Coronavirus (Covid-19)

UPDATE: New restrictions come into force in Thailand from today

Published

Monday, January 4, 2021 08:20

Some new restrictions have been introduced and others tightened as the Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha announced the latest list of restrictions taking effect from today. The latest list was published in the Royal Gazette yesterday and are now in force.

On Friday the BMA suggested that restaurants in Bangkok may be prevented from providing in house dining, and providing take away services only. As of today, customers will still be allowed to eat in restaurants and weddings are still allowed, under certain conditions. But alcohol consumption won’t be allowed inside restaurants under the new orders.

The restrictions pertain mainly to 28 ‘red zone’ provinces around Thailand (list below).

Yesterday morning 315 new Covid-19 infections were announced, of which 294 were local transmissions. And later yesterday an additional 541 cases, mostly migrant workers from the hotzone Samut Sakhon province, were also announced. These cases will be added to this morning’s tallies when the CCSA convenes its daily media briefing. 64 people have died in Thailand from Covid-related disease since the outbreak began in February last year.

The latest directives have been announced in the Royal Gazette yesterday. The new restrictions apply specifically to 28 red zone provinces, which includes Bangkok. Here’s the list of those provinces now deemed as red zones (in alphabetical order) …

Ang Thong, Ayutthaya, Bangkok, Chachoengsao, Chanthaburi, Chon Buri (including Pattaya), Chumphon, Kanchanaburi, Lop Buri, Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Phetchaburi, Prachin Buri, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Ranong, Ratchaburi, Rayong, Sa Kaew, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Samut Songkhram, Saraburi, Singburi, Suphanburi, Tak and Trat.

• All schools are closed until January 31, or until further notice. The closure applies to all education institutions and both “informal and formal, public or private” schools. Parents should contact their schools to find out about alternative online teaching arrangements for affected schools.

• The only exceptions are smaller schools with no more than 120 students, charities, public services with permission from provincial governors.

“• Meetings, seminars, banquets, and food handouts are forbidden, except where they are carried out or permitted by authorities or they take place in quarantine facilities.”

• Provincial governors are are being given the final say to close pubs, bars and karaoke bars in the red zone provinces. In restaurants the number of dine-in customers will be limited.

• Private businesses are being urged to come up with arrangements allowing employees to work from home or stagger hours to reduce the risk of transmission.

• Shopping centres, department stores, community shopping zones, convention and exhibition halls, convenience stores, supermarkets, and other similar places are still allowed to operate “under strict disease controls”.

Authorities will screen people who travel between provinces particularly from red zone provinces, while those who must travel to other provinces must show evidence of why they are going and undergo health screening.

CCSA spokesman Taweesilp Visanuyothin announced that the government plans to show “some flexibility in imposing the new restrictions” that come into affect from now, saying that the original proposal was “toned down” before being published yesterday.

The CCSA decided not to enforce a national lockdown because of the devastation it would cause to businesses and the wider economy.

“We will not lock down the country because there is an economic cost to pay and everybody will suffer.”

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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23 Comments

Bob

Monday, January 4, 2021 at 8:29 am

More idiocy from the Thais. Restaurants still stay open but Stop serving alcohol. That will stop the spread

Reply
ipfunnyjohns

Monday, January 4, 2021 at 9:26 am

They worked so well the first time we need to do them again…

Lol

Reply
- Slugger
  
  Monday, January 4, 2021 at 10:07 am
  
  Hilarious.
  
  What would you do, professor?
  
  Reply
  - ipfunnyjohns
    
    Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:28 am
    
    60 deaths does not warrant any precautions of any kind what so ever. No masks, no closures, no quarantine etc…
    
    I could list 10 things more dangerous than this virus. Food born illness kills more. The flu kills more. Dengue fever, pollution, road ways.
    
    But that doesn’t scare people. Something named covid-19 does.
    
    Reply
    - chupapi
      
      Monday, January 4, 2021 at 1:56 pm
      
      Why don’t anybody understand that the big problem here is not how many this virus may kill, but the enormous pressure that it puts on the health system, since it is a virus that spread easily and makes necessary in some cases to use ICUs and continuous care? That there may be thousands of people who can overwhelm hospitals for this, and thus others may die because they do not find a necessary way to be cured? What is the problem in wearing a mask, stay home when it is not necessary to travel, and getting a vaccine shot? Damn.
      
      Reply
      - preesy chepuce
        
        Tuesday, January 5, 2021 at 8:04 pm
        
        Maybe a shot on it’s own will save a lot of the trouble?
        
        Seeing as though we’re in the domain of experiments, tell us, how many places in the world without hospitals to overwhelm are not having a meltdown over this? Where are the news reports into those countries?
        
        Where are the leaders willing to stand up to the media and public sector scientists, and start listening to the full body of scientific opinion? You know, the other professors and experts who disagree?
        
