Covid-19 News
Thailand Covid-19 news, vaccine updates, travel restrictions, and government policies—stay informed on case numbers, safety measures, and global developments. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted source for Covid-19 updates in Thailand.
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Managing medical expenses in Thailand is important as healthcare costs continue to rise. The country’s healthcare system includes both public and private options, but even with the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS) for citizens, many still face high out-of-pocket medical expenses....
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Pattaya beach clean up
Today was another of Pattaya’s “Big Cleaning Days” but considerably more serious than the usual beach cleanups. As soon as it was reported that a 67 year old Belgian tourist has been confirmed as infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus , a major scrub was undertaken in the areas he’d visited. The man arrived in Thailand on March 3, had drinks…
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Thailand confirms 35 new coronavirus cases, total surpasses 200
Thirty-five new cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus have been confirmed in Thailand today, a new daily record, taking the total to 212 since the virus struck in January. Thirty-five of the new cases are linked to a Bangkok boxing stadium and entertainment venues. The director-general of the Department of Disease Control said today that this was the highest number of…
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UPDATE: Thailand closes schools, entertainment venues, Phuket shuts entertainment venues
UPDATE: Phuket’s Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana last night gave the order to close all entertainment venues in Phuket for 14 days, effective today. All sports venues, cinemas and massages shops are to remain closed for 14 days. Phakaphong explained that the Phuket Communicable Disease Committee’s decision to close all entertainment venues followed yesterday’s Cabinet resolution. The same closure of all entertainment…
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BOT injects 35 billion baht into Thai financial market
35 billion baht is being injected into the local Thai financial markets in the wake of the impact from Covid-19 crisis. The Bank of Thailand say they are closely monitoring the local financial market and recognised “liquidity is tight in bond and US dollar exchange markets.” BoT assistant governor Vachira Arromdee announced yesterday… “The BoT last week injected both short…
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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…
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Pattaya to close “all entertainment venues”
Sources in Patttaya have confirmed tonight that the provincial government of Chon Buri, including the Bang Lamung district, has ordered that, from tomorrow, all entertainment venues must close until the last day of the month. The Pattaya News spoke with the Banglamung Police Chief this evening and confirmed the information. He says it’s a proactive measure to reduce the potential…
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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…
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Malaysia closes its borders
The government of Malaysia announced yesterday it is shutting its borders to travellers, restricting domestic movement, closing schools and universities and ordering most businesses closed after the number of Covid-19 coronavirus cases climbed yesterday to the highest in Southeast Asia. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin made a nationally televised speech announcing the measures, which will be in force beginning tomorrow until…
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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…
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Chaing Mai venue owners don’t agree with shutdown plans
On March 15, Deputy PM and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakil says he will ask the Covid-19 outbreak management committee to close all entertainment venues nationwide. Other measures include declaring additional disease areas and banning activities involving mass gatherings to prevent cluster infections involving people drinking together in pubs. The measure has been submitted to the national Covid-19 prevention committee…
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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…
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33 new cases: Thailand’s biggest single day jump
Thirty-three new cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus cases were confirmed in Thailand today, the nation’s biggest single day increase, bringing the total number of infections to 147 since the virus struck in January. Of the total, 36 have recovered, 108 remain in hospital and one death has been reported from complications arising from the disease. Seventeen of the new cases…
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Songkran officially postponed
In a shock move, an urgent meeting of the Covid-19 Administration Centre, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, today 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. Ratchada says the meeting…
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Pattaya venues “willing to close” if ordered
“If the government ordered us to close entertainment venues, we are willing to cooperate.” Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha said yesterday that, for the time being at least, he is not ordering a shutdown of the country’s massive nightlife industry. But one of Thailand’s main tourist hotspots is bracing for the worst: the Pattaya Entertainment Operators Association conceded yesterday they are…
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Hundreds linked to boxing stadium positive Covid-19 test
TV celebrity and boxing camp manager Matthew Deane, who tested positive for Covid-19 on March 6, was together with many others who were at the Lumpini boxing stadium in Ramintra Bangkok, north east of the city centre. The mayor of the Chachoengsao provincial administration organisation (PAO), Kitti Paopiamsap posted in his Facebook last night at 8.50pm saying that a laboratory…
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Top virologist urges cancellations, “proactive approach”
