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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    Moving with family? Here’s how to cut health costs in Thailand

    Relocating to Thailand with your family brings exciting new opportunities, but it also comes with the challenge of managing healthcare costs in a new system. Thailand has both public and private healthcare options, each offering different prices and quality of...

  • Samut Sakhon governor tests positive for Covid-19, public health minister in quarantine

    Samut Sakhon governor tests positive for Covid-19, public health minister in quarantine

    The Samut Sakhon governor Veerasak Vijitsaengsri tested positive for Covid-19 and has been admitted to the hospital for treatment. Prior to testing positive for the virus, the governor had an hour-long meeting on Sunday with public health officials, including Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul who is now in quarantine at his home. The Centre for Covid-19…

  • 2021’s new normal – the digital Covid passport

    2021’s new normal – the digital Covid passport

    Looking forward to travelling, shopping, going to the movies? Now that Covid-19 vaccines are beginning to be rolled out around the world, you may now need something in addition to the actual vaccine. Documentation… a vaccine passport. Documentation, including your current Covid status and vaccination details, will become 2021’s biggest challenge as governments, businesses, and world travel, try and re-establish…

  • CCSA: New Covid-19 wave “more serious” than the first

    CCSA: New Covid-19 wave “more serious” than the first

    Thailand’s new wave of coronavirus infections is more serious than the first, according to the spokesperson for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, Taweesilp Visanuyothin. The number of active Covid-19 cases has spiked to 1,920 cases, a record high for Thailand since the start of the pandemic. Health officials are urging the public to follow coronavirus prevention measures like wearing…

  • Private hospital in Bangkok told to take down vaccine pre-order ads

    Private hospital in Bangkok told to take down vaccine pre-order ads

    Thailand’s Department of Health Service Support is demanding a private hospital in Bangkok’s Bang Khen district to remove advertising for people to pre-order their Covid-19 vaccines. The vaccines they were advertising were from the US biotech firm Moderna. While the Moderna vaccine is now approved by food and drug authorities in Canada and the US, the vaccine still needs approval from…

  • Thai returnee commits suicide from quarantine facility balcony

    Thai returnee commits suicide from quarantine facility balcony

    A Thai returnee from South Korea has reportedly committed suicide off the balcony of her quarantine facility in Bang Kapi today. The woman, whose name has been withheld, allegedly leaped to her death off of the 8th storey of the facility, with her body landing on the 2nd storey. The 51 year old woman tested negative for the virus initially…

  • Japan suspends entry for non-resident foreigners amidst new Covid variant

    Japan suspends entry for non-resident foreigners amidst new Covid variant

    Japan is suspending nonresident foreign nationals from entering the country starting tomorrow through late January as a precaution to stop the spread of a new and possibly more transmissible strain of the Covid-19 virus. Japanese citizens and foreign residents alike will also have to submit negative virus test results within 72 hours of departing to Japan from countries and territories…

  • Rayong identifies 49 new local Covid cases today

    Rayong identifies 49 new local Covid cases today

    Rayong, south of Chon Buri province, has declared 49 new local cases of Covid-19 today, bringing today’s total number of new cases nationwide to 170 for the day. Channa Iamsaeng, the Governor of Rayong province, has told AP that the new cases were recently confirmed by local authorities and have not yet been reported to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation…

  • Phuket Governor warns face mask price gougers

    Phuket Governor warns face mask price gougers

    Phuket’s Governor is warning profiteers against face mask price-gouging after news of a second wave of Covid-19 has rattled Thais. There has been 1 new case of Covid-19 reported this week. Governor Narong Woonciew says violators could face a fine of up to 100,000 baht or up to 5 years imprisonment. Narong issued the order just a week after news…

  • Arriving in Chiang Mai? Prepare to be checked.

    Arriving in Chiang Mai? Prepare to be checked.

    Anyone who has recently visited the new Covid-19 epicentre of Samut Sakhon and who arrives in Chiang Mai should prepare to be checked, according to health authorities. The efforts are underway to stop the virus from spreading and anyone who is suspected of being infected with Covid-19 or who has visited the central shrimp market in Samut Sakhon, must use the…

  • 12 months ago a number of “mysterious” respiratory cases came to the notice of a Chinese doctor

    12 months ago a number of “mysterious” respiratory cases came to the notice of a Chinese doctor

    A year ago nothing much was known about the coronavirus that has now decimated the world’s economy and killed 1,764,697 people (as of Saturday morning, December 27, 2020 Thai Time). Exactly 12 months later there are now 80,720,204 positive infections registered around the world. On December 27, 2019, there was little known about the mysterious new coronavirus. How infectious was…

