New coronavirus cases in Thailand fall to 38, 1 more death

Pattaya’s hotels are taking their restaurants to the streets by offering food stalls outside and delivery in a bid to save their businesses during the Covid-19pandemic. Such changes in their attempts to avoid closing, come as city officials say they will use funds to spruce up the city for Chinese New Years on February 12.

As Chonburi province is still declared as a “high-risk” and “highly-controlled” area, all hopes of domestic and foreign tourism have been dashed as visitors are essentially banned. Even with recent virus infections down to just 1 over the past 3 days and single digits in the last week, the strict measures have not been lifted.

After Covid hit, hotels in Pattaya relied more on domestic tourists, which appeared to be working for several months after the city held more outdoor festivals to increase tourism traffic. Now, without domestic tourists helping to curb the financial downfall, the hotel industry has met many times with province leaders and represetatives from the Social Security Office of Thailand to ask for a forced legal closure which would allow their formal staff to get paid through social security benefits at roughly 50% of their daily wages.

The requests so far have been denied, leaving 30,000 hotel workers in Pattaya alone out of a job. Some hotels have managed to keep their employees and even providing meals and lodging for them. But smaller hotels have run out of money and are having to lay off staff without pay.

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After the welcome drop of new Covid-19 infections yesterday, the CCSA today reports an increase of 142 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours. 88 cases were found in general health care institutions, while 37 cases are detected on the proactive tests and 17 cases in the state quarantine.

The CCSA says the situation is still not stable with changing numbers, and urges the public to maintain caution.

Among the hot spots of the new outbreak, Samut Sakhon reported 63 new infections… 19 cases are Thai and 44 cases are migrant workers. Meanwhile, Bangkok recorded 14 new cases… 13 Thais and 1 migrant.

The CCSA also says the proactive testing in the community, especially migrant workers in factories, will continue. He says at least 50 factories still need to undergo the test.

Currently, the virus has spread to 63 provinces across the country with a total of 12,795 accumulative cases and 71 deaths since the start of the outbreak in January last year.

SOURCE: CCSA

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Over 1.7 million migrant workers in Thailand are going to lose their legal working status because they can’t submit work permit renewal and a health certificate with Covid-19 test results in time. The Labour Ministry then proposes the cabinet will extend the registration period (amnesty) for migrant workers to help maintain their legal status. Migrant workers, including those illegal and unemployed workers, are required to register with authorities via the ministry’s website from January 15 until February 13.

According to the Labour Minister, every migrant worker to renew their work permit must receive a Covid-19 test at hospitals designated by the Public Health Ministry. The Department of Medical Sciences will be responsible for the testing costs.

Illegal and unemployed workers, who registered with the Ministry, will be allowed to stay in the Kingdom for 2 years without penalties. Only those migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar are allowed to overstay their current visas, but are required to register with the provincial employment office in the area they work, as part of the amnesty.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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