the current 7 days within one of the Blue Zone Sandbox destinations. This also means a confirmed payment for 5 nights at SHA+ accommodation is required.
On arrival (the first) testing will continue to use the RT-PCR method, but the second testing by an ATK method will be done sooner on Day 4-5 from currently Day 6-7.
Travellers under 6 years of age, travelling with parents with a negative RT-PCR test result within 72 hours before travelling, are not required to have a pre-arrival negative RT-PCR test result and can have saliva test when entering to the Kingdom.
Travellers 6-11 years of age, travelling with parents, must have a negative RT-PCR test result within 72 hours before travelling.
Travellers 12-17 years of age, travelling with parents, are not required to be vaccinated but must have a negative RT-PCR test result within 72 hours before travelling. Those unaccompanied must get vaccinated with at least one dose of an approved vaccine and must have a negative RT-PCR test result.
Travellers previously infected within 3 months before travelling must have a medical certificate of recovery or get vaccinated with at least one dose of an approved vaccine for an unspecified period of times before travelling.
Remain Unchanged:Travel from any country or territory in the world.
An insurance policy with coverage no less than US$50,000. Thais and foreign residents who have national healthcare coverage are exempt from this requirement.
Everyone 18 years of age and older should get fully vaccinated for COVID-19 with an approved vaccine at least 14 days before travelling to Thailand, and must have a negative RT-PCR test result 72 hours before the travel date.
Happy Quarantine Nationwide
What's New: Travellers will be able to entry Thailand at all points of entry: If fully vaccinated, 5-day quarantine (currently 7 days); if unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, 10-day quarantine, and for the rest of the arrivals, a 14-day quarantine. This also means a confirmed payment for 5 nights or 10 nights at quarantine facilities is required.
Testing will continue to use the RT-PCR method for on arrival (Day 0-1), while the second testing will be done sooner on Day 4-5, or Day 8-9, or Day 12-13, depending on the length of the quarantine period.
Remain Unchanged:Travel from any country or territory in the world.
An insurance policy with coverage no less than US$50,000. Thais and foreign residents who have national healthcare coverage are exempt from this requirement.
Kindly note that travellers under any of the entry schemes are still required to register for a Thailand Pass at https://tp.consular.go.th/.
61 passengers on South Africa flights test positive for coronavirus
Red Cross ambulances waiting to take those who tested positive to hotels. Photo: Laurens Bosch ANP
Health board officials say 61 of the 600 people on two flights from South Africa which arrived at Schiphol airport on Friday morning have now tested positive for coronavirus.
Officials said on Friday evening they expected around 85 people would prove positive, after initial tests suggested a 13% infection rate, but told news agency ANP later the actual total is 61.
All the passengers reportedly had to show a negative fast test no older than 24 hours before boarding the flight.
The passengers were kept at the airport well into the night while waiting to be tested and for the results. The Netherlands imposed a flight ban from southern Africa on Friday morning because of concerns about a new form of coronavirus, now named Omicron.
Officials say as yet they do not know if the passengers have the Omicron variant of the virus, which was first identified by South African experts, and scientists at Erasmus University in Rotterdam are now working on the samples to find out.
The World Health Organisation now says that the new variant, which has been identified in South Africa, Botswana and Hong Kong (via a traveller) appears to spread more quickly than other varieties of coronavirus.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has described it as a 'variant of concern' and said it 'may be associated with increased transmissibility, significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness and increased risk for reinfections'.
Passengers
Passengers from the two flights who tested positive were taken to a hotel where they will stay until declared coronavirus free, officials said, unless they live alone in the Netherlands, in which case they were taken home.
People with a negative test are also supposed to go into quarantine for at least five days.
One of the passengers on aboard was Stephanie Nolen, the New York Times global health reporter, who was on her first plane trip in two years and provided updates on the situation via Twitter.
Although testing negative herself, she said she wondered how long that would be the case, given the passengers were cooped up in a small space at the airport, and many were not wearing face masks.
'Probably 30% of people are wearing no mask or only over mouth. Dutch authorities not enforcing. We're just all in this unventilated room at hour 12, breathing on each other,' she said.
Others spoke about the lack of information from officials, and said it took seven hours before they were given anything to eat or drink.
Lorraine Blaauw, who runs a support group for South African families in the Netherlands, told DutchNews.nl she had been contacted by several people on board the two flights.
'It was chaos,' she said. 'No-one knew what was going on. There was no food, no milk for the babies. KLM provided 30 blankets for 600 people. The KLM crew just went home.'