  • More pandemics to come if we don’t prepare for the future – WHO Chief

    More pandemics to come if we don’t prepare for the future – WHO Chief

    Today marks the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, and to some, such a day recognising the importance of thinking ahead, is long overdue. The WHO chief is warning that if preparations aren’t made for the future, more pandemics that rival Covid-19 will follow. Exactly 12 months today a number of mysterious respiratory cases presented at a hospital in Wuhan.…

  • TAT launch new Alternative State Quarantine “one stop shop” in Thailand

    TAT launch new Alternative State Quarantine “one stop shop” in Thailand

    The TAT have launched a new “one stop” shop for quarantine (Alternative State Quarantine) bookings in Thailand. The new website is designed to be a single place for booking quarantine hotels during the time when arrival in Thailand is welcomed with a mandatory 14 day stay (which seems to end up as 15 days in many cases) in a government-qualified…

  • South Korea confirms Covid-19 outbreak in 32 Thai workers, 28 others awaiting results

    South Korea confirms Covid-19 outbreak in 32 Thai workers, 28 others awaiting results

    South Korean officials have announced a Covid-19 outbreak in 32 Thai workers, with a further 28 waiting for test results. Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the development, with spokesman Tanee Sangrat saying the Royal Thai Embassy in Seoul has been in touch with the affected workers and is ready to help if needed. The Bangkok Post reports that…

  • CCSA threatens lockdowns by March “if situation spirals out of control”

    CCSA threatens lockdowns by March “if situation spirals out of control”

    The spokesperson for Thailand’s CCSA, Dr. Taweesilp Visanuyothin, yesterday stated that, if the “situation spiralled out of control”, there would be a “nationwide lockdown by March”. The Christmas Day warning followed a week of tracking and tracing from an outbreak that centred on the Mahachai seafood market in Samut Sakhon, specifically, and Burmese migrant workers in the fishing and seafood…

  • Total of 81 new Thai Covid infections in past 24 hours, including from Samut Sakhon

    Total of 81 new Thai Covid infections in past 24 hours, including from Samut Sakhon

    Thailand’s CCSA has reported 81 new Covid-19 infection – 37 are local Thais, 35 are migrant workers and 9 that were detected in quarantine after arriving from outside the country. The total in Thailand is now 5,910, 1,613 new infections detected in the past 7 days. The 9 quarantined arrival cases are from the US, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Myanmar and the…

  • CCSA Update: 67 new Covid-19 cases

    CCSA Update: 67 new Covid-19 cases

    67 new Covid-19 cases were reported today in a daily briefing by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. Health officials say 58 of those cases are local transmissions with all but 3 of the local cases linked to the “Samut Sakhon cluster” around a seafood market in Mahachai, a major fishing hub in Thailand. In the past week, more than…

  • PM to host Covid task force meeting as officials say no plans for national lockdown

    PM to host Covid task force meeting as officials say no plans for national lockdown

    PM Prayut Chan-o-cha will host a special meeting of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration today, to debate potential additional disease prevention measures. Having seemingly gone months without a case of community transmission, Thailand finds itself in the grip of a sudden Covid-19 outbreak, linked to illegal migrants. Officials are currently insisting there is no talk of a nationwide lockdown,…

  • Officials say no evidence of hoarding, price hikes, among face mask retailers

    Officials say no evidence of hoarding, price hikes, among face mask retailers

    As demand for face masks spikes amid a new Covid-19 outbreak in the Kingdom, the Commerce Ministry has conducted checks on pharmacies and other retailers to ensure pricing is fair and there is no hoarding of supplies. Permanent secretary Boonyarit Kalayanamit says officials carried out spot-checks on 573 retailers yesterday and found no evidence of any wrongdoing. Masks are being…

  • Bangkok schools, nurseries, close for 12 days in bid to curtail Covid spread

    Bangkok schools, nurseries, close for 12 days in bid to curtail Covid spread

    The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has closed all 437 municipal schools and 292 nurseries in the capital, amid confirmation of an additional 121 cases of Covid-19 in Samut Sakhon. The central province has become a hotspot of local transmission, with infection primarily concentrated on its migrant worker population. BMA spokesman Pongsakorn Kwanmuang adds that most city officials have been ordered to…

  • New Covid-19 cases in 17 provinces, CCSA spokesperson says to view migrants as “family”

    New Covid-19 cases in 17 provinces, CCSA spokesperson says to view migrants as “family”

    With Covid-19 cases spreading in Thailand and many concerned with the migrant population after the outbreak at a Samut Sakhon seafood market, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration spokesperson Taweesin Visanuyothin says to view the migrant workers as family. “When family members are sick, we have to take care of them.” 46 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed today in the…

