- Covid-19 News
Bye bye Bangkok, 1000s of workers head home
The Thai PM was asked over the weekend if there would be additional measures to tackle the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. He replied “We’re working on it.” Bangkok’s lockdown-you-have-when-you’re-not-having-a-lockdown, is pushing 1,000s of casual and migrant workers out of the city ‘up country’ as Bangkok shutters many of its businesses. Many are heading home to Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos…
- Covid-19 News
The Thaiger, punching on in tough times
The Thaiger is a small, dedicated team who have been working overtime to keep up the flow of accurate (as best we can) information over the past two and a half months as the coronavirus story has evolved. But we’re a small business, like many others, and have a lot of pressures on us to keep punching on whilst so…
- Covid-19 News
Officials concerned about people heading ‘up country’ after being put off work
Bangkok’s next door provinces are imposing increased preventative measures to deal with Thailand’s current surge of Covid-19 cases by closing a range of retail business, starting today. The closures are set to add a wave of newly-unemployed who may decide to head home for the annual Songkran early, and that’s a problem. The provinces that have followed the lead from…
- Covid-19 News
13 cases in Phuket, official
13 cases of Covid-19 coronavirus have now been confirmed in the southern Thai island of Phuket. 6 new cases have been announced in the past 24 hours. On Friday the Phuket Governor admitted to five cases on the island – 2 Chinese visitors in early February and 3 current cases involving a Danish family. 188 new cases have been announced…
- Covid-19 News
More airline cancellations as options dry up for stranded visitors
It is becoming increasingly difficult to fly in an out of Thailand, posing more challenges for stranded foreign visitors and tourists. Last week the Thai government estimated there were some 500,000 overseas visitors currently in Thailand. Some of the latest cancellations from local carriers… • Budget airline VietJet suspended its flights to major Southeast Asian destinations, out of Vietnam, including…
- Covid-19 News
Bangkok’s five surrounding provinces also enforce closures, supermarkets stay open
Five provinces neighbouring the Thai capital are now following suit and ordering the temporary closure of some shops and stores from today up to April 12. The five provinces are Samut Prakarn, Samut Sakhon, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi and Pathumthani. The efforts are designed to slow the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in and around Greater Bangkok. Yesterday 89 new cases…
- Covid-19 News
Bangkok closures – the details and the panic buying
After today’s announcement from the BMA that the closures around the city would be ramped up, supermarkets started filling up as the shelves started becoming increasingly empty. The additions to the closure list is the latest efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 around the Thai capital. Bangkokians have started to stock up on essential goods after the Bangkok Metropolitan…
- Covid-19 News
Bangkok closes shopping centres and markets from tomorrow
It’s the lockdown you have when you haven’t really declared a full lockdown. Today’s announcement from the Bangkok government is a step close to a virtual close-down of most Bangkok retail. Today’s order closes all department stores and markets in the capital for three weeks. The measures are the latest attempts to stem the rise in cases of Covid-19 around…
- Covid-19 News
25 Covid-19 cases awaiting test results in Phuket, 5 cases confirmed yesterday
At a tetchy meeting of the Provincial Communicable Diseases Committee in Phuket Town yesterday, Phuket’s Govenor Phakaphong Tavipatana finally admitted to five cases of Covid-19 on the holiday island, three of them still active. After weeks of obfuscation and denying active cases of the coronavirus in Phuket, the Governor finally came clean after repeated questions from a frustrated Phuket press…
- Thailand News
Thailand News Today – Friday, March 20, 2020
Thailand confirms 50 new Covid-19 cases, including infant Thailand today confirmed 50 new cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, bringing the total to 322 since the virus first arrived in the Kingdom in January. 278 patients remain hospitalised, 43 have returned home. The 50 new patients include… • 18 who visited the Lumphini Stadium in Bangkok, including spectators, boxing officials and…
- Covid-19 News
First cases of Covid-19 announced in Phuket
News sources in Phuket are widely reporting 5 cases of Covid-19 in Phuket. The ‘confirmation’ has been reported by The Southern News, Phuket People’s Voice, Phuket Andaman News and Newshawk Phuket. Before today the Phuket Governor has not confirmed any cases on the island. In a meeting at the Centres of Disease Control in Bangkok (below), officials tried to avoid…
- Covid-19 News
Follow Covid-19 coronavirus cases in Thailand here – live tracker
Understandably residents in Thailand are wanting to know where the current Covid-19 Coronavirus cases are around the Kingdom. HERE’S an interactive map to follow the cases around the country. Check todays latest news on the Coronavirus cases in Thailand here…
- Thailand News
Thailand News Today – Thursday, March 19, 2020
60 new cases identified in Thailand today The director-general of the Department of Disease Control, has announced 60 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection. 43 were linked to boxing stadiums, entertainment venues, and religious ceremonies. The latest cases, the most in 24 hours, bring the total number of confirmed infections in Thailand to 272. Each day this week there have…
- Covid-19 News
The Infodemic – fake Covid-19 news spreading like a virus
Social media messages peddling fake Covid-19 cures, dire warnings of draconian lockdowns that prompt panic buying, propaganda by celebrities who should know better – all this and more in the latest viral outbreak, the Infodemic. Some popular myths about Covid-19 below Disinformation, ‘fake news’, misinformation, just plain propaganda… it’s not just harmless gossip, it can help to spread the coronavirus…
- Covid-19 News
World financial markets take stock of record losses
Global stock and oil markets plunged around the world yesterday (Wednesday) as enormous sums of stimulus, thrown at fragile economies, failed to offset concerns that the worsening Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic will tip the global economy into recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was hit by more brutal losses to finish below the 20,000-point level for the first time since 2017.…
- Covid-19 News
Thai tourism minister plans help for tourists stranded and worried about overstaying visas
There are a growing number of tourists who are becoming stranded in Thailand as their home countries raise the drawbridge and lockdown their borders. Many European countries have started sealing their borders to deal with the Covid-19 coronavirus and other countries, closer to home, are starting to act as well. Last weekend Malaysia virtually locked down its borders. Thailand is…
- Thailand News
Thailand News Today – Wednesday, March 18
New cases of Covid-19 takes Thai toll beyond 200 35 new cases of Covid-19 coronavirus have been confirmed in Thailand today. 29 of the new cases were linked to what’s now being referred too as the Lumphini cluster…. the Lumphini Boxing stadium north west of Bangkok city. Since Sunday 130 new cases have been announced, almost tripling the total cases…
- Economy News
Airlines offered drop in landing fees and fuel excise at Thai airports
Airlines, international and domestic, have been hit hard with the impact on travel following the Coronavirus outbreak. Over the past month there’s been daily announcements of cancellations of flights and rescheduling to cope with border closures and daily changes in the coronavirus evolution. The Thai Cabinet yesterday approved a relief package which had been proposed by the Transport Ministry for…
- World News
China expels American journalists in tit-for-tat response
The Chinese government is revoking the press credentials of US journalists working for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. It’s the biggest crackdown on American journalists in the past two decades. The move comes as the two superpowers feud over the narrative on the Covid-19 virus and both try to politicise the issue. US…
- Covid-19 News
Covid-19 UPDATE: Europe and US cases soar, China reports 0 new cases today.
