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© KYODOJapan test tour by 4 Thai people canceled after COVID infection
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daito_hak
Here is the world the COVID hysterics bought us to. A pathetic circus and an absolutely absurd fear hysteria for what? A sore throat. The Japanese and the asians in general being even often more ridiculous than the rest of the word, the results is the perfect illustration of how primitives the kind called humans can get to.
Fuzzy
So the only way to visit Japan as a tourist is to be part of a tour. Which will then be cancelled if someone tests positive. Why would anyone sign up for such a ridiculous scheme. I don't understand the logic of this program... what are they trying to achieve with these silly rules? Are they trying to stop covid from getting into Japan? New flash, it's already here!
Jonathan Prin
So you are put in a cage and lose your at least 3 holidays if you have a sore throat or your holiday pals have ?
I wonder why the guy did say he a had sore throat...I would wait until I need to go to hospital, ie hardly no chance.
Notice that if a Japanese has a sore throat, he is not required to have a test and not required to be put into a specific place. That is called xenophobia, which is prejudice against people from other countries.
AgentX
Why? Both can catch and spread this... er.. debilitating virus!
And this article proof again how this... er... terrible illness... can STILL bring society to its knees in an instant (because we let it).
Wish I could've stayed in 2019...
Yotomaya
Why would anyone want to participate or organize a tour it can get cancelled this easily? Maybe next time "test" something with a chance to even work.
Slayer
What does that have to do with anything? You can get covid vaccinated or not.
Disco Biscuit
Arrived negative, test positive locally, gives you an idea how rampant the virus is “in” Japan. In the current situation foreigners are more at risk while traveling in Japan.
GenHXZ
When you test everyone, you get your positive cases, even this far along it's crazy and C19 wont be eradicated anytime soon. Vaccinated or not makes no difference unless you are 65+ or immuno-comprimised. This is the fact. There are potions for those that want them, we need to get on with life again for crying out loud. The rest of the world has moved on, Japan seems intent on staying firmly in 2020 for the foreseeable future.
Sanjinosebleed
We’re they Japanese “Thais”???….
Sanjinosebleed
Start testing people for the flu which is at the same level as the current variant of Covid and you will be excluding half on the inbounds!
stupid is as stupid does!
Seesaw7
I refrained from being near to those so called business group tourists. They're all over town these days. Ginza, Nihonbashi, Shibuya. I still think Japan should wait a bit more before welcoming the foreign tourists.
Cigars N Coffee
As long as they continue to use the fake PcR test this will never go away.
Let them visit. I seriously doubt they have Covid.
Seigi
Stupid experiment...
Maruko desu
Um, we have limited hospital capacity in Japan. If we allow an unrestricted number of tourists/students/business people into the country and wind up a large outbreak of COVID, it will break our hospital system. If this is the way you feel, then don't come to Japan. We'll be just fine without you.
Luddite
Why would anyone travel to Japan when they are being deliberately hostile to foreigners. Covid is endemic in Japan, demonising and penalising foreigners is pointless.
louisferdinandc
Negative at departure.
Negative on arrival.
Positive after three days in Japan.
Sure, the incubation period. But might it be that with one million declared cases in the last 30 days, of which absolutely none tested because of a sore throat, Japan has nothing to worry about foreigners bringing something that is already here?
Good
On my last few hotel stays they've always taken my temperature at check in. Luckily I've never had a fever, seems I'd be homeless if I had!
Maruko desu
The tourist could have caught the virus in Thailand but the amount of virus was too sparse to be detected by a PCR test when they flew to Japan. By the time a few days had passed, the virus replicated a few times in a quantity to be detected.
A friend of mine traveled from South Korea to Washington, DC for an academic conference about a month ago. Many people in DC were not wearing masks. She was masked and fully vaccinated but her risk of catching COVID increased around unmasked people. She tested negative when she left Washington DC. Fifteen hours later when she arrived in Incheon, South Korea, she tested positive. She quarantined at home and recovered quickly.
Nihon Tora
my thoughts exactly!
Everyone will get this virus, multiple times over the course of their lives much in the same way they get colds and the flu. Why wouldn’t they? It transmits in the same way at about 10 times the speed. Get vaccinated if you are at high risk and beyond that, let’s just put an end to this absolute nonsense!
gakinotsukai
When you test, you find ... it's just we don't apply the same procedure to tourists and local population ...
