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| Nai Yang Beach - busy at sunset despite news of a new virus. |
We have been living in South-East Asia since 2009. We moved into our current home - a small condominium apartment (600 ft2 - 57 m2) in a lively little village on the west coast of the island of Phuket - in 2014. Since our retirement in 2005, we have avoided northern winters diligently and have found that living in the tropics is good for us in oh so many ways, especially in terms of health, finance and general happiness.
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| Enjoying mudslides and live entertainment at the Dewa Bar & Grill. |
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| Our own private little paradise far from the crowds. |
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The condominium pool which we always
avoid during high season, virus outbreak or not. |
We love to travel. Recently, we have taken a few cruises and we found that, since selling our 37-foot catamaran, a vacation on a cruise ship is the next best thing to sailing the seas on our own boat. We were so certain that our next vacation would be a cruise that we bought a special package whereby we put down a deposit for "anywhere" and the cruise line matched our deposit. After a cruise in the Mediterranean, then another long cruise around South America, and then a cruise through the Red Sea, we decided that our next destination would be the Baltic Sea. We booked a cruise that would leave from Amsterdam in June of this year. It would take us to Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Latvia, Denmark, Norway, and then back to Amsterdam.
Although we love to travel, we will admit that there are hazards. It was like that when we were sailing in our own boat - adventure, thrilling new places, interesting people, new foods, exotic plants and animals, but hard work and certain risks. Long flights also are hard work and have certain risks. We always prepare well by packing our carry-on bags with compression socks, eye masks, face masks, noise-reducing headphones, hand sanitizer, alcohol wipes, neck braces, down-filled jackets, throat spray, eye lubricant, our Kindles, and aspirin. It is a long way from Thailand to Canada or Europe, so we signed up for a special credit card that provides a few free visits to airport lounges because, invariably, we have a layover in an airport in Dubai or Shanghai or some such hub. Even with all the efforts to keep ourselves comfortable and healthy, I usually arrive at our destination with red eyes, plugged ears, sniffles and a sore throat.
On our last cruise through the Red Sea, many of the passengers suffered from similar ailments. I don't know if any suffered from a fever or other flu-like symptoms, but there was a nasty cold virus that seemed to spread pretty quickly. All but one of the people we became friends with caught the cold. We would estimate that three-quarters of the passengers caught it. Fortunately, we were not barred from any ports, although a few passengers became sick enough to require hospitalization - but we don't think that was from the cold.
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A crowded lane in Jerusalem while we were there.
The area is now under a COVID-19 "health alert"
at the time of this blog entry. |
On another cruise there were a number of passengers who caught the "norovirus" (a very contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea), even though the cruise ship was careful with keeping things sanitary and having "washy-washy" staff at multiple stations, providing passengers with frequent sprays of hand sanitizer. We were lucky and stayed healthy, but were alarmed to hear that we were just a small number of sick passengers away from the limit that would have put us in quarantine and would have kept us from entering any ports. Luck was on our side and the number of sick passengers stayed below the danger point.
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Our small inside cabin would have seemed even smaller
if we were forced to stay in it for two weeks or more. |
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The "washy-washy" staff were very entertaining
and now, we realize, invaluable. |
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| The buffets were oh-so-good but maybe not so sanitary. |
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| Good company for a small cabin. |
Passengers on the Diamond Princess (Princess Cruise Line) weren't so lucky. They were held in quarantine at a dock in Yokohama, Japan for weeks. For many passengers, it was nearly a month-long ordeal. We followed the news reports closely and were alarmed at how events unfolded. On February 12, there were 175 people infected. Eventually, over 700 would become infected. Six people died. For us, the horror was not so much in the virus itself, but in the fact that people could be held prisoner on a cruise ship. Yes, quarantine makes sense, but in this instance a multitude of healthy people were being locked in with a few sick people in conditions that pretty much guaranteed the spread of the virus. The situation was badly handled, but some valuable lessons were learned.
