... https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand...ll-be-extended
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This article found today at the CNN website. Its a rather long piece so I have bolded parts that might be of more interest mainly tourists rather than expats. It is quite recent. Most of the items here are also the same as in Pattaya, southern Thailand.
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https://edition.cnn.com/travel/artic...vid/index.html
Hua Hin, Thailand: People sit on the beach on May 24, 2020 in Hua Hin, Thailand's oldest beach resort. Provincial officials there signed orders to re-open hotels last week. The resort town is about a 2.5-hour drive from
Bangkok (CNN) — With news that many countries in Europe are reopening to tourism in time for summer, travelers with their sights set on Asia are anxiously awaiting word on when they'll be given the green light to visit their favorite destination.
As of now, those with Thailand in mind will need to wait at least a few more months before packing their bags.
"It is still dependent on the outbreak situation, but I think at the earliest, we may see the return of tourists could be the fourth quarter of this year," Yutasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT),
And even then, he says, there will likely be restrictions on who can visit and where they can go.
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The future of tourism in the coronavirus era: Asia may hold answers to what's ahead
"We are not going to open all at once," he adds. "We are still on high alert, we just can't let our guards down yet. We have to look at the country of origin [of the travelers] to see if their situation has truly improved. And lastly, we have to see whether our own business operators are ready to receive tourists under the 'new normal'."
Similar versions of this strategy are already being looked at in the region -- referred to as "tourism bubbles." Basically, a country will open borders reciprocally with destinations that also have their coronavirus situation under control.
Once Thailand does open to international tourists, they'll likely only be able to visit certain spots, says Yutasak.
"We have studied a possibility of offering special long-stay packages in isolated and closed areas where health monitoring can be easily controlled -- for example, Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Samui. This will be beneficial for both tourists and local residents, (like this one from ToT :eek:)since this is almost a kind of quarantine."
Bangkok's famous street food vendors have reopened, but diners must follow strict social distance rules.
Yutasak says they're finishing up a framework to restart tourism, but much of the decision-making lies in the hands of the CCSA -- the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration -- which will decide when is the best time to open the border.
Phuket-based Bill Barnett, managing director of Asia-focused consulting firm C9 Hotelworks, says "baby steps are needed" to reignite international tourism.
"The next step is bilateral agreements between countries," he says. "Thailand's good standing in the face of the crisis with China, along with strong pent-up demand, make it a logical short-term solution for overseas tourism to return to the Kingdom."
For now, Thailand isn't taking any chances and the country's borders are firmly shut.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has issued a temporary ban on all international commercial flights into the country until June 30, excluding repatriation flights. The Thais who do return on these flights are put into quarantine facilities for 14 days.
Meanwhile, on May 26, the Thai Cabinet agreed to extend the nationwide state of emergency until June 30.
Thailand has seemingly managed to avoid the ravages of the virus experienced by many other nations around the world.
When this story was published, the country had recorded 3,042 Covid-19 cases and 57 deaths. It's reporting only a handful of new Covid-19 cases each day -- occasionally even zero. Instances of local transmissions are low, with most recent Covid-19 infections discovered in quarantined returnees.
Thailand is now focused on reopening to domestic tourism in June, says Yutasak. Resorts and hotels in some tourism destinations throughout the country have already been given the green light to reopen, including in Hua Hin, a popular beach resort about 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Bangkok.
Nationwide lockdown measures put in place in late March have been easing in stages throughout May.
Malls, markets, museums and some tourist attractions have already reopened and more are slated to follow. Bangkok's Grand Palace, for instance, will reopen June 4.
National parks, theme parks, stadiums, spas, massage shops and cinemas remain closed, but local media reports some will likely be given the go-ahead reopen in June.
Restaurants -- limited to offering only delivery and take-out services in late March -- can now allow customers to dine in but are banned from serving alcohol and must adhere to strict social distancing measures. Pubs and night clubs remain closed, and a curfew is in place from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
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Local transport networks are increasing services, including rail and bus lines, while airlines are upping the number of domestic flights.
Phuket International Airport, however, remains closed until further notice.
Thailand's most popular tourism island emerged as a coronavirus hotspot in March, facing the highest infection rate per capita out of all of Thailand's 77 provinces.
As a result, Phuket officials imposed strict lockdown measures and embarked on an intensive drive to test residents.
But with cases slowing to a trickle in recent days, embattled travel industry players question the continued closure of the island's airport when the rest of the country is opening to domestic flights.
"The Phuket tourism sector at the moment is sad, stunned, annoyed and dismayed at the lack of a defined plan to reopen the airport," says Barnett.
"The recent 24-hour notice by CAAT of a sustained closure was a hard pill to swallow for a damaged industry. There is no point to open hotels, while the airport is the trigger for reopening. The vague notice and lack of a clarity on when the airport [will reopen] makes it impossible for businesses to plan forward actions."
