anddy

ah yes that's right, or else be subject to SHN.... argh

unfortunately tonight not, but tomorrow. PM rejects the idea of closong bars "for the time being", but that "time being" of course can be 12 or 24 or 48 hours... lol As for implementing measures "when it gets worse", then it's actually moore or less too late. Best analysis I found on this all is this: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

ouch! That sucks Maybe @paulsf can find out more on the ground...

Here! Germans may generally perceived as dry, but still have a sense of humor. In fact, the chatrooms are buzzing with corona-related memes in German. Here is a selection: The Police advises: Do not leave valuables in your car that are visible from the outside Some visitors are coming, I'd better be on the safe side March.... and I have all Christmas presents already! 2 weeks ago you'd cough to cover a fart - not it is the other way around Couldn't wash its hands - went extinct (Interview at desk of HR office) In 2020 there is a gap in your resume, where were you then? Washing my hands

I had the app on my phone for quite some time, but found it entirely useless. It simply wouldn't show flight arrivals or departures as it was purporting to. So eventually I uninstalled the app.

Many thanks, so resourceful! I still find it absurd that it is not on the government website where it should be, or if it is, almost impossible to find.

never seen or heard of it before....

They say the form is available on the website (as it should be), but I was unable to locate it (surprise surprise, messy Thai government websites....). I couldn't even find as much as a hint or mention of this on the DDC website.... https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/eng/index.php Link anyone?

They must mean TM6? TM8 is an entirely different form, used to apply for a re-entry permit, so completely unrelated to the current situation

to put it mildly speaking of Luthansa: they have grounded their entire A380 fleet for the time being. Qantas is rumoured to do the same.

It seems pretty clear to me that these things only apply to flights originating in the "Disease Infected Zone": Further to @macaroni21's comment about "another example of over-reaction by officials without thinking things through", the requirement marked in red is another such item. Such a certificate is impossible to issue, or if issued, it can't be relied. on. Who is supposed to determine someone "has no risk of covid-19"? Any GP? Or just hospitals? And how? And when, like on the day of departure? Or a day before? Or two? The passenger might be free of the virus in the morning (or two days prior), get the certificate, then catch it somewhere between then and boarding the aircraft. It's just not possible. It's not like the certificates needed for some types of visa that the person doesn't have stage 3 Syphilis or Leprosy, or Elephantiasis, where a negative certification is possible. Silly, Source of quote: https://www.tatnews.org/2020/03/tat-update-notification-of-the-civil-aviation-authority-of-thailand-on-covid-19-control-measures/

Italy: see my post above. 4.2%, the average age of which is 81. Higher rate in Hubei: one explanation I read and that seemed plausible was that the disease was new and at first nobody knew what it was and how to deal with it hospitals got overwhelmed with these "mysterious pneumonia cases" (as it was dubbed then), thus leading to a shortage of appropriate ICU treatment (e.g. respirators) leading to otherwise avoidable deaths Remember how they built emergency hospital(s) there in ONE WEEK, because they had to. So the second point above seems very plausible indeed. Also interestingly, note that the rate in S. Korea is MUCH lower at only 0.7%. I just read in the current issue of The Economist that S. Korea is testing at a rate of 10,000 a day, so it is unsurprising that they have more reported cases. Hence a lower death rate too. The US, on the other hand, according to the same Economist article as of March 1st has "indefensibly tested only 472 people" and thus only 159 reported cases.

exactly. Key quote from the Post article Mack posted above: "confusion persists" - we'll I'd say not only among the public trying to make sense of it all, but as much in the government. TIT indeed 555

As it is, the REAL death rate is very much up in the air. Not only does it depend on the highly unreliable denominator, at this point it also varies dramatically between some of the countries with a relatively high number of cases. Country cases deaths rate Global 102,188 3,491 3.4% China 80,651 3,070 3.8% S. Korea 6,767 44 0.7% Iran 4,747 124 2.6% Italy 4,636 197 4.2% Source of cases & deaths (as of writing this post): https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 It appears the WHO number is the unfiltered global number, not taking into account the uncertain denominator. As for Italy: it looks alarmingly high but at the same time it confirms the age thing, allowing younger folks to relax: The AVERAGE age was a whopping 81, so there must have been many many in their 90s.