Nihon Tora
We’ve had around 50,000 tested positive everyday for the last four months here and with the lack of testing, it’s probably 5 times that number. There is already a large outbreak here already and it hasn’t broken the hospital system,
Maruko desu
Anyone who travels runs the risk of contracting COVID. It doesn't matter where you are going. During the course of flying to your destination, you'll be interacting with a host of people and anyone of them can be infected.
The hosting company for the tour group host anticipated this outcome and provided support for the Thai tourist. If you are not traveling in a tour group, you are on your own if you travel outside of your home country with regard to the additional expenses you are about to incur. If you do not have travel insurance, you will have to pay for a place to quarantine in and make arrangements to have meals delivered. You will also have to change your vacation plans. Your entire vacation may consist of quarantining in a hotel in another country.
One of my coworkers left Japan for a vacation in Hawaii a week ago. He is now having to extend his "vacation" because he and his wife contracted COVID somewhere along the way. So much for his vacation plans. Not only will he be paying for the hotel and food delivery services for a longer period of time, he will using additional annual leave days for his extended vacation.
Nihon Tora
and all because of Japan’s ridiculous rules regarding an endemic disease, not much more dangerous than the flu which everyone is going to catch multiple times anyway.
Steven Mccarthy
The jgov needs to seriously reconsider their decision to crack open the borders a little …. 25% of a tour tested positive after being here a few days …. It’s remotely possible he was infected before arrival but highly unlikely. So in a “closed course” tour , with safety protocols in place , it’s more likely than not that he caught it on the plane or soon after arrival. And NO!!! This is not some cold or flu …. The sooner people understand and accept that, the sooner we all get back to a real sense of normalcy. But with the current infection rates around the world still going up …. And the fact that tourism is not a serious driver of the Japanese economy, a slow approach to reopening is the proper path . The last thing Japan needs right now is a bunch of foreign tourists getting a serious case and requiring hospitalization. There are still over 270k people currently hospitalized in Japan with Covid …. We don’t need more . Vacations can wait !
Whatsnext
This is exactly why I said don’t go to Japan for a tour. They don’t want foreigners coming messing up their COVID utopia. They will lock you in a hotel, force you to wear a mask and won’t let you go anywhere you like by yourself. I hope they enjoy cold bentous an constant calls from the front desk asking about their condition.
purple_depressed_bacon
This tourist reintroduction scheme continues to get more absurd. imagine forking over your hard earned cash only to be shepherded from A to B seeing things from a pre-approved itinerary and having everything canceled when one member from the group falls ill. I mean, are they going to compensate the rest of the tourists for the canceled days? What even is the point of this scheme? It sounds like they're trying to keep Covid out of the country, which is codswallop because Covid is already in Japan.
Also, how convenient that it was the "Thai" test group that had an issue while that first test group of "Hawaiian and American" tourists seemed fine and dandy. Your xenophobia is showing again, Japan.
tamanegi
That's it. This whole fiasco of allowing foreign tour groups into Japan during a pandemic needs to end here.
Refund all money for booked tourists and discuss the possibility of open borders in late 2023.
shogun36
As expected. The foreign tourists got Covid from Japan………….but according to Japan it will be the other way around.
I guess we’re back to square one with international travelers?!??
ian
Talk about hysterical responses. It's normal , natural, expected that some of the tourists will be found infected, part of the test, now they get to evaluate if their planned responses are lacking /adequate
William77
I’m not surprised at all,but why would tourists come to a country that has a deeply and ingrained xenophobia and unable and unwilling to deal with the world in an equal way?
Doing like this is self isolating their nation from the world community and giving a low image about how they treat foreigners in general.
WA4TKG
Uh-oh(.com); shut down for another two years.
kohakuebisu
Yes, that is true. I'm sure its not an issue this time, but for opening up fully, which most of us want, presumably there'll have to be hospitals in Japan willing to treat non-Japanese and probably non-Japanese speaking people who potentially have Covid. And somewhere for such people to quarantine, assuming quarantine is deemed necessary. Knowing what some of them are like, I would expect a number, possibly very many, hospitals and hotels to not play ball with this. Especially ones near inaka tourist spots like Shirakawa-go, Nikko, onsen towns with Asian visitors like Kusatsu, etc.
Newgirlintown
‘By’ four Thai people? Shouldn’t that be ‘For’ four Thai people?