Local businesses struggle
Even with domestic tourism starting to kick off in some provinces, it's only a drop in the bucket.
In 2019, nearly 40 million tourists visited Thailand, according to government data. The TAT estimates only 14 to 16 million will visit this year.
Financially stressed hotels in need of cash flow have already started aggressively selling hotel rooms and vouchers, says Barnett, while also looking to the local market to provide some relief.
"Staycations and road trips are being touted but in a country where tourism represents 12 to 14 percent of the GDP, these small bites are not going to bridge the road to recovery," he says. "Broader ASEAN bilateral agreements and getting airports open and airlines back in the air is what's needed."https://edition.cnn.com/travel/artic...vid/index.html
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I was sitting on Hua Hin beach just the other day and this looks very much the same as then. The beach is beautiful, but the sitters not so much. The Umbrella Boys sell food and beer though the latter is still against the law but the cops are non-existent. I hide my bottle under a wind breaker (meant just for that!)
Attachment 9992
Yea, we've broken the back of this beastie. And just like all the other 'things will never be the same again' beasties before, things will be pretty much exactly the same because that's how we liked them.
Some thoughts on lifting the lockdown:
Will tourists feel safe sitting for hours on long haul flights? Outside bars will likely open with some form of social distancing, Gogo bars likely to be among the last to open and how safe will customers feel in a confined space?
On that note I really hope that someone somewhere is paying attention and looking into why ( it appears at least) that cases and deaths in Thailand ( and a few other Countries) were SO much lower than the likes of the UK to see can "whatever" helped with that be replicated here in Europe.
Im sure the Thai Government would love to clam that say it was their speedy locking of their borders or their wonderful tracing or the Thai peoples excellent social distancing resolve etc etc - all of which would be fairly untrue perhaps ( or maybe it was just poor / false reporting of their actual numbers who knows) - but WHATEVER it is / was SOMEONE should be looking into that just in CASE it's something the rest of the world ARE missing perhaps.
Some possible explanations. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...c0e_story.html
MFAS wrote.
"It will be sometime till things are “exactly the same” as the government has effectively stopped the spread by clamping down on many things and I doubt they will readily open the door to a return of the virus."
They've got time to get everything ready just how we like it. I doubt many here were planning to go until October anyway..
Na, I'm not buying the whole down to masks thing ...as lets face it when walking down the street in Pattaya or Bkk you didn't see THAT many people wearing masks and yes I grant you once shit kicked off I'm sure they were much quicker than the west at putting them on, but not in such a way as to create the vast differences in the number in deaths, also they "say" that masks if not worn correctly and put on and taken off correctly could well ADD to the problem of infection and cross infection and I'm guessing the average Thai wasn't changing and washing their mask and putting it on and off with great care every 2 hours as recommended ?
Also "surely" you'd think that scientists worldwide would by now have a fairly clear idea as to just how much masks ACTUALLY help ( or not) as even now the jury still seems to be out on that one - or maybe that's just as the West couldn't find any mask supplies of masks and weren't try to encourage their use by the population at large until they could source what they needed for the NHS etc ?
But masks being THE reason, no, I'm not so sure about that perhaps.......
I agree masks are probably not THE reason, however:
1 Countries with mask wearing required have had better results, almost without exception.
2 The tossers at the W.H.O. have avoided recommending masks, as they want to preserve them for healthcare professionals. One by one, western countries have started to change their position and either suggest, recommend or mandate mask wearing by the public in certain settings.
3 It doesn't take long looking for research material to find evidence of airborne covid, attached to larger particles which a mask can remove.
4 The only reason for the 2m distancing rules is for airborne transmission, since you can avoid physically touching people at <0.5m distancing. So airborne transmission is considered to be a factor. Which means a good mask should help.
5 If masks help in hospitals, they should help anywhere else where Covid might be in the air.
Looking at the numbers is like trying to decipher a pattern in a dartboard. Nothing make a sense. There seems to be wild anomalies between cases and deaths.
Not sure where you walk down the streets in Pattaya, but I do and about everyone is wearing a mask. Even on side sois at night I see children in a mask.
Here is an article which encourages mask wearing from a respected website.
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/2020...1E8Rzamg1E8%3d
Yeah I meant more in general and at the very start of the outbreak more perhaps as “in general” unless last they were Chinese ( or sick) Thai people “in general” didn’t wear masks whilst walking about the streets in Pattaya or elsewhere so the initial transmission numbers would one would have thought been about the same at the start of the outbreak.
Of course once it kicked in their adherence to wearing masks was much higher than in the West and perhaps that helped, but not enough surely to allow for the massive difference in deaths, especially when you factor in how many of their masks through bad fitting and hygiene issues were probably quite ineffective anyway no doubt.
