General information:

Thailand is a country in the south east of asia and is close to the countries Myanmar, Laos, cambodia and Malaysia. Thailands surface is about 514.000 km2 including all seas and rivers. Only one fifth of the Thais live in the city. The population density in Thailand is around 120 inhabitants per square kilometre (in Germany 231 inhabitants per km2). Only a fifth of the Thai population lives in cities, the rest in the countryside. Thailands population has about 69 million people while the dominating religion is the buddhism whereas it is not an official state religion. It is official a constitutional monarchy. King Bhumibol Adulyadej remained from 1946 until 2016 the King of Thailand until he died and his son took over the position. Since a coup of the military (which has a long tradition) in 2014, thailand is ruled by the military. Thailand is a middle-income emerging market country. The country has been able to reduce poverty in recent decades. It has benefited from the consumption of a growing middle class and increasing integration into world trade. Thailand's most important source of income, is tourism.  [1]

1. Preparedness

Thailand spends about 3,7 % of its GDP to the health care system. Knoema. [2]  
In the last years the medical possibilities improved tremendously and because of that the life expectance also improved. Now the average life expectancy is about 76,68 years and grows steady while the surrounding southeastern countries have clearly lower life expectancies. [3]


1.1 GHS Index
The GHS Index shows that Thailand is, beyond a doubt, an international leader in health security.
Health security is definded by the WHO as “the activities required, both proactive and reactive, to minimize the danger and impact of acute public health events that endanger people’s health across geographical regions and international boundaries.” [4]
In the GHS Index Thailand ranks at the 6th place, which is maybe not what one expected. In fact it is the only developing and middle-income country under the top ten worldwide.
Aside from having a substantially high ranking for an Asian country, Thailand is also ranked third for prevention of the emergence or release of pathogens, fifth for rapid response to and mitigation of the spread, and second for sufficient and robust health system to treat the sick, and protect the health of workers. Beyond its health system. Thailand has a strong field epidemiology training program and national laboratory system, tat scores in the top tier for indicators of these capacities and demonstrating a robust electronic reporting surveillance system that functions at national and subnational levels, collecting laboratory and epidemiological data. [5]

1.2 MERS and SARS Outbreak

A good example for the strength of thailands preparation is the handling of the Middle East Respiratory Sndrome (MERS). Thailand first confirmed case was a 75-year-old man who had traveled from Oman to Bangkok. Although there were concerns Thailand was able to stop its first MERS case and there was no further reported case. 
During the SARS outbreak in 2003 thailand also handled the siuation quite well. Especially in comparison with neighbouring asian countries thailand got off cheaply with only 9 reported cases of infection and 2 confirmed deaths.
[6]  [7]  [8]


1.3 Health care system


Until 2001, a good third of the population had no health insurance. It was not until 2002 that the government introduced universal coverage under the state health care system, the Universal Coverage Scheme (30-Baht healtch care), which is estimated to cover the public health costs of 49 million inhabitants, or two-thirds of the population. 
Basically, in Thailand, every employee between the ages of 15 and 60 is required to pay insurance premiums. Exempt from this are, among others, civil servants, persons working for foreign states and international organisations, staff of private schools, domestic workers and employees who regularly work abroad. These groups of persons have the option of taking out voluntary or private insurance. One achievement of former premierminister Taksin was the introduction of the 30 Baht health card. It is issued for each Thai person. The health card, which promises poor Thai people free hospital treatment for a fee of the equivalent of 80 cents, is subsidised by the government. A hospital receives seven euros a month for the treatment of destitute patients. That is also little in Thailand. The state hospitals therefore regularly make losses in the millions. Thats why the better "choice" is still to have a private health care. 

