spoon

I know and already mentioned issues regarding covid19 spread amingst foreign workers is happening both in malaysia and singapore, hence the mass testing done to most foreign workers in both countries. Those registered foreign workers are traceable but ubfortunately, the illegal ones are not easy to trace. The condition of their housing, often in dormitories where 10-20 of them in one big rooms are one of few reason that a breakout within foreign workers is rampant. That is also true in detention centers for illegals, where malaysia's most recent return to the 3 digits daily cases were attributed to, and as a result, all detainees in 20 plus detention center nationwide undergone mass testing. Its a white elephant in the room that thai gov choose to ignore, and i guess since its from the southern region, and not near the center where most of the population resides, its seems not a priority. The argument about increase of unaccounted death are also dubious at best as most of the foreign workers are young and fit, so their death rate are much lower in the first place, and if you dont test the dead for covid, you wouldnt find out if the dead is due to covid or not. This also explain the low death rate for singapore and malaysia as well despite higher number of cases. That doesnt stop the young foreign workers who are positive from spreading the virus though. I guess since the south isnt as densely populated and i believe most foreign workers in the south work in plantation or fishery where they arent living amongst the thai population, it is still contained. I dont blame thai gov for not pursuing mass testing, especially foreign national, as it is not cheap, but not doing so might hide the reality and also hinder their decision to open up economy. They are doing the right thing to be cautious though and i believe this does contribute to why they are very hesitant to open up border and allow more foreigners to come in (which includes more foreign workers as well). I do believe the gov are aware of this hence they are delaying the opening of borders.

This confirmed my concern regarding thailand not mass testing foreign workers as their neighbors do. And further strenghten the reason why thai gov hesitate to open the country even when they have no locally transmitted case for more than 20 days. If 23 out of 35 myanmar citizen tested positive after coming back from thailand, i wonder how many more of them who is in thailand still might be positive.

Im disappointed that you didnt even bother to answer OP and give advise.

All i can say is wishful thinking. Yup, its easy to find wealthy tourist willing to stay in expensive hotel for 14 days before allowed to travel elsewhere in the country. Isnt that just similar to being quarantine, except its in a bigger area instead. Im sure there will be those who might go though but i doubt thatll really save thailand tourism.

Sauna mania and R3 sauna will open as well. I wonder if they will also follow babylon and only open the gym and pool only.

That gives about 4.7k per night for 14 night stay. Not too shabby especially if pattaya s part of the holiday lol

Coronavirus: Dexamethasone proves first life-saving drug Seems like there are headways on the treatment drug that cuts the death rate up to a third in those on ventilator and a fifth of those using oxygen.

Agree that they still didnt find vaccine for either sars or mers, though infection rate arent nearly as high as covid and sars practically gone on its own before the vaccine were developed. One can argue there isnt a vaccine because they dont have enough motivation to find one. Neither of the two virus have shutdown the economy and borders of almost 90% of the countries in the world nor have any of the two registered death in the hundred thousands and cases in the millions. But then again, certain infectious disease still dont have vaccine such as HIV, Hep C, and for HIV, the prevention switched gear to prevenatative medicine instead of vaccine. Treatment is definitely a more urgent and pressing issue to tackle now though. While treatment alone wont help curbing the infection, if it can significantly bring the death count down, its worth pursuing. Some of HIV treatment drugs have now been used as PREP, and certainly if that can be applied to Covid-19 as well, those high risk group will also benefit from this. Vaccine is ideal for us to go back to the normal though.

U can ask bareback expert @gaperking

Lets be honest, low risk country is one part of the equation but the major part of their decision is which country that will brings the most money, which is why singapore is also included while they are having hundreds of new cases daily. Cant blame them as the main reason to open up border is money, so if you are going to take risk, u want the reward to justify the risk. That said, this is all temporary steps taken until vaccine is found. After that, most likely the only requirement will be you have to be vaccinated to travel.

Soi 6, has long been neglected, except for tawan and the lesser of the 3 small host bar tucked away in the smaller sub soi. Maybe soi4/2 bars might go there as well. Location wise it is still convenient.

Gentrification of the area, hopefully for the better. As we can see before in soi twilight, most of the destruction also resulted in either the movement of the bars or a rebirth of bars such as lucky boys. Soi 4 bars like jupiter will surely take another venue, most likely on the same road as the other gay bars, perhaps replacing one of the straight girlie bars that didnt survive. The night market transformation is what id like to see! Hopefully some beer bars will grab the prime location and we will see a revival of dicks/maxis of soi twilight there. Food trucks at the like, more foods that can be enjoyed hopefully at street food price, nothing wrong with that lol. One thing Bangkok have too much already is the place to shop for cheap knock off.