We cancelled our upcoming cruise. We are not part of the "at risk" group for COVID-19 because we do not have any underlying conditions that make us vulnerable. If we were to catch the virus, we might suffer from symptoms but would most likely survive. Our biggest fear is being put in quarantine away from home. We fear being trapped on a ship or in an airport or in a hospital. Also, Norwegian Cruise Line have recently announced that they will not accept passengers who hold passports from China. We couldn't be certain that Thailand would not become an excluded country.
We cancelled before we were required to pay for anything. We had only put a deposit on the cruise, and we were able to transfer that deposit to a future cruise. We hadn't yet booked our airline tickets (which is remarkable, really, because we usually book well in advance) nor had we booked any excursions. Nor had we booked any other trips, which again is remarkable because we have been travelling a lot lately. We were extremely lucky that it was easy to cancel our travel plans with no financial repercussions.
So for now, we will stick close to home and, when struck with the spirit of adventure, will travel by car to some exotic place here in S.E. Asia (there are many). Until then, spending time by the sea on an island in Thailand is not so humdrum.
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| We love cruising, but don't know when we'll do it again. |
We decided to prepare ourselves for a potential outbreak in our neighbourhood. This didn't require a herculean effort and, but for a few items that had been missing from our first aid kit, didn't require additional expense.
We have always had a supply of face masks for our airplane travel, but now we have an upgraded version. We have a few extra bottles of hand sanitizer because they seem to be in short supply, plus our pharmacist told us that alcohol for making hand sanitizer was in short supply. We told our Swedish neighbours that alcohol was in short supply and he said, "That's okay. I have lots of rum". (Side story - we had just provided him with some rum that we still had from our sailing days!) We laughed but are now worried that he may have misunderstood and we therefore might be responsible for the spread of fake news. We stocked up on groceries and made use of space we had in the fridge, freezer, cupboards, and under the bed. We bought fever medication and a thermometer.
We continue to go out and are not alarmed that most of the villagers and tourists are not wearing masks. But they aren't coughing either. We enjoy temperatures that hover around 30 degrees - a temperature that the COVID-19 virus finds deadly. We love having lunch at the beach or in a local eatery, and we go to our busy fresh-air market three times a week. We are, as yet, unafraid of human contact but we are not so silly as to think we are immune, so we have prepared ourselves just-in-case.
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| The busy open-air market area. |
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| Road-side stands at the beach. |
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| People walking along the beach. |
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| Yachts, fishing boats, and people at the beach. |
Unfortunate Impacts: In our little village, tourism is the main source of income. In 2019, we saw a downturn in the number of visitors for a number of reasons. There had been a boating accident where a number of Chinese tourists were killed, and as a result the Chinese government put out a travel advisory for Thailand. Recently, the Thai baht has been gaining strength against most currencies, making Thailand a more expensive option than other countries in the area, so travellers are heading to Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia instead of here. Now, in 2020, the COVID-19 virus has put the brakes on the travel plans of people from all over the world. When tourism is your number-one industry, you definitely feel the impact. Most of our friends think they can survive this season, but if the virus strikes again next winter, and there is still no vaccine available, it will strike a huge blow to the tourism industry here.
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Construction of a new hotel -
a nice sign of optimism during a slow-down in tourism. |
Timelines:
This how it all unfolded for us:
January 31. We have become aware of the potential seriousness of the new virus. We bought some of the recommended masks, but had trouble finding them and ended up paying too much for them at a nearby pharmacy. We realize that the masks might not prevent us from getting the virus, but we wonder if it might become a requirement in public.
February 11. We decided to cancel our cruise.
February 29. We ordered a larger supply of groceries in case we find ourselves quarantined. We get slightly-surprising news that a couple from Saskatchewan, Canada (old school chums of Darrel) are visiting Phuket on March 13. We are on the search for hand sanitizer – no luck at corner marts.