And the same the shaking of hands as it’s said Thais Wai’ing may have helped too, but let’s face it the 1940’s version of the UK where we all go about shaking hands with each other is long consigned to history now in most cities in the UK so I doubt handshaking made a huge dent in the numbers either.
No doubt the answer will be found someday, my bet is going on genetics mainly with all the other small differences certainly helping along the way.
there is no "THE reason" - it is always a combination of reasons and the mix is different in different countries but the mix has many common elements
for Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, South Korea, and to some extent Thailand, the initial response was based on previous experience with SARS - respond quickly, respond strongly, testing, contact tracing, isolation of infected patients, restricting movement, wearing masks in public, etc
much has been written in the major news services about the comparison between these countries and their responses and the typical responses in many western countries based more on their experience with influenza, and also their slower and less organised and less coordinated responses, but in the end no country has a perfect record - even Singapore and South Korea are experiencing resurgences for different reasons
a perhaps bit of a rose-coloured view of the situation in Thailand, but it raises some interesting points:
Thailand and COVID-19: What’s Happened and What’s Next,
Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, CSEAS NEWSLETTER, 78
and the mask issue is a complex one and policy is also evolving as we learn more about how the virus can be spread, particularly in confined spaces and in air-conditioned spaces etc, and as we progress towards making pragmatic decisions about how to get people, and the economy, moving again while significantly reducing the risk of infection (not eliminating it!) in scenarios where "social distancing" may not be practical, eg on public transport, in aircraft, in office buildings and lifts, etc and masks are an essential part of this
currently, perhaps the best analogy for why we should all be wearing masks is with pissing while naked:
Quote:
Imagine we were all walking around naked - if someone started pissing then it would splash on everyone around, but if you were wearing clothes much less would actually get through to your body, and if the person pissing (even if they didn't realise they were pissing) was wearing clothes then much less would get spread around to everyone else
I expect very few countries have an accurate figure for the number of cases, as it is heavily influenced by test capacity. Arguably that figure is for decoration.
In the case of the UK, I think they estimated something like 6.7% have had the virus, based on antibody sampling. So something over 4 million.
Also, there are different criteria for deciding who is recorded as a Covid death in each country.
Here is another article published in the New York Times regarding the efficacy of wearing a mask.I quote one portion of the article below:
Apart from avoiding crowded indoor spaces, the most effective thing people can do is wear masks, all of the experts said. Even if masks don’t fully shield you from droplets loaded with virus, they can cut down the amount you receive, and perhaps bring it below the infectious dose.
“This is not a virus for which hand washing seems like it will be enough,” Dr. Rabinowitz said. “We have to limit crowds, we have to wear masks.”
The full article can be read in this link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/h...sion-dose.html
Perhaps too early to say for sure exactly how effective masks are but food for thought.
Since this virus became prevalent, I've been wearing a mask when on public transport and in planes and shops etc.
My initial logic was that I shouldn't assume western experts & the WHO are right, whilst those in China, Taiwan, Japan etc are wrong. Being arrogant in that way can lead to bad decisions.
Then I found some papers covering the issue of airborne droplets. There's a better one somewhere, but here's an example in the link. I continued wearing my mask in the locations described above.
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2.../12/2006874117
Now some western governments have slowly seen the light and started recommending or mandating wearing of masks.
Somehow the gogo bars remain hopeful that business will resume in the near future when you read their online postings with pictures of fresh-faced boys in alluring attires, flashing smiles in coy poses.
Does anyone recognise the blond guy in the picture below who was quite popular in Eros Bar of yore?
Yep. That's "blondie". He's from the Akha ethnic group in Myanmar and has (had?) a long-term Swiss boyfriend.
He was definitely not my type, but he was always friendly and loved to chat - a really lovely guy. He was totally uninhibited and up for anything - and was the most infamous bottom boy in the bar.
Yeah, to the point of "Ok, PLEASE stop now, really that's MORE than enough, you're almost putting me off my beer!" - especially when he was Mao ! My god I nearly had to hide my face behind a cushion sometimes he was that full on......until I remembered just what those cushions had usually been used for and quickly thought better of it ! lol
Am I the only one who dislikes the dyed blond hair with black eyebrows look ?
Best to do the eyebrows AND the hair the same colour. "Collars & cuffs".
Further down, I'm less fussy, although below the belt, it's better to wax or shave.
Yes that is Ray or as he said Lay.After Eros closed he worked at Euro Boy Bar.
looks like a mini me of that dwarf that runs N.Korea
"Have you got a monk fetish?"
Who hasn't? Did you see Christian Slater in The Name of the Rose?
Regarding wearing masks, I noticed a slight decline among Thais wearing them today. And some farangs are using them as a chin strap or a mouth guard which negates their purpose. I expect there will be a reoccurrence of covid.
francois....u definitely are a couple of croissants short of a banquet...