  • Samut Sakhon vendor tests positive for Covid-19 in Nakhon Si Thammarat

    Samut Sakhon vendor tests positive for Covid-19 in Nakhon Si Thammarat

    A new Covid-19 case confirmed in the Southern province Nakhon Si Thammarat, the provincial governor announced today. The 42 year old woman sold curry in Samut Sakhon, a province just southwest of Bangkok where more than 1,000 people have tested positive for the virus. Most cases are concentrated around a seafood market in tambon Mahachai in the Muang district. The…

  • Epidemiologist transferred to Samut Sakhon to tackle Covid-19 outbreak

    Epidemiologist transferred to Samut Sakhon to tackle Covid-19 outbreak

    With a record high count of active Covid-19 cases, Thailand’s Public Health Ministry has appointed an epidemiologist to tackle the recent outbreak concentrated around a seafood market in Samut Sakhon. More than 1,000 coronavirus cases are linked to the “Samut Sakhon cluster.” Many migrant workers who lived in cramped rooms together and worked seafood markets tested positive. The epidemiologist Naretrit…

  • Health officials confirm Phuket’s first case of local transmission in months

    Health officials confirm Phuket’s first case of local transmission in months

    Phuket officials have confirmed a case of Covid-19 in the province and given a timeline of the new infection. The patient is a 40 year old Thai man from the Kathu district, who recently returned from a “big bike” event on Koh Lanta, in Krabi province. The man belongs to a “big bike” afficionados’ group and travelled to an event…

  • Phuket panics after fake Covid news posted on social media

    Phuket panics after fake Covid news posted on social media

    Whilst the touristy west coast of Phuket has been very, very quiet since April when the airport closed (especially the tourist towns like Surin, Kamala, Patong, Kata and Karon), now the east coast has gone quiet this morning. The east coast, where many of the locals and families live, has been buzzing along since Phuket’s lockdowns were lifted at the…

  • Thai government may replace emergency decree with strict amendment to Communicable Disease Act

    Thai government may replace emergency decree with strict amendment to Communicable Disease Act

    The Thai Public Health Minister says the government is considering repealing the emergency decree come the new year and replacing it with a tougher amendment to the Communicable Disease Control Act. Anutin Charnvirakul says the proposal was raised at a Cabinet meeting yesterday. Addressing the Thai media, he said the amendment would allow the Disease Control Committee more authority to…

  • Thailand News Today | 427 new C19 infections, Pattaya countdown cancelled, Elite Visa update | Dec 22

    Thailand News Today | 427 new C19 infections, Pattaya countdown cancelled, Elite Visa update | Dec 22

    Plenty of talk around today about future lockdowns, but NOTHING IS CONFIRMED at this stage. The Thaiger will keep you up to date with the latest. Possibility of an “end of year travel boost” has been shattered As if things weren’t already bad enough for Thailand’s tourism sector, the events in Samut Sakhon in the past week have just made…

  • Something fishy about the Samut Sakhon Covid outbreak – who’s responsible?

    Something fishy about the Samut Sakhon Covid outbreak – who’s responsible?

    Here are 2 resources for the above story… https://thethaiger.com/news/national/… http://www.rapid-asia.com/blog/forced… Until the weekend many people would have never heard of Samut Sakhon, a province just south west of Greater Bangkok and sharing a provincial border with the capital. The province is best known as a major hub for Thailand’s shrimp and fishing industry, packed with markets around the coastal tributaries…

  • Phuket primary school reports parent tests positive for Covid-19

    Phuket primary school reports parent tests positive for Covid-19

    A primary school in Phuket made a brief announcement that a student’s parent tested positive for Covid-19. The Kajonkiet School Group made a post on its Facebook page, which was taken down within an hour, saying they were “unofficially” notified by the province’s public health office about the recent case and they are awaiting results from the second test to…

  • Health officials release list of “high risk” areas in 10 provinces

    Health officials release list of “high risk” areas in 10 provinces

    Health officials have released a list of areas at “high risk” of Covid-19 infections. Those who have recently visited any of the places listed are advised to monitor for coronavirus symptoms and check their body temperature. Bangkok Nuanchan Market in Bueng Kum district The residential area near Prachachuen Road in Bang Sue district Samut Sakhon The Central Shrimp Market Mahachai…

  • UPDATE: Thai PM says lockdown could become unavoidable

    UPDATE: Thai PM says lockdown could become unavoidable

    Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is warning that another lockdown could prove unavoidable, should Covid-19 figures escalate out of control. Today, 427 new Covid-19 cases were reported by the Centre Covid-19 Situation Administration, 397 of which are migrant workers. Yesterday, the CCSA reported 382 new cases, 360 of which are in migrant workers. Spokesperson Dr. Taweesilp Visanuyothin says 14 local cases…