March 1. We visit our regular pharmacist and buy some hand sanitizer and fever pills (she recommended Panadol over Ibuprofen because the latter is not good if a fever turns out to be Dengue) and a digital thermometer. She told us that alcohol for hand sanitizer is in short supply. She also mentioned that things are worse in Bangkok because so many have to take public transportation. She said that things are pretty good in Phuket. But we still have a shortage of some supplies.
March 2. A friend who has contacts gave us some more masks.
March 4. We get more slightly-surprising news that a another couple of visitors from Alberta, Canada (one is a colleague of our son) are visiting Phuket on March 24-28.
March 5. We bought an extra supply of throat spray.
March 7. Potential visitors from Alberta cancelled their trip.
March 8. We hear that one of the Dewa visitors here has a cough and fever. We have vowed to stop hugging and shaking hands with our friends. The Thai method of greeting (hands together, a little bow) is much nicer anyway. We won't take the elevator. We might eventually curtail our outings.
Key Dates – Thailand:
January 13. The first novel coronavirus infection in Thailand was
reported, making it the first country outside China to report such infection.
January 23. Thailand raised its travel advisory to level 3, advising citizens to avoid all
non-essential travel to China. Health surveillance systems are in place at
major airports and 28 others. Screening measures are put in place at all
hospitals and health educators are advised to perform screening within the
community for suspected cases. A hotline is in place for the reporting of
suspected cases.
February 4. The Thailand government evacuated 138 Thailand citizens
on February 4 from Wuhan, China. The evacuees were checked for symptoms and sanitized
upon arrival. Out of the 138 evacuees, six were transferred to hospitals upon
detecting high temperatures and the rest were quarantined for a period of 14
days in a naval resort.
February 13. The Thailand government denied entry to the MS
Westerdam cruise ship as a precautionary measure.
March 1. Thailand reported its first coronavirus death.
March 2. The MotoGP race scheduled to be held this month is
postponed due to travel restrictions and health concerns related to
coronavirus.
March 5. The March full-moon party in Kho Phangan is cancelled to
prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The monthly event usually draws
thousands of tourists. It will be held again when the situation returns to “normal”.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1872284/
March 6. The Songkran Festival ceremonies in three major
communities are cancelled. Other events continue to be cancelled or postponed,
including Thai Boxing events.
March 7. Confirmed coronavirus cases in Thailand reached 50.
To put this all in context, here is a timeline of global events from Aljazeera news:
On December
31 last year, China alerted WHO to several cases of
unusual pneumonia in Wuhan, a port city of 11 million people in the central
Hubei province. The virus was unknown.
On January
7, officials announced they had identified a new virus,
according to the WHO. The novel virus was named 2019-nCoV and was identified as
belonging to the coronavirus family, which includes SARS and the common cold.
On January
11, China announced its first death from the virus,
a 61-year-old man who had purchased goods from the seafood market. Treatment
did not improve his symptoms after he was admitted to hospital and he died of
heart failure on the evening of January
9.
On January
13, the WHO reported a case in Thailand, the first outside of
China, in a woman who had arrived from Wuhan.
On January
17, as a second death was reported in Wuhan, health authorities
in the US announced that three airports would start screening passengers
arriving from the city.
Authorities in the United States, Nepal, France, Australia,
Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan confirmed cases over the
following days.
On January
22, the death toll in China jumped to 17 with more than 550
infections. Many European airports stepped up checks on flights from Wuhan.
Wuhan was placed under effective quarantine on January 23 as air
and rail departures were suspended.
Beijing cancelled events for the Lunar New Year, starting on
January 25, while officials reported the first death outside Hubei.
The WHO said later on January
23 that the outbreak did not yet constitute a public
emergency of international concern and there was "no evidence" of the
virus spreading between humans outside of China.
By January
24, the death toll in China stood at 26, with the government
reporting more than 830 infections.
