While Phuket officials have allowed tens of thousands of people to leave the island to head back to their home provinces, the Phuket provincial government only allowed Phuket residents to leave the island in their own vehicles on April 30 and May 1, being the ‘first round’ and ‘second round’ of the mass exodus. But on the first day there was traffic jams for kilometres and general chaos around the Tha Chatchai Checkpoint, along with not-very-happy people. Only a few of the total people queueing up managed to leave the island on that first day. Since then the Phuket provincial […]

The southern island province of Phuket reported no new Covid-19 cases today, a fourth consecutive day, though there was one additional death. The man was a 63 year old hotelier from Khao Lak in neighbouring Phang Nga province on the mainland, who visited Phuket before falling ill. He travelled to Phuket between March 19-21 and first began exhibiting symptoms on March 24. He suffered from from cystic fibrosis, a disease which affects the lungs and digestive system. He returned to Phuket for the critical treatment offered by the island’s hospitals, but succumbed to the illness yesterday. As of today, Phuket […]

Some Krabi residents, joining the exodus from Phuket after the Phuket opened its only land border at Sarasin Bridge last week, were greeted with a mandatory swab-test yesterday. 76 Krabi residents returned from Phuket yesterday, Krabi’s governor, Kitibadee Prawit, joined public health officials and Krabi Hospital’s director in overseeing collection of swab samples from a group of 76 returnees on Tuesday. 39 had returned from areas in Phuket deemed “at high risk” for Covid-19 transmission – Cherngtalay, Patong, Kathu, and Koh Kaew. Returnees from those high-risk areas were sent for a state-enforced 14 days holiday, aka. quarantine, at hotels provided […]