Three things are keeping the news world abuzz these days. One, as every day over the past 3.5 years, is Donald Trump. Will he be impeached, won’t he? Two, Brexit. Now that it’s done it still follows us around wherever we go and three, the Coronavirus. While the first two don’t really bother us that much here in Thailand (well they bother me, but generally speaking they don’t affect us that much just yet), the latter one hits us obviously way harder.
A few days ago we had the first confirmed human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus here in Thailand where a taxi driver apparently caught the virus from a passenger from China.
The overall public seems to be hyper aware of the virus and makes your daily commute feel like you’re in a Netflix zombie movie. Everybody is wearing masks. All the time. Do we need to? No! Does it matter? Do we listen? Of course not.
Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka & India have confirmed cases of coronavirus in @WHOSEARO
— WHO South-East Asia (@WHOSEARO) January 30, 2020
Wondering if you should wear a mask ? Check this – pic.twitter.com/JkQJZvWEDP
When looking at the number of patients the stats read something like this (don’t nail me on that, as it’s changing, obviously): Around 20 people got diagnosed with the virus, most of them came from China. Around half of them have already been dismissed and we haven’t had a new case in a few days.
Then again the incubation period is two weeks which means that medical professionals expect the real ‘hit’ in a few days from now. To add to the fear we now just heard of the first case of a death to due the virus outside of China. The Philippines to be precise. This, of course, adds towards insecurities among the public. That might also be one of the reasons why the government (via hospitals) is now screening around 350 people for the virus just to be safe.
That all is not much compared to the actual amount of Chinese tourists (20k+) in Thailand and the fact that Thailand still welcomes tourists from China (there are nine plans coming in today alone according to Thairat News).
So what to do is the question that basically everybody is asking? Should I stockpile on masks, Mama, water, and hand sanitizer? Or should I just continue with business as usual? The truth, as always, probably lies somewhere in the middle. Judging by what credible sources (WHO, scientific journals, etc) publish you probably don’t need to be super afraid just yet (as, for example, over 50 people die from traffic accidents every day in Thailand and nobody freaks out about that) but being somewhat cautious when in public places might still be a good idea. Wash your hands regularly, don’t touch your face, use hand sanitizer and, if possible, common sense.
How do you feel about the corona panic? You oughta look out or you only live once? #YOLO
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