Shanghai Disneyland shut down and other cities announced the
closure of entertainment venues. Beijing said a section of the Great Wall and
other famous landmarks would also be closed.
On January
26, the death toll rose to 56, with almost 2,000 cases
confirmed as travel restrictions were increased and Hong Kong closed its
Disneyland and Ocean Park theme parks.
New cases were confirmed in the US, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and
South Korea.
As of January
27, the death toll in China rose to 106, with 100 in Hubei
province, authorities reported. Another 4,515 people in China were reported to
be infected. There were 2,714 confirmed cases in Hubei province, up from 1,423
the day before.
India and the Philippines confirmed their first cases of the
virus, with one infected patient in each country.
On January 31, the number of confirmed cases in China jumped
to 9,809. Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom confirmed their first
cases of the virus.
On February 1, the death toll in China rose to 259, with
11,791 confirmed infections in the country, according to new figures released
by the Chinese health authorities.
New cases were confirmed in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan,
Singapore, the US, the UAE and Vietnam.
As of February 2, the first death outside
China, of a Chinese man from Wuhan, was reported in the Philippines.
The death toll in China rose to 304, with 14,380 infections
reported.
On February 3, China reported 57 new deaths, bringing its
death toll to at least 361. The number of cases rose to 17,205 across the
country.
On February 4, China said the death toll rose to 425 people
and the number of infected people stood at 20,438 in the mainland. Hong Kong
also reported one death, bringing global deaths to 427. The first case was confirmed
in Belgium in a person who was repatriated from Wuhan.
On February 5, more flights evacuating US citizens returned
from Wuhan and the WHO reaffirmed there was "no known effective
treatment" for the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, China reported 490 deaths and 24,324 cases of infection.
On February 6, the death toll in mainland China rose to at
least 563, with more than 28,000 cases confirmed.
Meanwhile, authorities in Malaysia reported the country's first known
human-to-human transmission and the number of people infected in Europe reached
30.
On February 8, a US citizen died in Wuhan.
A Japanese man in his 60s with a suspected coronavirus infection also
died in hospital in Wuhan, Japan's foreign ministry said.
The death toll in China reached 722, with 34,546 confirmed infections.
On February 9, the death toll in China surpassed that of the
2002-03 SARS epidemic, with 811 deaths recorded and 37,198 infections.
An investigative team led by experts from the WHO departed for China.
As of February 10, China had 908 confirmed deaths and a
total of 40,171 infections - 97 new deaths were reported following the
deadliest day of the outbreak.
On February 11, the WHO announced that the new
coronavirus would be called "COVID-19".
Meanwhile, deaths in China reached 1,016, with 42,638 infections
recorded.
As of February 12, there were 175 people infected on board
the Diamond Princess cruise ship, docked at Yokohama, the Japanese health
ministry said.
The death toll in mainland China hit 1,113, with 44,653 infections
recorded.
On February 13, North Korea imposed a month-long
quarantine on all foreign visitors and others suspected to have COVID-19, the
official Korean Central News Agency said.
The death toll in mainland China hit 1,300, with nearly 60,000
infections recorded. Meanwhile, Japan confirmed its first death from the virus.
On February 14, Egypt became the first country in Africa to
report a case and France reported Europe's first death from the virus.
China reported 121 more deaths, bringing to the total number across the
mainland to nearly 1,400.
February 15 saw the death toll in
mainland China surge past 1,500, with 66,492 infections confirmed in mainland
China.
Elsewhere, the US prepared to evacuate its citizens from a cruise ship
quarantined at a Japanese dock.
On February
16, Taiwan recorded its first death of a taxi driver in his 60s
due to the coronavirus.
Authorities reported that 1,665 people had died in mainland China
with 68,500 cases of infection reported.
As of February
17, there were 1,770 deaths reported in mainland China and
70,548 cases.
Japan confirmed 99 new cases of the virus on board the quarantined
Diamond Princess cruise ship.
