Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Koh Pha Ngan partygoers and organiser get a fine and suspended sentences

Published

4 weeks ago

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Koh Pha Ngan partygoers and organiser get a fine and suspended sentences | The Thaiger

109 partygoers who attended a party at cliff-top bar on Koh Pha Ngan, including 89 foreigners and 22 Thais, have received suspended jail terms and fines for breaking Thailand’s emergency decree and Covid-19 restrictions. A judge sentenced each of the attendees to 1 month in jail, suspended if they have a good behaviour record for a year. He also fined them 4,000 baht each.

Police arrested most of the attendees in a raid Tuesday evening at the ThreeSixtyBar. Among the foreigners arrested were 20 French citizens, 10 Americans and 6 British citizens. Others were from Russia and Switzerland. Everyone was given a Covid-19 test by local health officials. So far all results have come back negative.

Koh Pha Ngan has been a popular destination in the past for backpackers, ‘wellness’ seekers, the hippie crowd and was famous for its monthly full moon party. But the Had Rin Beach monthly invasion has been cancelled since March 2020 although a core of international expats and tourists, some stuck in Thailand or waiting out the pandemic, have moved to the island for its relaxed tropical lifestyle. Thailand barred virtually all tourists from entering the country in April 2020 because of the coronavirus.

Koh Pha Ngan is a short boat ride from Koh Samui, located off the coast of Surat Thani province in the Gulf of Thailand.

Police said the raid was easy as the organisers did a lot of publicity (below) on social media for the Celebration 5 Bang party, where the bar promoted the event to celebrate its fifth year in business.

The court conducted the trial of the 109 people over a video conference call.

As for the Thai organiser and the 2 bartenders, they were given fines of 10,000 baht and a 2 year suspended jail sentence. The party’s organiser claimed he had made an “honest mistake”.

“I thought Surat Thani province was in the Covid-19 green zone…. I thought we were allowed to organise an activity.”

Thailand is currently graded in four zones – red, orange, yellow and green – depending on the number of cases in the current outbreak that has now spread around the country in the past 5 weeks, tripling the number of cases before December 20. Thailand has now registered 17,023 infections since January 2020, 802 new cases today and a total of 76 deaths.

SOURCE: AP

Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page.

Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.

News Categories:Coronavirus (Covid-19)Koh Samui Tourism Visa

18 Comments

Bill Fischer
Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 8:27 am
4,000 baht fine! That’s barely a slap on the wrist. This is a joke. They should have been fined heavily and deported.
Reply
- Manu
  Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 12:05 pm
  Calm down Adolf, no harm has been done…
  Reply
  - J West
    Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 3:44 pm
    Funny 5555…. “ Adolph”….. 😂
    But, the club promoters did bring the police attention on themselves by advertising….. given the island Farang population is represented by the number of attendees. A note on a beach rock would have sufficed. And…. police are hard up for cash these days. Normally they’d likely been too busy making the rounds.
    Reply
    - Manu
      Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 8:12 pm
      Just calm down the all lot of you… nobody died, life gets on just take it easy, . And IJ, you are nobody to suggest anything how law should be applied. Not even here on the Thaiger. Calm down please…”siuggest” only what your mad brain allows you to: nothing.
      Reply
- Issan John
  Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 4:04 pm
  I’d suggest the 10,000 baht fine and suspended sentences for the organisers is rather more significant (or insignificant).
  Reply
  - Leo Z
    Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 11:47 pm
    Agreed with John. You want a penalty to act as a deterrent, 50,000-100,000 baht fine plus suspension of liquor license for a year should do it. “Honest mistake”?! You live and breathe emergency decree and zones if you’re a business owner. As far as the 89 foreigners (who just had to celebrate, didn’t they?), deportation cannot be done, but a 5-year blacklist could very easily have been slapped.
    Reply
Gold Sovereign
Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 10:38 am
Why? No positive tests for COVID-19. You seem too angry over something that would never hurt you nor is really any of your business.
Remeber that this is on an island. These people are not travelling all over Thailand. So little opportunity for anything to spread. Calm down.
Reply
- Issan John
  Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 8:32 pm
  So as long as no-one actually gets hurt it’s fine for people to break whatever laws they like ?
  Maybe that’s how the law works on your planet …
  Reply
  - Manu
    Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 9:23 pm
    The real point being:: anyone dying? No? what we are we talking about then?
    Reply
Ray
Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 5:30 pm
I think the penalties are correct. Doesn’t matter whether there is no corona case on the island. The party goers and organizers give a wrong signal that people can decide for themselves to follow the rules or not.
Reply
- Issan John
  Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 12:46 am
  I’d suggest the penalties, particularly for the organisers, gave a similar signal.
  Reply
Ynwaps
Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 6:01 pm
Look at us, we’re doing something in this otherwise poorly lead war against covid 😉
Reply
Ton Bunchuai
Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 7:52 am
I recently commented on this topic and was “verbally abused” can you please request that people stick to the topic and not verbally abuse others !!
Reply
- The Thaiger
  Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 12:13 pm
  We’re like a broken record on this matter Ton. Sometimes it’s not for the faint-hearted and we try and remove as much nonsense, false information and abuse as we can.
  Reply
Mitch
Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 5:11 pm
The obvious seems ignored here:
– The police knew for at least a week about this event happening
– Bigger parties took place that very same week in the same island
– They had many many days to reach out to the organizer and cancel it
– This would have been in the best public interest to avoid infection
– Instead they “raid” the event to arrest people that, stupidly perhaps, thought they were within the law (green zone, legit ads online etc…)
Conclusion: It could’ve been a non-incident, and yet it became a successful communication operation.
I might add, the Thaiger may want to do a follow up article with the view of some of the infamous “Phangan 111” and ask why there were no pro active measures taken to prevent a “dangerous gathering”
Reply
- Ynwaps
  Monday, February 1, 2021 at 2:19 pm
  Thank you Mitch. The Thaiger should follow up on this but it probably doesn’t fit the narrative.
  Reply
  - The Thaiger
    Monday, February 1, 2021 at 2:43 pm
    There is zero narrative from us. We’ve just reported the news that we know. If there were other incidents they’ve snuck under the radar. We can only report what we know.
    Reply
Mary
Monday, February 1, 2021 at 2:40 am
Koh Phangan is half-jokingly referred to as “White Supremacy Island” and the Thai police are happy to capitalize on the wealthy Farang: https://kohphangan.news
Reply

