Thailand News Today | PM reverses lockdown, Southern P.D.A. crackdown, Covid update | Jan 5

Jett back with today’s Thailand News Today. All the latest news on thethaiger.com

527 new Covid-19 cases were reported in today’s CCSA daily media briefing.

Thailand now has 4,504 active coronavirus cases in 55 of Thailand’s 77 provinces.

A total of 8,966 people in Thailand have reportedly been infected Covid-19 and 65 people have died since February of last year.

Most of the infections remain asymptomatic.

Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has reversed a decision to totally lockdown 5 coastal provinces including Samut Sakhon, Chon Buri, Rayong, Chantaburi and Trat. The lockdown would have restricted travel in or out of those provinces.

Meanwhile, the CCSA reported more than 100 Covid-19 cases in the 5 coastal provinces today.

Around 100 tourists were ordered to leave Koh Larn off Pattaya yesterday and the island will be closed off, with the expectation of essential travel, until January 20.

People in Bangkok are being advised to eat at home as much as possible, according to the director-general of the Department of Health. While there is now a ban on dine-in service from 9pm to 6am in Bangkok people are being requested to eat at home. He says the best way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is to not eat out at all.

Bangkok officials announced a ban on dine-in services at restaurants after 7pm yesterday, but PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, again, quickly changed the order to allow people to eat at the restaurants until 9pm, saying an earlier-hour ban would have a negative impact on the restaurant owners and the economy. That ban starts from tonight.

Restaurant owners also need to arrange tables and dining spaces.

Bangkok and 27 other provinces are currently classified as “Red Zones” which is the highest risk of the Covid-19 outbreak. Conditions and measures will vary by province due to local influences across the country.

On a lighter note, it’s great to know that there’s no illegal gambling dens in Bangkok. That’s according to Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan who has tried to assure Bangkokians who may be worried about any gambling shenanigans around the city.

Last week’s explosion of cases around Rayong and the eastern provinces has been mostly linked to illegal gambling dens. At the time the local police chief also tried to explain to the media that there weren’t any illegal gambling dens.

But the 75 year old Deputy PM told reporters this morning that gambling is illegal and police are “on top of it”. He neglected to mention last week’s transfer of a Bangkok police chief and 5 senior officers for alleged negligence of duty following a gambling den raid in Bangkok’s Laksi area.

Following Prawit’s statement, social media users mocked his claims that no illegal gambling dens exist in Bangkok.

Meanwhile, the national police chief has ordered a crackdown on gambling to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Muslim clerics in Thailand’s south, along with the local police, are cracking down on ‘inappropriate’ public display of affections among unmarried couples.

Unmarried couples caught swinging hands, hugging or kissing in public, may be forced to marry immediately by the Islamic authorities and then charged with public obscenity.

A senior cleric says the infractions would include a conversation between an unmarried man and a woman, insisting that there must be a third party with them at the time.