February 18 saw China's daily infection figures
drop below 2,000 for the first time since January, with the country's health
commission reporting 72,436 infections on the mainland and 1,868 deaths.
Meanwhile, Russia said it would ban entry for Chinese citizens
from February 20.
On February
19, Iran reported two deaths from the coronavirus, hours after
confirming its first cases.
China's daily infection figures drop below 2,000 for the second
straight day, with the country's health commission reporting 74,185 infections
on the mainland and 2,004 deaths.
On February
20, South Korea reported its first death from the
coronavirus.
Meanwhile, China reported the death toll had risen to 2,118
while the total number of cases reached 74,576. The country's health
commission reported daily infections dropped to the lowest in almost a month, a
result of authorities only counting cases confirmed by genetic testing in
Hubei.
On February
21, South Korea reported its second death and 100 new confirmed
cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total to 204. In mainland China, the
death toll reached 2,236 as the confirmed cases of the infection rose above
75,400.
Also, Israel reported its first confirmed case of the coronavirus
after a woman who returned from a cruise ship tested positive.
In Italy, the region of Lombardy reported the first local
transmission of the virus with three new cases bringing the total in the
country to six infections.
On February 22, South
Korea saw its largest spike in a single day with 229 new cases of the
virus.
Italy reported its first two deaths, while Iran confirmed a fifth
death among 10 new infections. A sixth death was later confirmed, though it was
not clear whether this case was included in the country's 28 confirmed cases.
In mainland China, the number of new infections fell significantly
with 397 cases reported.
February 23 saw several countries close their
borders with Iran as the number of infections and deaths in the country grew.
In Italy, officials confirmed a third death, while local
authorities brought the Venice Carnival to an early close and suspended sports
events in an attempt to combat the spread of the virus in Europe's worst-hit
country.
On February
24, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Afghanistan and Oman all
reported their first cases of the virus. Meanwhile, the number of cases in
South Korea ballooned to 833 cases with seven deaths.
The death toll in China rose to 2,595 among 77,262 confirmed
cases.
A seventh death was reported in northern Italy.
On February
25, Iran's deputy health minister, who had a day earlier
given a press briefing on the outbreak, confirmed that he had coronavirus. The
country's official total reached 95 cases with 15 deaths.
Meanwhile, China's reported cases continued to plateau, with 518
new infections and 71 new deaths confirmed. South Korea's confirmed cases rose
to 977 while Italy's reached 229.
On February
26, the global death toll neared 2,800 with a total of about
80,000 confirmed infection cases reported globally.
Norway, Romania, Greece, Georgia, Pakistan, North Macedonia and
Brazil all detected their first cases of the coronavirus.
On February
27, Estonia, Denmark, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands
reported their first coronavirus cases. The number of infections passed 82,000
worldwide, including more than 2,800 deaths.
Italy has seen a spike in infections which jumped to 650, while 3
more people died with the tally of deaths now at 17.
On February
28, Lithuania and Wales reported their first coronavirus
cases, with Netherlands and Georgia reporting their second.
February 29 saw South Korea report its
highest daily number of confirmed cases yet, 813, bringing the country's total
to 3,150 with 17 deaths. Iran also reported the number of its cases had jumped
388 cases to 593 in 24 hours, with the death toll reaching 43.
Meanwhile, Qatar confirmed the first case in the country.
March 2, Saudi Arabia's health ministry announced its
first coronavirus case. The victim travelled from Iran to the Gulf kingdom
through Bahrain, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
Tunisia and Jordan also reported their first cases as the outbreak
continues to spread in the Middle East.
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I'll stop here because the numbers keep rising while more and more countries are affected and it's hard to keep this blog current. Sporting events are being cancelled, schools are closing, travel restrictions are being imposed, more cruise ships are infected, and insane people have cleared grocery shelves of toilet paper.
Take care, dear reader, and good-bye until next blog.
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