My prediction is sort of right, economic hardship due to covid19 means more guys will enter the scene. Sad reality but i guess if i were there, id like to think im helping distributing the wealth and helping the poor.

Foreigners doesnt just mean tourist/expat, it also includes the many migrant workers. Given that malaysia, singapore both experiencing surges in cases when mass testing were done for migrant workers, its not unfounded for thai to fear the foreigners, at lrast for the time being. Thai gov didnt adopt to mass testing so the uncertainty is high. Instead of mass testing the migrant workers, this is the easy way to isolate them. Of course this is in no way justify isolating every foreigners but its just easier lol. TIT.

Could the bar open as restaurant instead? Serving food or takeaway alcoholic drink but doesnt serve at the bars?

I know some boys in pattaya have work permit, so i guess will be the one coming back sooner but i doubt they can produced insurance coverage as of the current requirement. Interested to see the development of boys returning to thailand as well.

To add to this article, most of malaysian recent cases, as well as significant jump in daily cases (since 25 may, 172 cases as opposed to 60 cases day before) was due to increase testing of migrants workers and expats, with the last few weeks has been on detention centers of illegal immigrants cases surges. Local transmission rate between citizens has been relatively low the past few weeks (hovering between single digits to 20). Only 7 cases today (2 imported cases from returning citizen and 5 local transmission mainly from close contact) marks the lowest daily cases we had.

COVID-19: Thailand’s Looming Second Wave Can Thailand avoid following in Singapore’s footsteps by upgrading its treatment of migrant workers? Health experts warn that Thailand is vulnerable to a second wave of COVID-19 infections due to neglect of the country’s massive migrant labor sector. Migrant workers often live in squalid, cramped conditions without adequate sanitation and poor access to medical care. Thai media has fanned anti-migrant prejudice creating a “us” (Thai citizens) versus “them” mentality. But Dr. Vit Suwanvanichkij, an epidemiologist with long experience of assisting migrant communities, warned that “COVID-19 does not distinguish between Thais and non-Thais. An outbreak in any of these crowded migrant settlements affects all of us; there is no such thing as ‘us’ or ‘them.’ From a COVID-19 standpoint, these are the proverbial ticking time bombs.” The 3.9 million migrants in Thailand — approximately 10 percent of the total workforce — have been hit hardest by mass lay-offs of workers since the COVID-19 outbreak. Johnny Adhikari runs a migrant charity called Metta in the Thai -Myanmar border town of Mae Sot. He told The Diplomat that “90 percent of all Myanmar migrants have lost their jobs, leaving over 750,00 people stranded in Thailand since the borders were closed without any income. Many are desperate for food and shelter.” Three Thailand-Myanmar border checkpoints have been partially reopened since May 19 to permit migrants to get back home. But with Myanmar ill-prepared to provide sufficient quarantine facilities for returnees, only 50,000 have been accepted for repatriation so far at the Mae Sot immigration checkpoint. Many fear that Thailand is highly vulnerable to the kind of second wave of COVID-19 infections that caught Singapore by surprise. In early April, Singapore was being hailed as one of the countries that had got its coronavirus response right. It appeared that the city-state seemed to have suppressed cases without imposing the restrictive lockdown measures endured by millions elsewhere. But the authorities sadly neglected to include the migrant labor dormitories in their COVID-19 prevention management plan. Tommy Koh, Singapore’s former foreign minister, wrote on Facebook: “The dormitories were like a time bomb waiting to explode. The way Singapore treats its foreign workers is not First World, but Third World.” As a result of this oversight, more than 20,000 of Singapore’s migrant workers caused an unexpected “second wave” of confirmed cases, with the city-state regularly reporting over 1,000 new cases a day at one point. The country now has over 34,800 confirmed cases after having a total of exactly 1,000 cases on April 1. Adisorn Kerdmongkul, the manager of the Migrants Working Group (MWG), is worried that Thailand’s neglect of the plight of 700,000 vulnerable migrants could also bring about a dramatic surge in infections, as happened in Singapore. “They are not able to take care of themselves financially and their health suffers,” Adisorn added. “At the same time, without thorough testing and medical checks, it is feared that many poor people may be infected.” The problem of the migrant health in Thailand was summed up by Brahm Press, the director of migrant support agency MAP Foundation in Chiang Mai: “Migrants are always the last to be considered in health care. and the last to receive PPE protective aids.” At Thailand’s Ministry of Health, Dr. Supakit Sirilak, the deputy permanent secretary, told The Diplomat the authorities “are aware of the threat of a second wave, but we think Thai situation is less vulnerable than Singapore.” “We have alerted all provinces to mount health checks on migrant communities,” Supakit continued. “We have done saliva testing for COVID-19 on 6,000 migrants in the provinces and they all turned out negative.” However migrant organizations are not convinced there has been enough Thai government support. Migrant adviser Adisorn reported after the economic shutdowns, “We found that around 500,000 migrants had not received health insurance renewals due to their loss of work permits and around 1,000,000 migrant workers were without social security.” But that would not stop migrants from getting hospital treatment, according to the government. Dr. Supakit claimed that “if migrants have no health insurance and no money to pay for it, then the hospital has to provide free treatment.” However, Adisorn disputed this claim, saying, “Migrants are too afraid to visit a hospital without any money. because many hospitals will not accept them.” This is why the migrant NGOs like the Mekong Migration Network and other humanitarian agencies have appealed to the Thai government to declare “a clear policy of access to free public healthcare appropriately prepared to deal with the complexities of a pandemic.” That a major outbreak of COVID-19 infection among migrants has not already occurred in Thailand can largely be attributed to the dedicated work of the Migrant Health Volunteers (MHVs) network, which reaches out to the migrant communities. Migrant workers make up a large share of people in provinces like Ranong and Samut Sakhon in central Thailand where certain pockets are known as “Little Myanmar.” Viroonsiri Arayawong, a researcher of the Department of Health Service Support, told the Bangkok Post that “MHVs and the VHV [Thai Volunteer Health Workers] form the backbone of manpower controlling the spread of diseases in migrant worker communities.” MHVs are usually from the same nationalities as the migrant workers, and act as interpreters for Thai officials passing on information about COVID-19 infections. The Health Ministry’s Dr. Supakit also cited the Migrant Health Volunteers as very important, saying, “We have provided medical training to the volunteers with 500 operating in Samut Prakhon alone. They are effective in five provinces.” But what will happen in the capital, Bangkok, with a large migrant worker population not covered by the volunteer scheme? The health ministry admits that Bangkok, where at least 16 migrants have already tested positive, is a major concern. The health ministry concedes that they need more funds to help migrants, but Dr. Supakit noted “we cannot use the special Thai budget for unemployed workers” for that purpose. The budget only covers Thai workers, “and the cabinet says it cannot be extended to cover migrant workers.” At the same time, the ministry admits that with migrants living in dormitories, sometimes with eight people in one room, social distancing is impossible, and their accommodation especially in the capital, needs to be improved. Is the Thai government doing enough to avert another Singapore-style disaster? Dr. Vit Suwanvanichkij predicts that “the cramped and squalid migrant living conditions that give rise to these heightened vulnerabilities will continue to pose omnipresent threats to Thailand’s prospects of being able to sustain successful control initiatives in the country.” But the COVID-19 emergency also provides an opportunity for Thailand to reflect on the importance of migrants to the Thai economy, and to take better care of their welfare and rights in accordance with International Labor Organization conventions. The strong message from migrant aid groups and UN agencies is that protecting the rights of migrants will also benefit Thai citizens, by taking all necessary precautions to avert a second wave of infections.