The Kennemerland health board, which is responsible for testing at the airport, said it understood the frustration under passengers about the situation. 'People who have just had a long journey… were confronted with a situation we have never had to deal with before,' the health board said in a statement.
However, the operation was necessary 'in the interests of public health,' officials said.
Earlier flights
Even though testing is required before flights, the Volkskrant reported earlier this week that some 80,000 passengers on flights to the Netherlands have been seated close to people infected with coronavirus.
The infected passengers – some 11,488 in total – were spread over 9,343 flights. Passengers within two seats of the infected person in all directions, and crew members who have been in close contact the person involved, are considered to be at risk.
Health minister Hugo de Jonge has now urged everyone who recently travelled to the Netherlands from southern Africa to get a test.
However, only people whose journey is strictly necessary, live in the Netherlands or are transferring to another flight will be allowed to travel, the airline said.
61 flygpassagerare isoleras – efter testat positivt
Osäkerheten efter upptäckten av den nya virusvarianten har fått land efter land att införa reserestriktioner mot Sydafrika och andra närliggande länder i södra Afrika. Australien, Thailand och Sri Lanka är några av de senaste länder som sällar sig till bland andra EU, USA, Kanada, Ryssland, Saudiarabien, Brasilien och Storbritannien när det gäller stoppade flyg.
Sydafrikas hälsominister Joe Phaahla beskriver reserestriktionerna som "omotiverade".
-Reaktionen från några av länderna, när det gäller att införa reseförbud och andra åtgärder, är helt emot de normer och standarder som vägleds av Världshälsoorganisationen, säger han till reportrar.
"Mycket hög risk"
EU:s smittskyddsmyndighet ECDC anser att det finns "mycket hög risk" för att varianten kommer att spridas i Europa, där virusmutationen redan har upptäckts hos en ovaccinerad person som rest från Egypten till Belgien.
Tidigt på lördagen meddelade nederländska hälsomyndigheter att 61 av omkring 600 passagerare från två flighter från Sydafrika testat positivt för covid-19 på flygplatsen i Amsterdam. De isoleras på hotell och nya tester tas för att undersöka om några av de smittade bär på omikronvarianten.
Inga fall av omikron har ännu upptäckts i USA, enligt smittskyddsmyndigheten CDC. (TT)
Chonburi announces 200 new and confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 2 new deaths
Highlights:
200 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Chonburi today
158 people recovered and were released from medical care
2 new deaths
The Chonburi Department of Public Health announced 200 new and confirmedcases of Covid-19 today with 2 new deaths, November 27th.
This makes a total of 107,117 cases of Covid-19 in the current round of infections, with 2,196 people still under medical care/supervision, and with a total of 759 recorded deaths in Chonburi since the start of this recent round of infections in early April.
Additionally, 158 people were also released and recovered yesterday in Chonburi. 104,162 people in total have now been released from medical care and recovered in Chonburi since this current wave of Covid-19 began.
Only four cases out of 2,169 were listed as being in serious condition in Chonburi currently, either on a ventilator or pneumonia.
The two new deaths were males aged 86 and 52. They had personal health problems and two of them were not vaccinated.
In total, 1,821,001 people in Pattaya and Chonburi have received their first dose of a Covid -19 vaccine which is 78.91 percent of the total Chonburi population. Of those, 286,068 have received their first dose and are what the Thai government calls 608 groups (elders, have chronic health problems, and pregnant) which is 77.33 percent of those in these risk groups in Chonburi.
The district-level new cases were as follows today:
Mueang Chonburi 26, Si Racha 45, Banglamung (Pattaya) 52, Panat Nikhom 6, Sattahip 19, Ban Bueng 3, Phan Thong 4, Bor Thong 2, Ko Chan 3, soldiers in Sattahip 19, and 21 people transferred from other provinces for medical care.
The details on the cases are as follows:
Cluster, soldiers in Sattahip, 19 cases
Work and stayed in Rayong, transferred from other provinces for medical care, 13 cases
Cluster, Best Tech and Engineering company in Sattahip, 5 cases
Cluster, Celestica Thailand company in Si Racha, 5 cases
Cluster Eastern Air Logistic company in Si Racha, 5 cases
Risky occupations meeting many people, 4 cases
1 medical personnel
Back from other provinces in Chachoengsao – 1 case, Rayong – 2 cases and Samut Prakan – 1 case
Close contacts from previously confirmed cases in families – 55 cases, in workplaces – 38 cases, close friends – 5 cases, and 2 joined a parties
Close contact of a confirmed patient (under investigation), 8 cases
36 close contacts of a confirmed patient (under investigation)