Yeah it sucks big time. I am all booked to go to a big rave in Germany early April, but I expect to see it suffer the same fate any day now But bugs me most about all this is that grossly overblown risk everyone cites. Like gCircuit saying this: Well no, it's not really that "deadly", especially not for the young crowds going to such a party. SARS, MERS, Ebola are really really seriously deadly (and yet they stopped vaccine research into those, as the immediate danger had passed. So smart...). I'd say still come to BKK. It's not the same as most (all?) Songkran public events have also been cancelled. But maybe things have calmed down a little by then and fun can still be had. Who knows if you'll book a new trip to BKK with the bf if you cancel this one, so it would be a missed opportunity to show him this part of the world. As for the general situation in BKK: apart from less people in many places, especially tourist spots, and alco-gel dispensers in malls and other places, daily life is business as usual. Gogo bars are open as normal, albeit obviously suffering from a lack of (Chinese) customers.

That's indeed painfully slow. That's 112 kmh, which I consider excruciatingly slow on a motorway. Especially in a gigantic country like the US with sometimes highways straight as an arrow for tens or even hundreds of miles. In European countries the motorway speed limit typically ranges from 120 to 140. 120 is still slow, 140 is more decent, but kinda rare afaik (Italy). Of course, the limit will be lower in areas that are more dangerous, such as very curvy and/or hilly stretches. Doesn't have to be a uniform one size fits all.

From the Author of "Very Thai", now his brand new take on Bangkok in "Very Bangkok" https://www.khaosodenglish.com/life/arts/2020/03/05/british-authors-very-bangkok-deftly-dissects-thai-capital/

haha so true! looking forward to the review of that massage

though that puts Monaco and Liechtenstein at only 3 per 100,000, not quite the most risky ones, but competing closely with Italy.

wrong, twice as dangerous are Monaco and Liechtenstein, both having one case each as well, but about half the population of Andorra.

the first advice for returnees from high-risk countries to self-quarantine actually implies that the entire populations of these countries ought to do the same. Thai PBS World still carries a story (https://www.thaipbsworld.com/new-anti-virus-measures-for-foreign-visitors-and-thais-returning-from-high-risk-areas/) that ALL visitors/returnees from such countries are "will be subject to 14-days home quarantine, even if they are cleared of the disease" and other measures (such as requirement of proof of lodging for self-quarantine purposes, or else denial of entry). HOWEVER, the Bangkok Post (https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1870669/11-risk-zones-defined-to-facilitate-measures) reported the publication of the 9 country list and said: In a similar vein, Khaosod English in a report about the impending return of thousands of illegal Thai workers from S.Korea (https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2020/03/03/2-thai-workers-returning-from-korea-suspected-of-coronavirus-infection/) says Who knows what's actually going to come of this.... Maybe there are no laws, but they might just invoke some "national emergency" to do it anyway. Even Italy, a much more democratic nation than Thailand, has locked down a virus stricken town. Guess it's fair to say "the situation is fluid".

was just in Surawong/Patpong briefly, observed the opposite. Hardly any people around, or to be more precise: it was dead. Bought a mango shake and asked about it, vendor unsurprisingly confirmed "SUPER quiet"

He actually received something like 8 or 10 garlands the night before. It was so many I was unable to count them. Clearly several more than 5, so it was at least 8, maybe up to 10. I tried to understand his speech in the video clip Moonlight circulated online, but the audio wasn't clear enough to understand the Thai part. Now I regret even more not going to his last night, missing his She Bangs and shower performances

certainly true! hope so... yeah but Babe was/is special... it's not his body that attracts me, it's his insanely cute looks... Was thinking about going tonight for his last night there but didn't. Now already kinda regretting it lol. Only myself to blame haha. But then it's not too bad as I was at Moonlight yesterday with @paulsf so at least got to see Babe live for a (temporarily?) last time.

We happened to be at Moonlight tonight, but this news came slightly too late, or else we'd have inquired right away about Babe's future. So sad, now no opportunity to off him (for the time being)