Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Thai Restaurant Association asks PM not to restrict in-dining services

Published

6 months ago

Sunday, January 3, 2021

As the 4 day New Year long weekend comes to a close, there are a number of proposed restrictions looming as the CCSA battles to contain the latest outbreaks of cases, particularly in and around Bangkok and the nearby easter provinces.

There is currently a proposal to restrict Bangkok’s restaurants to take away services only, as well as full travel restrictions for the residents of Rayong, Chanthaburi and Chon Buri, including Pattaya.

Now the President of the Thai Restaurant Association has addressed the issue of banning in-dining at Bangkok restaurants with an open letter to the Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, asking him to consider not restricting Bangkok’s restaurants to take away services only.

The letter is one of many protesting more strict restrictions and measures to control the current Covid-19 outbreak claiming that, without financial aid and support, the industry won’t be able to handle another shutdown. Today the CCSA will meet to discuss increasing measures and restrictions that have been proposed by the Public Health Ministry. But the country’s restaurant industry says they cannot cope with another set of lockdowns without significant financial help from the government.

Association President, Thaniwan Kulamongkol says the restaurant industry was already imposing strict Covid-19 preventative measures and were willing to implement even stricter health standards and compromises to stay open, even reintroducing table partitions, stricter controls on social distancing etc.

“A total take-out-only option would devastate many workers, especially those informal workers and without much money who would be facing for some a second layoff or furlough of the year.”

She also says that many restaurants were not setup for takeout and would have no choice but to close, further devastating the economy, especially if the order hit Bangkok.

She says that if restaurants close or move to take-away-only services this will put a significant strain on the Thai farming industry, due to restaurants and retailers not ordering as many food items.

Thaniwan said in the letter that there wasn’t sufficient proof that current clusters of infections were coming from restaurants and the CCSA had been unable to provide scientific proof of restaurants, especially outdoor dining and street food, being high risk for spreading the virus.

The PM has not yet responded to the letter. Last Friday the Bangkok Metropolitan Association proposed that they “may” have to restrict the city’s restaurants to take away services only of the number of local cases continued to rise.

SOURCE: The Pattaya News

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20 Comments

Mister Stretch

Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 9:37 am

Selfishness, that’s all this is.

Research in other countries has confirmed that restaurants are one of the most prolific coronavirus distribution locations. The fact that no one has conducted similar research here is no reason to assume that Thai restaurant patrons are magically protected from virus spread, unlike every other country in which research has been done.

The Thai Restaurant Association doesn’t give a flying **** for the health of its patrons. Rather than work with the restrictions that restaurateurs around the world have been trying…they would rather you get a dose of virus.

The lack of conscience is unbelievable. I’d be inclined to boycott every restaurant I know that belongs to this trade group.

Reply
- babble
  
  Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 9:58 am
  
  “Research in other countries has confirmed that restaurants are one of the most prolific coronavirus distribution locations.”
  
  Which research? In which countries? Source needed.
  
  Btw that is rather misleading. Any closed place with high concentration of people and ,ow ventilation is equally a potential focus of spreading. And considering that many restaurants in Thailand are open space, your sentence is also quite inaccurate.
  
  Reply
  - Mister Stretch
    
    Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 12:24 pm
    
    Source needed.
    
    Use Google, you lazy fishwife!
    
    For god’s sake, why is everyone so goddamned lazy?
    
    Two very definitive studies were done in Wuhan and in South Korea…but then again, I’m sure you don’t read any scientific research papers, do you?
    
    I read them both, on a scientific aggregate website, because I like to be informed of fact, rather than just spout out hyperbole.
    
    Reply
    - babble
      
      Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:43 pm
      
      Such an obnoxious answer makes nit only me, but everybody, thibks that you do not have any idea what a research paoer really is… Oh yeah two studies in city x and y… get a life, karen
      
      Reply
  - Mister Stretch
    
    Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 12:25 pm
    
    considering that many restaurants in Thailand are open space, your sentence is also quite inaccurate.
    
    Really? What research? Sources needed.
    
    Go eff yourself with your suppositions and criticism.
    
    Reply
    - babble
      
      Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:45 pm
      
      It does not need a research for public domain knowledge. If you were really here, you should know, dear my ignorant troll
      
      Reply
      - Mister Stretch
        
        Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 3:58 pm
        
        I am here, babble boy.
        
        This has been my home for more than 15 years.
        
        I haven’t been out of the country since November of 2019.
        
        I live it, and see it every day, babble boy.
        
        Your “public domain knowledge” and 30 baht will get you a cup of coffee in a plastic bag. It means nothing.
  - Slugger
    
    Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 12:44 pm
    
    So they talk from a selfish point of view? There’s ten statements a day which do the same. Not everyone can afford to be self righteous like you.
    
    Reply
    - Mister Stretch
      
      Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:05 pm
      
      Not trying to be self-righteous. How have I done that?
      
      Restaurants and other places where people congregate are especially dangerous for being super-spreader environments.
      
      For months we’ve heard trade associations beg the government to open up for foreign tourists, while millions die outside of Thailand’s borders, and now for restaurants to remain open while a new wave of infections is taking hold in the Kingdom.
      
      Commenting on that is not me being self-righteous, in any way, it’s condemning them for putting their baht before people’s health.
      
      Reply
  - Issan John
    
    Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:19 pm
    
    Oh come on – there’s so much conclusive research on this.
    
    … and actually very few restaurants IN BANGKOK are “open space” now, so what’s “misleading” is you deliberately changing the goalposts from “Bangkok” to “Thailand”.
    