        Great Barrington Agreement seems to be deliberately being kept off the media, and no reports into the econiomic impact of this game.
    - NN
      
      Monday, January 4, 2021 at 3:36 pm
      
      I agree. Open up everything.
      
      Reply
  - Brian
    
    Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:55 am
    
    The same thing we did the last thousand times would probably be fine, i.e., not much other than vulnerable people taking care to protect themselves. I mean, let’s do the same thing we did in 1968-69 during a similar pandemic of a virus from China: almost nothing. Doing almost nothing was so successful that people don’t even tend to remember that pandemic. We held Woodstock during that pandemic. It was OK. The human body has a very advanced self-preservation system.
    
    Reply
Peter

Monday, January 4, 2021 at 9:44 am

Here we go again

Reply
Issan John

Monday, January 4, 2021 at 10:19 am

Let’s hope it’s not too little, too late.

Personally I think it’s been “toned down” far too much, particularly where travel is concerned, and is far too late, but I hope I’m wrong.

I see nothing to “lol” about when people die.

Reply
- Roger
  
  Monday, January 4, 2021 at 10:46 am
  
  I am very worried about my Wife in Bangkok
  This Virus has new strains ..faster transmission than the previous strain
  However, the death rate in Thailand seems to be very low compared to other countries
  Or is it that it has not taken hold here yet?
  Total lockdown will be the only answer BUT as so many will starve no work this will not happen cos the Gov will not help pay the poor to eat as other countries do
  No social security for the masses in Thailand
  As for the death toll ..it is nothing compared to the number killed on your roads so I guess total lockdown is a waste of time as you keep killing yourselves on the roads anyway
  Good Luck
  Thailand
  
  Reply
  - Toby Andrews
    
    Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:29 am
    
    I must admire these monks for having orange masks to match their orange dresses.
    Even in an emergency there are some that maintain their sartorial elegance.
    Good for them.
    
    Reply
    - Toby Andrews
      
      Monday, January 4, 2021 at 6:35 pm
      
      Blue goes well with orange but it has to be a sky blue, not a Prussian blue.
      Prussian blue is too dark. So sky blue masks for these monks would be acceptable.
      
      Reply
  - Ipaddressfunnycolors
    
    Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:29 am
    
    a new strain. Is that what your phone told you this morning. It must be true. I
    
    Reply
- Andrew
  
  Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:16 am
  
  Figures released yesterday showed there were more accidents over the holiday period this year than last despite #COVID19-related travel and celebration restrictions. 316 people have died so far…….and 64 died of COVID.
  
  Reply
- Toby Andrews
  
  Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:24 am
  
  Don’t hope you are wrong John, you usually are . . .
  
  Reply
- preesy chepuce
  
  Tuesday, January 5, 2021 at 8:08 pm
  
  People die every day. Even more are dying because they can’t get access to hospitals due to media hysteria shutting down medical systems around the world. Do you prioritise your coughers over every other patient?
  
  Reply
Siso

Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:00 am

Just shut it down already, it’s Thailand turn again to tighten the rope around people’s necks stop playing around. The miracle juice ain’t going to fix this but only going to make it worse instead. 2021 is going the be a year full of lockdowns, new imposed draconian laws, massive civil unrest, fully collapsed economies and like a cherry on a cake very severely damaged Young Minds of the new generation growing up in this shit mess right now. The only ones smiling and still having a grin on there faces are our puppermasters, it boggles my mind everytime when I see these health ministers here in Thailand or back home in the Netherlands not even hiding the fact that they get some very sick and perverted enjoyment out of all this just look at there faces and there body language and you tell me that they aren’t just laughing from the inside

Reply
David Beckman

Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:15 am

Interesting lockdown 28 provinces when the whole country is infected, allow restaurant dining and weddings which we all know are probably the biggest environments at risk, stop big schools but let little schools continue because them children are immune of course, I’m sorry but half attempts just won’t work ,as for the economy wait till a few politicians or there families start getting it or even dieing from it ,then let’s see if they care about the economy, the economy will suffer much more with full hospital’s, people unable to work bed ridden and a society already disgruntled with the government . I really don’t understand this mentality.

Reply
- ipfunnyjohns
  
  Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:32 am
  
  the real story is fiat money systems are collapsing. But to report that would allow us to plan. They don’t want that
  
  Reply
EdwardV

Monday, January 4, 2021 at 11:22 am

Weddings are still ok? WTF? Those are like super spreader events here. Hope Thailand quickly reverses that decision.

Reply
- Issan John
  
  Tuesday, January 5, 2021 at 11:58 am
  
  As with so many other countries, “following the science”, which served Thailand so well last year, seems to now be taking second place to following the whingeing.
  
  Reply
  - preesy chepuce
    
    Tuesday, January 5, 2021 at 8:06 pm
    
    Stop talking rubbish. Very few are following real science, just their own made-up version thats approved by journalists.
    There’s no verified data to support your specious claims.
    
    Reply