The state assumes that a citizen's family takes care of his or her health This concerns both physical care and financial support. In simple state hospitals, for example, it goes without saying that it is not the hospital staff that takes care of bedridden patients, but their relatives. 
In principle, there is an enormous discrepancy between public and private hospitals, of which there are currently 1,000 and 400 respectively.
There are also major differences in healthcare provision between rural areas and the Bangkok metropolitan region. In rural hospitals, for example, there is often a lack of medical equipment, so that medical operations are often not possible. What many foreigners from Western industrial nations are also unaware of is that Thailand has only an underdeveloped emergency outpatient system. The few ambulances that can be seen on the streets are also mainly driven by volunteers.
Another phenomena of thai health care system is the presence of "healtch care-tourism" which means that people from abroad (often germans and sheiks) come to connect their rehabiltation with vaccation.  [9]  [10]

In case of a bigger spreads and thus more more severe progressions it is imporant to have enough ICU (intensive care unit) beds. nationwide thailands approximately 8.000 ICU beds. In Bangkok where are the most corona cases are about  1,218 ICU
beds. Because the coronavirus can have a big impact on the loungs and thus can complicate the breathing it is also important to have enough ventilators to support the beathing. There are 10,184 ventilators available nationwide.
 [11]   [12]

2. Sense making
On the 14th of January the first case in thailand was reported. It was even the first case outside of wuhan and was so to speak the start of a global spreading. [13]

From that point there were only a few new cases which were detected at incoming travellers and almost the whole january remained quite calm. The first reported local transmission was on the 31th of january. [14]  

On 11 February the total count showed 33 infected thai people.

On the 1th of march there was the first reported death caused by the virus [15]

throughtout the whole february the spreading remained low and the situation was quite under control until the 6th of march.
At a "muay thai" tournament in bangkok the first big reported transmission started and at least 72 corona virus cases were caused by the get-together of the 5000 visitors from the tournament. Until now there were only 322 reported cases in thailand. Although Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha insisted to not impose a lockdown and communicated the siutaiton would be under control the transmission became confusing and the casenumbers boomed. [16]   On the 22th of march 188 new cases came along [17]

The mass exodus of workers in bangkok made the tracking even more confusing and was possibly another amplifier in the spreading. Because bangkok was the epicentre of confirmed corona cases ( 46 percent of cases confirmed nationwide) there was a fear from people livinng in surrounding cities and villages.

In the following month the growth continued and steady without an unforeseen expolsion of the cases. [18]  

Between the 25th of may and the 22th of june there were almost no more reported cases in thailand, really similiar to New Zealand where that phenomena also happened. [19]    

Here you can see the linear course of confirmed covid 19 deaths.
Thailands curve remain really low whereas countries like France, or Iran show more drastic  progressions.

2.1 Tests and reporting logic
To track the "paths" of the virus it is essential to make lot of testings. The more tests can be done the more transmission can be tracked and the more likely it is to conatin the spreading of the virus. It also effects statistics regarding the development of the death rates or the confirmed cases.

The testing capacity of thailand is in total approximately 20.000 a day. Thailand has 93 laboratories nationwide that can evaluate the special corona tests. The testings were even carry out in telephone booths to contain the virus.

 John Hopkins University "testing programs should be scaled to the size of their epidemic, not the size of the population.“ 
With the positivity rate you can see how much a country is carrying out tests and thus you can evaluate the degree of the outbreak etc.
.If a country has a low positivity rate it shows that the country has realized to capture more or less the whole situtation of the corona outbreaks.
Thailand realized to come under the 5%.
In comparison countries like Chile, Iran and France are above the value of 5%. [20]

3. Decision making
As the virus spreaded in wuhan and china the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) implemented the  first measures for screening travelers from Wuhan city on the 3rd of January 2020 at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Don Mueang, Phuket and Chiang Mai airports, and activated enhanced surveillance at public and private hospitals.
The MOPH is closely coordinating with WHO and related departments for the potential response measures. [21]


3.1 Emergency decret
Since the 1. of march the state of emergence decret is into force. it gives special authority to the prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The state of emergency currently means, among other things, that large gatherings are strictly prohibited. In principle, the minimum distance (1,50m) must  be maintained and there is a requirement for masks and disinfection in many places. Alcohol is prohibited in restaurants and numerous bars, banks and other public facilities have set up plastic stands as "spit protection". Fines and prison terms can be imposed if someone does not follow the rules. The emergence decret was extended to times. First it was said that it lasts until May 31, 2020, but the state of emergency is now valid until the end of June. This lead to a lot of criticism but later more about that. [22]
Other countries that implemented an emergency law are Norway and switzerland with differing degrees of intervention in normale life.