    Reply
    - Issan John
      
      Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:42 pm
      
      … but to be fair, @babble moving the goalposts from restaurants in Bangkok to “many restaurants in Thailand are open space” pales into insignificance compared to the Thai Restaurant Association president Thaniwan Kulamongkol when she includes “outdoor dining and street food” which are very clearly unaffected and says that it will “put a significant strain on the Thai farming industry, due to restaurants and retailers not ordering as many food items” as obviously those “not ordering as many food items” in restaurants will be ordering them elsewhere.
      
      Smoke, mirrors and BS to protect their businesses, not their staff or anyone else.
      
      Reply
- Maverick
  
  Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 10:49 am
  
  Source please I have relatives in US, UK and NZ, their experience suggests home gatherings and schools are a far greater source of recent spread of the virus, only NZ has been able to eliminate……UK is not a big eating out culture and they have one of the worst outbreaks – and it sure ain’t coming from restaraunts…..
  
  Reply
  - Mister Stretch
    
    Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 12:33 pm
    
    Higher Risk: On-site dining with indoor seating capacity reduced to allow tables to be spaced at least 6 feet apart. And/or on-site dining with outdoor seating, but tables not spaced at least six feet apart.
    Highest Risk: On-site dining with indoor seating. Seating capacity not reduced and tables not spaced at least 6 feet apart. – USA CDC
    
    Don’t Eat Inside a Restaurant
    The risk of catching the coronavirus is much higher indoors. – The Atlantic, Nov 20, 2020
    
    How to stop restaurants from driving COVID infections
    US mobile data suggests restaurants, gyms and cafes can be COVID hotspots — and reveals strategies for limiting spread. – Nature, 10 November 2020
    
    This Is How Quickly Covid-19 Can Spread In A Restaurant, Per New Study – Forbes, Dec 15, 2020
    
    Enough? Restaurants…regardless of open-air or not, are unacceptable risk locations. While “open” may be less risky…the risk is greater than not eating in a restaurant.
    
    Reply
  - Issan John
    
    Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:26 pm
    
    School opening in Bangkok has already been postponed.
    
    “Home gatherings”? Agreed, but it’s far easier to regulate restaurants than “home gatherings”.
    
    Those in the US and the UK are as responsible for their predicament as their governments are – far from everyone, but a sizeable and selfish minority.
    
    Reply
- Issan John
  
  Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:15 pm
  
  100% correct, Mr S, but the government DO need to do more to support those affected.
  
  Staff fully employed by restaurants told to close as a result of Covid will be covered (half pay for up to 90 days), but the problem is where restaurants choose to close as it’s not profitable, and casual staff – they have no government safety net at all.
  
  It’s not the restaurants and businesses that need support, which is what they’re asking for and which is “selfish”, but the staff.
  
  Reply
  - babble
    
    Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:46 pm
    
    Again here, mr. Fake news? Lol
    
    Reply
  - John Brown
    
    Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 3:15 pm
    
    What the state doesn’t say is that when they spread their “support the businesses” subsidy propaganda, the real goal is to support the businesses’ creditors, i.e. the banks and landlords. The autocratic military dictatorship currently ruling is so hopelessly stupid (and I mean this literally, not pejoratively) that they can’t even get it together to enact populist policies, because they fear losing the support of the economic factions and the families supporting it would destabilize the tenuous grasp they currently have on their already-illegitimate rule. Meanwhile, the economic groups are operating on a myopic understanding of what supports their bottom line, and perverse incentives in corporate structures allow their decision-makers to personally insulate themselves from the highest orders of risk. These bandits never go down with the ship.
    
    Just as Amazon in the US implicitly supports the dismantling of public postal services so that they effectively gain a monopoly on lockdown goods, the companies that run “essential” services in Thailand like 7-11 and app-based deliverymen have no economic incentive to oppose the unchecked spread of disease; and with no medical or epidemic complexity planning expertise, they think they can find a way to privately cope somehow.
    
    Reply
Mister Stretch

Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 1:01 pm

You boys want sources? You need to read more than just comic books.

Higher Risk: On-site dining with indoor seating capacity reduced to allow tables to be spaced at least 6 feet apart. And/or on-site dining with outdoor seating, but tables not spaced at least six feet apart.
Highest Risk: On-site dining with indoor seating. Seating capacity not reduced and tables not spaced at least 6 feet apart. – US CDC

Don’t Eat Inside a Restaurant
The risk of catching the coronavirus is much higher indoors. – The Atlantic, Nov 20, 2020

How to stop restaurants from driving COVID infections
US mobile data suggests restaurants, gyms and cafes can be COVID hotspots — and reveals strategies for limiting spread. – Nature, Nov 10, 2020

This Is How Quickly Covid-19 Can Spread In A Restaurant, Per New Study – Forbes, Dec 15, 2020

Covid-19: Bars, restaurants and dining with friends among high-risk activities, French study finds – France 24, Dec 18, 2020

Indoor dining major cause of COVID-19 ‘superspreader’ events, Stanford-led study suggests – Nation’s Restaurant News, Nov 13, 2020

Restaurants May Be Key Component to COVID-19 Spread, Medscape, Sep 15, 2020

Reply
- Alte Ledertasche
  
  Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 3:25 pm
  
  Just had a nice Sunday Brunch with my family. Despite the staff nobody was wearing a mask. Place was relatively empty due to lack of customers. Lovely food.
  
  Reply
  - Peter
    
    Sunday, January 3, 2021 at 8:25 pm
    
    You can hardly eat your meal with a mask on can you? LOL
    
    Reply