There is an article relating about asian countires policies on Tuberculosis vaccine has something to do with relatively low cases and low death rate early on. But then, we have indonesia and philliphines death rates that doesnt follow such trend.

Easiest things to do first is opening up regional or border countries. Sadly, in SE region, we had few countries with high daily cases still with many still afraid of second wave, so it wont be as quick as one can hope for. Some countries are also battling illegal immigrant trying to enter the country through borders too.

I commented before that two countries needed to create a mutual agreement in order to open up international travel. I came to a recent article in timeout and they gave the name to this, coined as travel bubble, quoting britain-france plan. This will avoid the quarantine requirement, and contained the virus spreading only within this bubble. Other than immigration limitation to international travelling, the risk is not much different than domestic travelling. If both gov mutually agrees to shoulder the risk together, then we can potentially see boost in international tourism soon. I might oversimplify this as this can be very tough to achieve.

Malaysia gov has opened up domestic travel. Within an hour, 1000 hotels bookings made to one island destination, langkawi. 5 stars hotel slashing prices up to 70%.

Btw, malaysia gov just announced there will be no 14 days quarantined for returning malaysian citizens starting 10th June. All returnee will be required to be tested though, and can go back home once a negative test result is obtained. Things are looking good on one end now.

Thats what im thinking too, just let us travel already haha.

What i found from the above link. Only the strongest will travel as tourists focus more on their health and safety. This means Gen Y or Millennials are expected to be the first to come back during any recovery period. Services must be adjusted to serve this group; who are self-assured, have high standards, expect new innovations to combat the health situation, and are concerned for family and friends once back home.