3.2 Border closure
Like i already mentioned tourism is one of the cornerstones of the economy in thailand. Many jobs are connected to a normal situation of people from the west making vacations on the several islands or in bangkok or other cities. Almost every part of the country is more or less dependend from tourism .

The decisions regarding travel restrictions and border closure were thus a big decision with high potential of mass unemployment and economical recession. But also potential for anger in the society.  On the other hand the entry of people from all around the world could have a big impact on local transmisions and is thus a problem that has to be tackled.
With effect from 26 March Thailand has closed all its borders ( a week later than New Zeland  ) /(land, sea, air); entry was only possible for commercial transport of goods, diplomats, foreigners with work permits and Thai( nationals with a return permit from the relevant Thai embassy and a health certificate (fit-to-fly certificate). In addition to this, a general landing ban has been in effect since April 4 until at least June 30 for all commercial passenger flights coming from abroad. [23]

 On April 20, the country reopened five gates along its border with Malaysia.
[24]

3.3 Night cerfew

On the 3rd of april the government implemented a nationwide night curfew so people were not allowed to leave the house between 10 p.m.-4 a.m. Prayuth a retired army general said that they prioritise "health over freedom" In a televised address, Prayuth also asked all Thai citizens abroad to “delay” returning to Thailand until after April 15 in order to stop imported cases. [25] , [26]

3.4 Quarantine, sanitizers and masks

Communicable disease control officers are empowered to require suspected persons to be diagnosed and quarantined. Under the current rules, all COVID-19 patients and suspected COVID-19 patients will be brought to a medical facility specified by the MOPH for diagnosis, treatment, isolation, and quarantine, as necessary. People returning from high-risk areas but not showing any symptoms will be subject to a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine.

Apart from the quarantine measures, people are advised to strictly practice good personal hygiene. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers and face masks faced severe shortages in Thailand.
The MOPH has been involved in the supply of these high-demand items by relaxing some regulations on their importation and production. These moves alone are not considered sufficient. Other regulations related to these products have been modified to counteract shortages—examples include reclassification of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, implementation of fast-track pathways for the domestic production of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, declaration of alcohol-based hand sanitizers and disposable medical masks as controlled goods, and so on.

Masks run ocasionally out of supply and also got classified as a controlled good.
Thai government prompted to approve a 225 million baht ($7 million) budget for government agencies to produce 50 million cloth masks in a matter of days for nationwide distribution. In connection to this a big scandal arised as it turned out that a ministers aid stockpilled and sold about 200 million masks to countrys from abroad.

At the same time thai people also became encouraged to produce masks by their own with nationwide workshops and [27]  [28]  [29]  [30]

3.5 Economic measures

Liquidity boosting for labor in affected industry

• Cash support of THB 5,000 for 3 months starting April to Juny 2020 for labor, temporary workers, freelance not registered under Social Security System (SSS). Individuals under SSS will received 50% of previous salary if the employer temporary halt employment
• Special loan of 10,000 per person, 0.1% interest rate, no collaterals needed
• Special loan of 50,000 per person, 0.35% interest rate, collaterals required
• Loans to government pawn shops to further boost liquidity for lower income citizens

 [31]  [32]

3.6 Some (planned) measures regarding tourism

1. limited number of tourists
2. COVID-19 rapid test
3. mandatory installation of a tracking app
4. No tourists from contrys who have high casenumbers of Covid-19
5. focus on high-end tourists (no backbackers but rich people with purchasing power) 

[33]  [34]

 

