COVID-19 – Second update from ThaiSmiths

Hello from Nai Yang, Phuket

Temple Grounds, Wat Nai Yang

While the numbers for COVID-19 infections is still low in Thailand considering its population, our province of Phuket has the third-highest number of infections in the country – 13 cases as of March 22 (no deaths). It is not yet alarming, nevertheless Darrel and I have decided to stick closer to home.

Slowly, we have been reducing our social interactions. It took a while to respond: After our blog entry of March 9, we celebrated the full moon by dining out at the Dewa restaurant and enjoying some after-dinner drinks in the outdoor bar while admiring the rising full moon. 

The next day we went out for pizza at a local pizzeria – a short motorcycle ride away. The next night, we visited neighbours here at the Dewa – there were six of us enjoying the evening on their balcony. On Friday the 13^th, we had both lunch and dinner at beach restaurants with visiting Canadians (who have since arrived back in Canada and are in self-isolation). The following Sunday, we had lunch at a beach restaurant with friends from Sweden (who are still here in Thailand).

On Monday, March 16, we received an email from the Canadian Consulate in Bangkok with scads of information and advice. One warning they gave: Avoid all cruise ship travel. Ha, already done. So on this day, we decided that we wouldn’t eat at restaurants anymore. We had already started to avoid the restaurants that are popular with airport employees (we live close to the Phuket International Airport), but then decided that we would stop going to the beach restaurants too.

View from a beach restaurant.

On March 18, we had a video chat with our son in Alberta and learned about actions that his firm is taking – e.g. letting employees work from home, cancelling meetings, restricting travel. We had found out a couple of days earlier that school had been cancelled for our two teenage grandchildren. The chat got us thinking even more seriously about the value of social distancing. Later this day, Canada and the U.S.A. announced the closure of the border to non-essential traffic, and Canada announced a massive support plan to help those in need due to the measures being taken to slow down the coronavirus – an $82B aid package. More to come. We are impressed by the Canadian response.

Our last outing was on Saturday, March 21. We joined our Swedish friends at an out-of-the-way seafood restaurant for shrimp and mussels, then we popped into an I.T. store so our friend could get an SD card (his phone ran out of room for photos), and then we parted ways. Darrel and I went to our neighbourhood outdoor market to stock up on fruit, eggs and vegetables, and to say good-bye to our regular merchants. We let them know that we planned to stay away for a month. And then we made ourselves comfortable at home after thoroughly washing our hands and cleaning surfaces we touched.

View from the out-of-the-way seafood restaurant.

We still go out biking in the mornings. We touch no surfaces except our bike handles, and we stay more than six feet from any other cyclers or the joggers that we pass. If there are any Dewa staff around when we return, they ensure that they stay well away. Everyone in our resort is taking this very seriously. Many staff have had to reduce the number of days per week that they work because tourist numbers are down considerably. Everyone wants to kill this virus quickly, and right now social distancing seems to be the best tool we have.

Unfortunately, closures in Bangkok have caused a mass-exodus of migrant workers. Everyone wants to get home before borders are closed, so bus stations have been packed with people. The government is trying its best to get control of the situation, but who knows how many infected people were crammed onto the departing busses, and who knows if they will practice self-isolation when they get home. It is a worry.

In the meantime, we watch news reports and experience both alarm at the escalating numbers and then comfort at the good advice and smart moves by most world leaders. We are often touched at reports of various movements to provide help in these trying times – such as service stations providing free meals, showers and laundry service to truckers who are still on the road. And we smile at the messages of hope and humour. We watch Facebook carefully for news of our “snowbird” friends who are mostly all at home now, and keep our fingers crossed for those who are still working out ways to get back.

Our friends and family are constantly in our thoughts.

Our expanding vocabulary:

Social distancing.

Caremongering.

Shelter in place.

Cool quotes:

“Do not change your behavior to avoid being infected. Assume you are infected and change your behavior to avoid infecting others”.

“Home-schooling is going well. Two students have been kicked out for fighting and one teacher has been fired for drinking on the job”.

“In an unsettling reversal of my teenage years, I am now yelling at my parents for going out”.

“An excess of caution seems reasonable”.

Cool responses:

Some movies will be released for home viewing instead of at cinemas.

Amazon is hiring 100,000 new employees.

Facebook is giving all employees $1,000,

More people in New York City are biking to work (I assume these are essential workers).

Some grocery stores are opening an hour earlier for “senior citizens only” so they are not subject to infection from hordes of others.

There’s a movement to get people to let seniors ahead of them in line so the seniors can hurry up and get their business done and go home.

Some grocery stores are delivering orders for free.

3D printing is becoming a bigger thing. For instance, parts for ventilators should be able to be printed on site.

Quebec is offering free emergency daycare for healthcare workers.

Amazon is reallocating warehouse space for essential items such as medical supplies.

Distilleries are making hand sanitizer. LaBatt Breweries uses beer cans for sanitizer because plastic bottles aren’t available.

In helping stranded travellers who maybe shouldn’t have been travelling at this time, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau says, “We will not judge”.

We receive emails from banks and airlines telling us how they are preparing for these difficult times.

Finally, it appears that everyone is preparing for these difficult time.

Good-bye until next update.  Loretta & Darrel.