Coronavirus (Covid-19)
33 new cases announced for Thailand, total rises to 147

Yesterday’s announcement of 32 new cases of Covid-19 coronavirus, the most on any single day in Thailand, has been surpassed today with the announcement of 33 new cases for Monday. The total number of infections in Thailand is now 147 people. 36 patients have recovered, 108 are still in hospital and one person has died.
Seventeen of the new cases are people who came from overseas, and people who are closely related to them. The other cases are associated with people already identified as infected by the Covid-19 virus.
Closures
Deputy Thai PM Wissanu Krea-ngarm announced today that the Government will close all state and private universities, schools, international schools and tuition schools, boxing and sports facilities, bars, cinemas and other venues with capacities of more than 50 people.
Other establishments, such as restaurants, stores and shops, will be required to take precautionary steps to stem the virus, such as thermal scanners and the availability of hand sanitisers.
Earlier today, following an urgent meeting of the Covid-19 Administration Centre chaired by PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, he approved a motion to postpone the Songkran holidays from April 13-15 to later, undisclosed dates. Deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Thanadirek made the announcement on her Twitter account this afternoon. Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year festival.
Stage 3 preparations
Dr. Wissanu says the Government is instructing all state, private, local, military and police hospitals to arrange for more beds. Retired doctors, medical personnel and volunteers have been asked to be on standby for mobilisation if the situation becomes worse.
All ministries and departments have been instructed to arrange staggered working hours. The Government is negotiating with the SET (Stock Exchange of Thailand) to organise the postponement of any shareholder meetings scheduled to take place in April. They say they will make teleconferencing of these meetings “legal” under the circumstances.
SOURCE: Thai PBS World
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Coronavirus (Covid-19)
The Thai government threw a tourist party (sound of crickets) | VIDEO

The Thai Government, flushed with the success of their containment of Covid-19, decided to market the Land of Smiles to the world as the safe place to travel. With the annual wet season starting to weaken the tourists would flock back to the S E Asian country that had such a remarkable success containing, then almost eradicating itself, of the coronavirus.
Then they came up with the STV – the special tourist visa which would have the world’s eager travellers packing their sun cream for up to 270 days of Thai tourism.
There were promises of plane loads of tourists and even published flights and carriers. A few flights arrived, most didn’t.
In fact, since the start of the STV, the Special Tourist Visa, with its long list of restrictions and requirements, was floated, along with a re-vamped Tourist Visa, less than 400 people have arrived per month, on average, since the end of October. In the October and November of the year before more than 3 million people arrived in Thailand. Even the government’s limit of 1,200 new tourist arrivals per month was even slightly tested.
The government had bought all the streamers and a pretty new dress for the party but no one came.
What went wrong?
Where was the much-anticipated pent-up demand and people banging on the doors of the world’s Thai embassies?
It was the European winter and the ‘snowbirds’ would surely be back to soak in some Thai sun rays. But no.
The first problem was there wasn’t much for them to come back to. They would have the beaches of the islands all to themselves, they wouldn’t have to wait in line for anything, the domestic airlines were still selling low fares to Tavel anywhere around the country.
But otherwise there wasn’t a lot for them to do. The tourism magnets were a shadow of their former selves. Walking Street, Bangla Road, tours and tour boats, all the tourist strip restaurants. The buzz of the crowds was gone and more than 90% of the tourist-related business had closed up.
Their staff, their families, their bank loans, their stock and investments – all on hold and forced to find come other means to make ends meet. 931 of some of the larger official tourism operators have now gone out of business, according to Bloomberg News. There would be thousands of the smaller family operations that have also been swept aside by the Thai government’s responses to the world pandemic.
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Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Covid-19 travel pass to pilot on Etihad and Emirates Airways flights

A travel pass for passengers inoculated against Covid-19 or who have tested negative will be piloted on flights for Dubai’s Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways. With the travel pass issued by the International Air Transport Association, passengers can keep control of their data and share their test results with airlines and authorities for travel.
The travel pass will be offered on selected flights from Abu Dhabi in the first quarter, and will expand the pass to other destinations of the trail is successful. Emirates is going to implement phase 1 of the travel pass in April for flights departing from Dubai.
Recently, the IATA travel pass programme has been also tested in International Airlines Group and Singapore Airlines.
SOURCE: Reuters
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Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Outbreak in Samut Sakhon is “worrying,” CCSA spokesperson says

While the number of daily new Covid-19 cases continues to drop, health officials are still scrambling to contain the virus in the prime hotspot: Samut Sakhon. The outbreak in the coastal fishing province is “worrying,” according to Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration spokesperson Taweesilp Visanuyothin.
Health officials rolled out a proactive mass testing campaign after a spike of Covid-19 cases in mid-December. The vast majority of cases were concentrated around the Central Shrimp Market in the Mahachai fishing hub, which affected a large migrant population. The virus has since spread to 61 of Thailand’s 77 provinces.
With the help of proactive testing, more than 4,000 cases were reported in Samut Sakhon. Field hospitals have been set up on the fly to treat and quarantine those that are infected.
But public health officials are still racing to test as many people in the province as possible with plans to inspect 600 factories and test 50 factory workers per day. There are 12,000 factories in Samut Sakhon and Taweeslip says health officials are speeding up testing to “isolate infected people as soon as possible.”
“The outbreak in Samut Sakhon is worrying. It is difficult to conduct active case-finding there. There are many obstacles, including the number of factories… Meanwhile, factory owners and workers must cooperate. There are more than 10,000 small factories where 1-200 people are employed.”
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
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