Up Next

Re-openings and easing of restrictions in Chon Buri, effective Monday, February 1

Don't Miss

Chon Buri hotels and tourism businesses ordered to close

The Thaiger

If you have story ideas, a restaurant to review, an event to cover or an issue to discuss, contact The Thaiger editorial staff.

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Public Health Minister gets first Covid-19 vaccine shot in Thailand

Published

5 hours ago

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Caitlin Ashworth

Public Health Minister gets first Covid-19 vaccine shot in Thailand | The Thaiger

PHOTO: Facebook/ Anutin Charnvirakul

Thailand’s Covid-19 vaccine campaign started with Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul who was jabbed with China’s Sinovac vaccine. PM Prayut Chan-o-cha was initially planned to be the first to kick off Thailand’s immunisation plan with the AstraZeneca vaccine, but due to problems with paperwork, the prime minister’s injection was postponed. Doctors advised Prayut to get the AstraZeneca vaccine due to his age. Prayut is 66 and doctors say the Sinovac vaccine has been declared safe for people ages 18 to 59.

Both shipments of the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines arrived last week, the AstraZeneca vaccine still needs to be endorsed by the Medical Science Department. Anutin says the pharmaceutical company has not submitted documents and samples needed for the endorsement.

Along with Anutin, a number of other government officials and health professionals were vaccinated against the coronavirus. Anutin’s shot was administered by Thailand’s top virologist Yong Poovorawan.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page.

Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

International travellers allowed to transit Thailand from Monday

Published

1 day ago

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Ann Carter

International travellers allowed to transit Thailand from Monday | The Thaiger

International travellers will now be allowed to transit Thailand from Monday after the Civil Aviation Authority relaxed Covid‐19measures. The lifting of stringent travel regulations comes after Thailand reports a drop in Covid infections to double digits since February 20.

CAAT also says regulations are being relaxed on domestic travel as well. The authority says operators of domestic flights can resume serving in-flight meals and drinks starting from Thursday.

Transport Minister, Sasksayam Chidchob, says the move is part of a resolution by the Centre for Covid‐19 Situation Administration to relax measures. Flight attendants and passengers, however, are still mandated to follow Covid control measures that include wearing face masks during the length of the flight except when eating or drinking.

In-flight meals and drinks were banned on December 30 under the government’s 4th announcement, but was cancelled when CAAT director general made a fifth announcement nullifying the regulation.

International passengers have been under strict regulations for a while, including being unable to transit at Thai airports or to transfer to other flights through Thai airports.

Samut Sakhon province, the epicentre of the second wave of Covidin Thailand, has reportedly been successful at disease control in high‐risk areas, including the Central Shrimp Market, which has been closed for over two months.

But that may change as rumour has it that the market may reopen from Monday, but an official announcement has yet to be made by the CCSA. Deputy governor Teerapat Kutchamath visited the market, assuring that it was, indeed, ready to open by Monday, while plans are already being set to make merit, in light of its expected reopening.

Meanwhile, The CCSA reports 72 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Kingdom today. 63 of those cases were domestically‐transmitted while 9 were imported.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page.

Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.

Thailand

PM Prayut postponing Covid‐19 vaccination citing paperwork issues

Published

1 day ago

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Ann Carter

PM Prayut postponing Covid‐19 vaccination citing paperwork issues | The Thaiger

Thailand’s PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is postponing his inaugural Covid‐19 vaccination citing paperwork issues with the AstraZeneca vaccine shipment. According to Khaosod English, the vaccine shipment was sent to Thailand last Wednesday from South Korea, but was missing the additional required paperwork.

Prayut was supposed to receive the vaccine tomorrow, but the highly‐publicised event will not be happening. According to Khaosod English, an official at the Secretariat of the Prime Minister has also confirmed the news of the postponement without citing a reason.

Although the Sinovac vaccine is also being administered in Thailand, healthcare officials say Prayut is too old to receive it as its age limit is 60. Prayut is 66 years old, which is well over the oldest age that can receive the vaccine.

The Sinovac vaccine drive is set to commence on Monday, 2 weeks behind schedule. Those frontline health workers, hospitality workers and vulnerable groups will receive the vaccines first.

Meanwhile, Phuket is waiting for the green lightto start administering vaccines and has already held a vaccine administration rehearsal overseen by Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong along with other health officials.

Pichet says the first vaccine round of 4,000 doses should arrive early in March, with the 2nd and 3rd set of doses, 16,000 and 48,000 respectively, to arrive in April and May.

The government pandemic center reported 72 new confirmed infections on Friday, after first only reporting 45 new cases. 37 of those cases were locally-transmitted, and one 6 year old Thai girl returning from the UK was found to have tested positive for the virus. Samut Sakhon, again, reported over half of the new cases yesterday, as it remains the epicentre of Thailand’s second wave of the coronavirus outbreak.

The total virus tally in Thailand sits at 25,764, with 83 fatalities. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has not yet announced the amount of new cases for today.

There is no word yet on when PM Prayut will be rescheduled to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.

SOURCE: Khaosod English

Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page.

Never miss out on future posts by following The Thaiger.