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Which of the five coloured zones are you living in? A green zone? Red zone? Pale red zone? hat’s the difference and what’s open and what’s not? If you’re not in Samut Sakhon, the coastal province just south west of Bangkok, then some of the restrictions imposed by the CCSA have recently been lifted. Here’s a quick look at what’s open and what restrictions remain as of Friday, January 29. (Some local provincial exceptions will apply)

According to the list there’s a Red Zone for Samut Sakhon, called a Maximum Controlled and Restricted Area, and then the light Red Zone, called a Maximum Controlled Area. Previous Red Zones – Rayong, Chon Buri (including Pattaya) and Chanthaburi – have been downgraded to Orange Zones, aka. Controlled Area. Trat, previously a Red Zone, has disappeared off the map! (An omission – we understand Trat is now an Orange Zone).

In Samut Sakhon, the epicentre of the latest outbreak around the seafood markets and coastal fishing ports, has the maximum current restrictions. Restaurants can currently stay open only until 9pm at the moment, markets and hotels are still allowed to open.

The ‘pale’ Red Zone includes Bangkok and now allows restaurants to stay open until 11pm but the serving of alcohol is still banned. Bars and karaoke bars are still required to remain closed. As is the ‘bull and cock-fighting rings’. Shopping Centres are being asked not to conduct promotional activities that would draw large crowds but are otherwise still open. The city’s schools are all open although some private institutions have decided to remain closed – check with your school to confirm. Gyms and boxing gyms are allowed to re-open.

The Orange Zone includes Pattaya which now permits restaurants and bars to re-open until 11pm, including the serving of alcohol, but no dancing (damn!). Shopping Centres can open as per usual and residents in the Orange Zones are now allowed to travel across provincial borders again unhindered. All this will allow some of Pattaya’s entertainment establishments a sigh of relief as they were relying heavily on some weekend traffic from Bangkok to keep the wheels turning until the tourists are allowed back into the country.

The other 3 popular tourist zones of Chiang Mai, Krabi and Phuket have been in the Green Zone throughout the current month of restrictions and can operate much as they were before December last year. But domestic airlines have slashed their flights to these areas and the few flights remaining are asking higher fares than the pre-second wave prices.

Some of the provinces will still require you to carry the Mor Chana app on your phone and other provinces, eg. Phuket, have their bespoke websites to register where you are staying. If you don’t have a mobile phone the local officials usually just check you ID and ask a few questions about where you’ve been and get contact details if they need to get hold of you.

Of course, despite the latest list of eased restrictions and changes in the colour zoning, there will be some local variances and enforcement. Local provincial governments have been given the power to add additional restrictions in some cases.

GRAPHICS: Thai PBS World

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18 provinces in Thailand’s north and northeast are being hit by a wave of smoke and air pollution as the burning season kicks in for the country’s agricultural sector. The next 2 months are the peak of the burning off season for agricultural waste as farmers prepare their land for the next crops of corn, rice and sugar and use the fires to aid the harvest of some of their crops.

With sugar cane plantations, for example, farmers choose to burn the leaves off the plant, exposing the stalks, before harvesting the profit-making stalks, saving time and money. There are mechanical ways to achieve the same result but the farmers, pushed to slender profit margins by the multinational food companies, are unable to invest and amortise the additional costs.

The levels of PM 25 micron particulate, a measure of the smoke and haze, has been at “unhealthy” levels in Chiang Rai, Phrae, Sukhothai, Phitsanulok, Tak, Phetchabun, Phayao, Nan, Chiang Mai, Lampang, Khon Kaen, Roi Et, Chaiyaphum, Ubon Ratchathani, Saraburi, Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom and Nakhon Ratchasima.

The Pollution Control Department are now openly admitting that the major cause of the seasonal smoke is “open burning by farmers who are preparing their land”, according to the Bangkok Post. On Monday the Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan issued orders to prevent farmers from starting the plantation fires. You can check the result of his orders in the fire map below.

iqair.com measures the average level of PM2.5 dust in the North at between 35-85 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m³) yesterday, considered “unhealthy”. In the Northeast, the levels ranged between 40-99μg/m³.

The Thai Pollution Control Department considers PM2.5 readings below 50μg/m³ as “safe” but the Thai standard is twice as high as what is considered safe by the World Health Organisation.

firms.modaps, the NASA satellite fire tracking service, shows the number of fires currently alight around Thailand and the concentrations in the north and north east. The fires in northern Cambodia and north east Myanmar are also contributing to the Thailand’s smog and haze, depending on which way the winds are blowing. During this time of the year, the winds are predominantly north east and light across much of Thailand. The firms.modaps feed is live, registering the fires alight at the time the screen capture was taken.

Bangkok starts off Wednesday with relatively better air quality than the past few weeks.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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Night markets in Chiang Mai will be reopened tomorrow after the province went 6 consecutive days with no new Covid-19 cases.

According to Chiang Mai Governor, Charoenrit Sanguansat, the province and the provincial disease control committee agreed to ease up restrictions on social and business activities after the number of infections continually dropped and no new infections were reported during the past week.

As a result, flea markets, night markets, and walking streets across the province will be reopened tomorrow onwards.

However, the governor still reiterates that marketplaces and visitors must follow the disease control measures strictly.

Since the start of the second wave of Covid-19 in mid-December, Chiang Mai has tightened restrictions to prevent the virus spread in the province, with the order to close all markets and social activities for 14 days on January 6.

SOURCE: Nation Thailand

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