Thailand
Increased fines, better training – changes to motorbike use in Thailand

In efforts to temper the world’s number one road toll, a specially-formed Thai committee are poised to recommend a series of new measures to curb, specifically, motorcycle deaths by up to 50% per year.
Some of these include raising fines for not having a license by as much as 1000%, introducing more bike lanes and targeting accident black spots.
Daily News is reporting that the death toll from motorbike accidents in 2017 was 8,900 people.
A committee was formed to investigate causes and remedies and is now ready to recommend measures to the government to slash this by half. The measures could be in place as early as this year’s New Year celebration.
Members of the committee examined riders, vehicles, roads, environmental conditions and laws. They are keen to promote better riding skills, make sure motorcyclists follow road rules and create better awareness of the responsibilities in riding motorcycles.
There are 21 million motorcycles on the roads but only 13 million people have licenses. They target is to make sure everyone has a license and is appropriately trained before they take to the roads. They are especially targeting 15 year olds who can legally ride to school. They often don’t know they can get a license and can get proper training.
Many roads will be getting bike lanes with wider areas reserved for motorcyclists so that there is greater safety on the roads.
Sarawuth Songsiwilai says that authorities had been too soft on bikers. He hopes that the government ministry will approve plans to fine motorcyclists who have no license 5,000 baht up from the present 500 baht. He believes better training and better awareness will help meet the target of 4,500 road deaths through the period of the next ten years.
The government will be considering the proposals through September and October.
SOURCE: The Nation
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Thailand
PM Prayut postponing Covid‐19 vaccination citing paperwork issues

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
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Thailand
Thailand News Today | Week In Review | February 26

Thailand News Today usually covers five days of the news week. This week only four days as today (Friday) is a public holiday. Now we have a weekend edition which goes over the biggest, or best stories, from the past week. Out every Saturday afternoon, catch up with Jett and Tim’s major Thai news stories. Welcome to the Thailand News Today Week in Review. Tim and Jett give you a quick recap of the main news stories.
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Thailand
45 new cases today, 37 local‐Covid‐19‐Update

Thailand reports 45 new cases of Covid-19cases today, with 37 infections being locally-transmitted. 8 of those infections were imported, raising the total amount of infections since the pandemic began to 25,809.
The Department of Disease Control reports that 32 cases were confirmed at hospitals with 5 confirmed through active case finding in communities.
Samut Sakhon province, the 2nd wave epicentre, reported over half of the new cases at 19. 14 of those cases were confirmed at hospitals and 5 were detected in Myanmar communities. Bangkok has reported 3 new cases, Nakhon Nayok reported 5, Chai Nat 3, Nakhon Pathom 3, Saraburi 2, Prachuap Khiri Khan 1, and Samut Prakan 1.
The 8 imported cases were those under quarantine arriving from Pakistan, Bangladesh, the UK, Germany, France, The Netherlands, and Kuwait. The case from the UK was that of a 6 year old Thai schoolgirl.
Globally, Covid-19 cases rose by 444,466 over the past day to 113.54 million. The worldwide death toll increased by 10,552 to 2.52 million. The United States still has the most cases at 29.5 million, with the most deaths at 520,785.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
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