4. legitimacy

4.1 Trust in government
In general the overall trust in the government is pretty low such as for example in India. The current military government is seen critically from the point of the majority of people. The military coup from 2014 is part of a long tradition of such coups and it seems like people are tired or unwilling to change the current situation. Many officials enrich themselves for the costs of normal people while the king and his entourage stays the most of his time in a nobel hotel in garmisch, a town in germany. Especially during the Coid-19 crisis the king should normally follow his symbolic power and at least stay in his homeland. But even during the crisis he stayed there. 
In february the consitutional court decided to prohibit the one and only opposition party wich deepend the cleavage in political landscape but further in the society. In general corruption is part of normal daily business in thailand (e.g. a scandal of the military junta in 2018 where one of the generals had to explain why he wore 25 different rolex clocks on his arm during the year) although the data shows that thailands problem with corruption gets more and more better. In the current situation the tensions seem to strengthen although it is not a real tension in the sense of potential revolutionary signs. (inter alia because critics randomly disapear). You could say that the attitude towards the current government not positive at all but many people just accept the situation as it is and thus the corona measures. A recent survey even showed that the most thais (44.06%) think there is no fitting prime minister for their country which underlines the attitude pretty well.  

The way people live in thailand could be described as a hand to mouth survival.
In the urban regions this lifestyle totally applies especially when you look at the streetfood culture in the big cities. Because of hygiene measures owners had to close their stands.
The suicidal rate raised in the time of those measures significantly. An independent review counted reports of at least 22 suicides linked to the coronavirus outbreaks since 20 March 2020. 
The reason for that phenomena is connected to the financial situation of thai people.  In addition there were a lot of cases were the thai authorities did not pay the promised 5.000 BHT which amplified the bad finincial situation (and the likeliness to commit suicide) for a lot of income-weaker people. 
[35]   [36]  [37]  [38]  [39]  [40]

4.2 Crisis communication and meaning making
The communication so far could be described as contradictory. In the following a few examples that try to illustrate this:

• On March 11 Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda announced the closure of quarantine centres – only to say the next day that he was mistaken.

• Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, blundered on social media, posting Facebook announcements on Covid-19 and then deleting them, before finally closing the account. Anutin claimed afterwards the only platform he has been using for the past three weeks is Instagram

• thai government launched a scheme to help informal workers by giving them 5,000 BAHT in cash every month for three months. Millions had trouble registering or were rejected by the software, especially old people. Prayut told the nation after a Cabinet meeting on April 15 that his government could only afford the handouts for one month. after the public outraged , he then  backtracked, saying the payments would be made for three months.

•  Prayut announced on national TV that he would send an open letter to Thailand’s 20 richest tycoons to seek their help in overcoming the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic. The PM later had to clarify that he was not asking for donations or loans from the billionaires, but was actually seeking their ideas on how to cushion the impact of the outbreak.

Furthermore, often thai doctors provided solid information at every press conference they have held on the Covid-19 situation. The government, however, has failed to do the same and lacks a dedicated team to do so. 
The public in general critizise the "commanding style" of the Prime Minister. 
This perhaps comes from the time he spent in the military and perhaps also because he never run for election and is thus skilled in conveying trust and security.
Every evening he helds a speech to the public via television. It is a running geck under the thai folk (even before the crisis) to turn off the tv when they see his face. 
[41]  [42]  [43]

Here you can see a caption of citizens opinion worldwide on wether they perceive their governments action as to litte or to too much. The timeslot is between the 23 until 27 of march 2020.
Thailand has the highest value of people thinking the government could take more action. [44]

In general one has honour the still ongoing successfull handling with the crisis of thailand. There are a lot of problems that occured during the crisis but regarding the fact that thailand has one of the lowest casenumbers although they have a higher population than e.g South Korea is really impressive. Countries like France, Iran, or Brazil really had and still have problems with coping with the crisis. One hast to wonder if the succes is really caused by the military government since the good preparedness is an achievement of the former government. You could say that they just used what was already there. Thailands measures implied every part of the country. The low case numbers cant be rejected by saying that too less testing happened. Thailand even made more tests than other countries with high casenumbers. 

It is mindblowing to see how the government lacked communicating with the folk during the crisis. The examples above were just few examples of daily misunderstandings.
It is further a missed opportunity to generate more legitimacy. It could have been a chance for the goverment.  In contrast South Korea´s president Moons generated more trust in the public, while Prayruth is not beloved at all i general and now even more.