Serious Covid Surges & Restrictions

Bangkok and major provinces surrounding it (such as mine) are now experiencing real pandemic deep shit.  The Covid-19 virus – and especially its Delta variant – is surging, with record numbers of infections and deaths here.  Vastly more than all of 2020’s casualties combined.  It’s bad.  And the vaccination programs here are scandalously slow, ill-conceived and uniformly bungled up – a total embarrassment. 

From this weekend, we are under a curfew: from about 20:00 hours (8pm) to 04:00, and people must stay home unless for absolute emergencies.  Supermarkets and neighborhood convenience stores are by necessity open, but they have more restricted hours, so I am able to get to them for food, either by taxi (in the case of supermarkets) or by trekking on foot to the local neighborhood stores to fill my backpack.  All malls are closed except for their pharmacies, supermarkets, electronic-communications stores, and take-out services from restaurants.  Most everything must close at 20:00 hours.   

But if the government tries to outlaw the total purchase of alcohol – like they did for ten days in the April 2020 lockdown – I fear there will be a revolution, because folks here are really pissed. 

As for my own chances of getting vaccinated soon:  not good.  It is an absurdly incompetent roll-out.  The Thai government is offering free Covid vaccinations – mostly the Chinese vaccines, which no one has much confidence in – but they are so limited in supply that they are gone in an instant.  These and other, more respected, vaccines are promised with numerous websites dedicated to pre-registering for them, but the websites freeze up due to incredibly heavy demand, and pre-register slots are gone immediately.  Then there was the special government-run website for expats’ vaccinations, which was quickly hacked, with registered participants’ data leaked.  Bungle in the jungle.  Again.

Tuk has tried to register her parents and I for Moderna vaccine when it will be (hopefully) available in October at a private hospital for a fee.  She wants an additional jab of this for herself, since she only had the Chinese Sinovac jabs.  She apparently got us registered and paid for – yet I think the hospital registered more shots than they are scheduled to receive.  We’ll see. 

In more upbeat news, the Rainy Season has clouded the skies more, and, even though it is still hot and humid, there is not as much constant sun to fry us as there was in the March-May Hot Season.  The rain and more frequent breezes are refreshing. 

And I am grateful to Amazon for creating their Kindle and providing opportunities to download eBooks easily, books I would otherwise be unable to find.  And Netflix lets me see movies I originally missed and cannot otherwise find (although their movie selection here is not as wide as in the USA).  Spotify lets me find any music I could possibly want to search for, and they help me explore new music.  In the balance: Life is Good. 

-Zenwind. 

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Covid Devastation

 

The Covid-19 pandemic is seriously disrupting life here in Thailand since April’s Third Wave has ballooned.  We are not in complete “lockdown” (yet), but we are very restricted, especially in the bigger city areas like here in greater Bangkok.  Since my last two posts here (in May and June), restaurants are now prohibited from having any dine-in service and can only offer take-out.  Cinemas and pubs are still closed, of course.  The government’s unpredictably sudden changes of policy are angering a lot of Thai people.  But especially frustrating is the slow availability of vaccines after being promised great things on this front. 

Covid deaths (the officially counted ones) in Thailand so far are now around 2,000, most of these during this Third Wave.  This is a massive jump since last year.  It is shocking, since we had a very good record during all of 2020. 

Vaccines are used up much faster than the demand for them.  They are rationed out, I think appropriately, first to front-line health workers.  (Taxi drivers were later given opportunities to get them, which relieves me since I have to travel by taxi a couple of times a week.)  Institutions with a bit of clout get their people jabbed.  Tuk is a manager in an important state enterprise, and she is now fully vaccinated. 

As for my own chances of getting jabbed, well, probably not soon.  There are vaccination programs set up, many that also include foreigners, with online registration procedures that are most often incomprehensible and impossible to function.  My doctor told me to have Tuk call a hospital that would give me the jab right away, but when she called, they told her they would not.  Other hospitals and vaccination centers have similar glitches.  (TIT, i.e., “This Is Thailand”.) 

Older folks are more vulnerable to Covid, so Thailand is trying to vaccinate them soon.  They had previously set up a major vac center at the huge Bang Sue Grand Station (not terribly far from us), and for the first part of July they are allowing Thai citizens aged 75 and over to have “walk-in” priority without registration appointments.  My parents-in-law are aged around 90 and 88, and I want them vaccinated soon. 

Since this vac site is on a public transit route I know well, I did a recon last week to see how feasible it would be to take the parents there.  The Bang Sue Grand Station is new and not finished, but it will be the biggest transport hub in Southeast Asia, connecting numerous transport lines, thus, it is monstrous huge. 

I rambled around and found how to get from the subway to the Grand Station, and I entered.  A vast space.  They were well organized, and I quickly found a worker who spoke English and oriented me.  But it was obvious that the size of the crowd of old folks and their caretakers was overwhelming.  I realized that I could guide mother-in-law here, because she is one tough old lady, and she might be able to endure the wait.  But father-in-law is too lame and frail for the ordeal.  I decided to come back next week to see if the crowds were less. 

But Friday night, Tuk told me that vaccine supplies had run out at this site due to the enormous demand.  And I’ve found that the vaccines have run out in most other sites.  Back to square one. 

When I travel public transport or am in public spaces, I try to let the Thai people I interact with know that I am not one of those “dirty farangs” (i.e., the legend of Westerners who are “uniformly unhygienic”.)  I wear a mask, as everyone is required to do in public, but I also have a little 50ml bottle of Dettol hand sanitizer (similar to Lysol) clipped to the carabiner on the front shoulder strap of my daypack.  I wear this universally-recognized green plastic bottle of disinfectant on my chest as a badge, pledging that I participate in public hygiene, and I use it regularly.  After all, one does not want to scare off the native populace.  This is my home. 

Tuk is doing well, while working extremely hard.  She has a year and a half before retirement, and she has a very important management role at the end of her career.  She is no longer working from home much, and is going into her office most weekdays.  Her new office location is an hour commute, each way, thus quite a burden.  After hours, and on weekends, she gets work-related phone calls from work colleagues.  She often works into the night and on weekends with spreadsheets, etc.  She is an angel, and we try to support her as much as we can.  On weekends, she sleeps as much as possible, along with the cats.  And she puts up with me, possibly a recommendation for sainthood? 

-Zenwind. 

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