On Wednesday I wrote about a tourist from the UAE who just arrived in Phuket under the Sandbox program that tested Covid-positive locally and now a fellow passenger who was sitting nearby this individual got detained as well – “just in case” !
According to local news outlet The Thaiger who conducted a video interview with the lady she was told over the phone that she’s now in a high risk group and then kicked out of her hotel without any support from the authorities.
The whole drama got kicked off when the first tourist who arrived on an Emirates flight on Tuesday tested positive during his first check:
Phuket Sandbox Tourist Tests Positive For CoV19, Entire Tour Group Moved To Quarantine Hotel
According to recent news reports the remaining 13 family members that traveled with the passenger who tested positive (despite being fully vaccinated with a Chinese vaccine) have requested to return home to the UAE rather than being detained in Phuket for two weeks.
What does the Tourism Authority of Thailand think about this whole situation? Apparently they love the idea:
A total of 13 tourists who just arrived in Phuket asked to return home after boarding the same inbound flight with a traveller who tested positive for Covid-19.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is telling travellers to acknowledge the risk of quarantine measures upon arrival, in accordance with provincial rules.
“All of them agreed to return home as the provincial health authority allowed them to depart since last night. We’re considering rewarding them with special privileges if they plan to revisit Thailand in the future,” said Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of TAT.
Mr Yuthasak said travellers in the sandbox scheme already acknowledge the possibility of a 14-day quarantine if they are determined to be a high-risk group, according to the certificate of entry application process.
Phuket’s screening measures need to be strictly maintained to assure the highest level of health and safety on the island, he said. …
And this is exactly how the predicament of the poor lady started who is now sitting in a Phuket ALQ hotel at a cost of 52,000 Baht – hey, according to the video below she at least has a balcony.
The tourist has to cover the entire cost of the new accommodation by herself and naturally due to having no Covid symptoms and not even having tested positive herself, no travel health insurance will cover this expense either.
According to the Sandbox rules she will get a refund from the initial hotel but the price of the quarantine facility is 3x higher.
Here is the video interview from The Thaiger this morning:
The part of where she mentions that this was communicated to her simply by a phone call to a hotel representative without anything in writing or any government official is where this entire situation becomes a complete twilight zone.
She was forced to find this quarantine hotel on her own (again without any support) and I wonder how that is even possible if the geniuses in Phuket consider someone to be of high risk.
This is developing into a total PR disaster for the Tourism Authorities and once again the Thai Government as they apparently have zero control over the process should something go wrong. Just slam the door, off in the slummer you go!
Emirates apparently didn’t take sufficient precautions to seat passengers far away from each other either. They utilize a Boeing 777 to fly to Phuket and the flight was extremely light in relation to the aircraft capacity. Why are passengers sitting anywhere near each other? It might be a good idea to ask airlines to seat you far away from anyone else should you travel to Thailand. Airlines should block seat maps accordingly as well to ensure distance.
There is also no way to add a layer of financial protection to this situation. A travel health insurance will only cover associated expenses if you develop an illness yourself. They won’t be covering a quarantine accommodation just because the government decides on a whim to lock you up.
Thailand needs to make some urgent changes to these programs. If they want to penalize people based on where they sat on the incoming flight or got in contact with without returning any indication for an infection then these expenses need to be covered by the government. Or even better, letting some sense of sanity prevail and release the individual if test results give the all clear.
To summarize this whole situation I think one word is sufficient: Bonkers!
Conclusion
A lady was was sitting nearby a CoV+ Phuket Sandbox arrival has now been isolated in a quarantine hotel and will have to bear the entire cost of this arrangement. Apparently even sitting nearby someone on the plane is now landing you in detention despite your own tests all coming back negative – this is absolutely insane!
I’m sure this won’t be the last we hear of this and inevitably there will be other cases coming up as well. How will the affected people be dealt with? Unless there is a significant change in process they can just as well close their Sandbox immediately as this will further deter people from utilizing it. The setup as it sits right now is totally unacceptable.