Welcome to Wednesday as we wade through the day’s main Covid-19 coronavirus headlines. Today the number of infected patients will push through 200,000, currently sitting at 198,214 as of 7am this morning, Thai time. 7,965 people have succumbed to the disease. 81,734 people have recovered across the world. In the past 24 hours Italy, Iran, Spain, France, the US and…
- Covid-19 News
Bars, clubs and cinemas closed, but only in Bangkok and only for 14 days
Such is the speed of the news cycle at the moment, we can hardly keep up with the updates and changes in the ongoing reactions by the Thai government to the Covid-19 story. This morning the Thai PM was ‘thinking’ about closing down bars and entertainment venues, now it’s actually happened, but only in and around Bangkok. The Cabinet has…
- South Thailand News
Two bombs explode in front of the Yala provincial offices today
More violence in Thailand’s south today as two small bombs explode at the front of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre in Yala’s city centre this morning. Many people are reported as injured from the blasts. It’s believed that five provincial police (or soldiers) and three media were wounded in the two explosions. Thai PBS is reporting that 18 people…
- Covid-19 News
30 new cases announced for Thailand – Tuesday
Sunday, 32 cases. Monday 33 cases. Now another 30 confirmed Covid-19 cases have been confirmed. Thailand now has a confirmed total of 177 cases according to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, Sukhum Kanchanaphimai. As reported in ‘Thailand News Today‘ yesterday, a boxing stadium, north east of the Bangkok city centre, has been the source of new…
- Covid-19 News
Buriram provincial government initiates Thailand’s first partial lockdown
Buriram province, in east of Bangkok, bordering with Cambodia and home of the Thai leg of the MotoGP, is the first of the country’s 76 provinces to take a pro-active stance against the Covid-19 coronavirus. The provincial government has imposed a partial lockdown to restrict the spread of the disease. The Buriram Governor Tatchakorn Hatthathayakul says, even though there has…
- Covid-19 News
Stormy skies for Boeing as Coronavirus compounds dire situation
As the world’s Covid-19 cases continue to rise, aircraft manufacture Boeing is watching its stocks slide. From around US$384 a share back in September last year to as low as US$154.84 last week. It’s since bounced back to US$170.20, but a long, long way from its peak. Most of the losses kicked in from mid-February when the extent of the…
- Covid-19 News
Be informed, be aware. Prevention and precautions in a Covid-19 world.
As of this morning the number of cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus has reached 169,552. The number of deaths related to the virus is now 6,516, representing a death rate of around 3.8%, up from 3.4% two weeks ago, and up from the earlier days when it hovered around 2%. But the number of people that have fully recovered has…
- Covid-19 News
Thammasat University cancels classes for a week, Thai universities urged to ‘go online’
Thammasat University has cancelled all classes for at least one week, saying in a statement that they plan to resume classes again next week (below). The statement from the university mentioned the Covid-19 world pandemic and said it would co-operate to protect its students. “All classes at Tha Prachan and Rangsit will be cancelled during March 16 –22, 2020. Classes…
- Covid-19 News
Coronavirus UPDATE: Fortress Australia, Europe new ‘epicentre’
As of lunchtime today, there are 156,766 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus in the world. There have been 5,839 deaths and 75,937 patients who have now recovered. Italy now has more active cases than China, and new Chinese cases have drastically reduced over the past two weeks. The countries with more than 1,000 confirmed cases below… INFOGRAPHIC: worldometers.info In other…
- Environment News
Smoke and mirrors, northern Thailand’s annual smog problem
Congratulations Chiang Mai. Again you are the world’s Number One. Sadly, you’re the number one in the world’s worst air pollution, again. The third time in this week alone. And, sadly, because the problem is almost completely avoidable, but not easily solved. Chiang Mai city has a PM2.5 micron reading this morning of 282, whilst just north of the city…
- Covid-19 News
Europe is the new epicentre of Covid-19 coronavirus – WHO
The World Health Organisation has now put Europe as its current “epicentre” for the global coronavirus pandemic, warning that it was impossible to know when the pandemic would peak. In the past 24 hours there has been a swift rise in new cases and deaths, compared to past months, primarily in Europe, as well as Iran and the US. WHO…