Thailand’s government should cancel all mass activities, social activities and events that draw crowds, and provide easy public access to Covid-19 coronavirus testing, according to the chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University. Well known virologist Dr. Yong Poovorawan made the proposal on his Facebook page today. Yong says Thailand has been “rehearsing for how…
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“Where is everyone?” – Suvarnabhumi airport deserted on Saturday night
Suvarnabhumi International Airport is largely deserted as virus fears grips travellers. It was eerily quiet at Suvarnabhumi at 9pm on Saturday night, as both the arrival and departure halls were practically empty. The managing director of Airports of Thailand Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, admitted that he had not expected to see such an atmosphere at the airport on Saturday March 14. To…
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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…
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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…
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“We’re not going to run out” – Thai Retailer Association
Retailers are insisting that supplies of new stock have been unaffected as local residents, afraid of a Cornonavirus-prompted lockdown, rush to retailers to restock on essential goods – drinking water, rice, canned food, semi-instant noodles, sugar and toilet paper have been found to be in short supply in various department stores, supermarkets and retail stores, as people start hoarding supplies.…
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New Covid-19 specialist hospital to open as Thai government steps up response
The Thai government plans to use a freshly constructed hospital as a Covid-19-only patient hospital. Yesterday the number of infections in Thailand rose by 32 cases for a total of 114, the largest single rise in new daily cases. The Thai PM was speaking about the possibilities of moving to Stage 3 after chairing a meeting yesterday on new measures…
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PM: Nightlife stays open for business
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-cha announced he has rejected, for the time being, the suggestion from Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to temporarily close the country’s massive nightlife industry. Anutin Charnvirakul said yesterday the suggestion was one of several measures he and the Ministry of Public Health would bring up with the PM tomorrow. But as social media exploded, fiercely…
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Huge jump as Thailand confirms 32 new coronavirus cases
Thailand today confirmed 32 new cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus. The announcement was made at an afternoon press conference with the Department of Disease Control, and confirmed by The Ministry of Public Health. The list of new infections is varied, and includes nine from a boxing gym, three more who had contact with a cluster that had a party with…
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83 students returning from Italy quarantined
83 Thai students arriving on a Thai Airways flight from Italy were taken from U-Tapao International Airport to Sattahip naval base in Chon Buri this morning for Covid-19 coronavirus screening. Six students had fevers and were separated and taken to nearby hospitals for tests and a 14 day mandatory quarantine. The other 77 were taken to guesthouses within the naval…
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Thailand now lists UK, USA as “high risk” countries
Thailand has added the UK, USA and several other countries to the list of countries it regards as being “high risk” for Covid-19 coronavirus contagion. The list now includes: Japan, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the UK and USA. An update posted on the Tourism Authority of Thailand website yesterday advised travellers arriving in Thailand from these…
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Government tries, fails to clarify visa-on-arrival confusion
After days of rumours, assertions and flip-flops, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry in a press briefing yesterday provided some much-needed clarity regarding visa-on-arrival (VOA) status for 18 countries and visa exemption for three countries with high infection rates of the Covid-19 coronavirus: they are cancelled. Cherdkiat Atthakor, director-general and spokesman of the Foreign Ministry’s Information Department says the cancellations are in place…
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US and China compete to control the narrative on the origins of Covid-19
With the two year trade war between the economic super-powers still being sorted out, the Chinese and US governments have entered into a tit-for-tat exchange of blame for the origins of the Covid-19 virus this week. Conspiracy theories have been fired back and forth between officials in the two countries. Washington has described the coronavirus outbreak as the “Wuhan Virus”.…
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Manila goes on lockdown
“It’s a lockdown It’s just a matter of protecting and defending you from Covid-19. That’s about it.” Some 12 million people in the Philippine capital of Manila are now in near total lockdown after a Thursday order from the nation’s president Rodrigo Duterte banning domestic travel and an announcement earlier today of a nighttime curfew in the capital. The president…
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Phuket Covid-19 ‘updates’
The spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus prompted tourism industry leaders in Phuket this week to support moves to cancel or postpone mass events across the island. All official Songkran Thai New Year festivities in the southern resort island’s Patong district have already been cancelled, along with the annual Phuket Bike Week, usually the biggest motorcycle event in Asia. Even the…
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Body of Chinese man lies untouched for hours over coronavirus fears
A Chinese man who fell to his death from a Bangok hotel room yesterday was left lying untouched for more than six hours, as responders feared contracting the Covid-19 coronavirus from the body. Police, who were notified at about 12;30pm, say the 39 year old Chinese national was staying in a room on the sixth floor of the hotel, which…
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