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If I agreed that there is an illness problem (I don’t), I would inquire about all the people she encountered here and there. After all, someone was, undoubtedly, sitting near her, someone stood near her, etc. ad nauseum.
And, best I can tell from the stories, neither she nor passenger 0 is actually ill.
Another paranoid decision from a paranoid country.
I have no desire to go there, so it won’t ever affect me.
Incompetence continues to prevail in Thailand! It never ends. Lived there for 7 years….thank God I left 8 years ago! NOW….close to 10,000 cases a day! Why would anyone want to fly into Phuket? They must be really hard up for a “vacation”.
I am not afraid of the corona. Not the slightest.
I warned people of this. It is a stupid idea and its as simple as that. With at least 100,000 active cases and 60,000 new cases this week why would you go anyway.
60,000 + x. The x being the scary part here as the real number is widely believed (in medical circles) to be 3x as high as the official one.
I am not afraid of the covid. Not the slightest.
Haha – I warned that something like this would happen. Even though this woman was not a typical tourist as she eventually wants to get an ED VISA and study Thai, the way she was treated is deplorable. Likewise for all of the other “tourists” sent back home and made to endure this nightmare through no direct fault of their own. Bottom line – the sandbox has failed and forget any more tourists coming now that this has gotten out into the media here. Besides, Bangkok is now going into lockdown, inter provincial travel is restricted, and there is nothing open to see now for tourists. The vaccine rollout has also been a severe failure. Most vaccinated have been given the ineffective Sinovac and this will prove to be another bad government decision when these people get infected by new variants. The country is in one of the worst modern economic depressions ever. Recovery may take years – not months . At this rate Thailand will be lucky to welcome any tourists by the end of this year.
Covid kills less than a percent of those who get it. I sure hope they continue to destroy economies everywhere to protect us
So you’re OK with a mere 1% dying? In the US, that’s 3.6 million people.
Add on those who now have long term health issues thanks to covid, say another 10%.
That’s 36 million.
But, hey, as long as the economy is fine, then no big deal, right?
Read the CDC data, not the editorials in support of their patented medicines/serums. Your numbers are hyperbolic.
According to reports published by Unicef, far more people die from starvation as a direct consequence of the lockdowns. And those 0.4% that die with the covid die WITH corona, not necessarily from. Furthermore, in Sweden the average age for those dying with covid is 84. Lastly, a bad flu kills 0.1% of people who gets it. So, if you are of the opinion that the whole world should lockdown (do the lockdown, masks, etc. help at all?) because of a infection mortality rate at 0.4%, then you must also be of the opinion that the whole world must lockdown because of the common flu. So, lockdown forever. Great life 🙂
It kills 0.4%. And almost only people who are very sick and very old already. In Sweden, for ex., the average for people dying with covid is 84.
It kills 0.4%. And almost only people who are very sick and very old already. In Sweden, for ex., the average for people dying with covid is 84.
There is an German Honorary Consul General in Phuket, not a full-fledged consulate. Honorary Consuls are typically locals acting on behalf of the embassy in the capital city of the country in which they are located. But it would still be useful for Stephanie to contact her or him.
From my own experience dealing with the German Embassy in Bangkok I can just say they are utterly useless even in emergency situations. I doubt they’d bother to do anything in this case, let alone put pressure on the Thai government.
So how many people did the infected person and their family infect on their way back home again? I mean, they could not swim between Thailand and the U.A E. so how did they get home without exposing other travellers and travel staff to this infected person.
Something not right here about the infected person saying they were returning home. Did they fake their test to be allowed back on the plane?
Why do I think all that family are still elsewhere in Thailand partying?
The infected passenger won’t be allowed to return home. Emirates only accepts passengers with a negative test. His family requested to go home but I haven’t seen any report in the media that they in fact did return. I think Emirates didn’t even have another flight since Tuesday.