Thailand News Today | Thai gov won’t evacuate citizens from Myanmar, Suez Canal latest | March 29

On today’s program, the Thai government say they’ll help any companies affected by the blockage of the Suez Canal, the Thai Government says they’re not going to evacuate Thai citizens from Myanmar at this time, and random drink drive testing is going to start rolling out around Bangkok from this Wednesday.

But we start off today with a shout out to Thaiger Legends Mirko, Frank and Bradley. Thank you for your great support. Let’s get started.

The Thai government says it’s ready to help businesses affected by the blockage of the Ever Given cargo ship, owned by Evergreen Marine, in Egypt’s Suez Canal. The 400 metre container ship was blown off course and got stuck sideways in the canal last Tuesday, and has been wedged there ever since, leading to chaos in world shipping.

Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the deteriorating situation in Myanmar is not serious enough to require the evacuation of Thai citizens… for now anyway. Thani Saengrat from the MFA says the situation is being assessed on a daily basis and the ministry is working with the Royal Thai Embassy in Yangon to prepare an evacuation plan should such a step become necessary.

39 new Covid-19 infections were reported today in the CCSA’s daily briefing. Thailand now has 1,366 active cases. Since the start of the pandemic, there’s been a total of 28,773 coronavirus infections and 94 deaths.With bars and nightclubs now back open, Bangkok police plan to crackdown on drink driving. DUI checkpoints will be set up around the city starting on April 1.

Bangkok is still classified as an “orange zone” by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. In orange zones, bars and nightclubs are ordered to close at 11pm while in yellow zones, the venues are ordered to close at midnight.

Despite the restrictions on hours, bars and nightclubs in Bangkok have been open past 11pm. Some until 2am, still selling alcohol as usual. Nightlife is nearly back to normal.

Looking ahead to the return of foreign tourists, Thai tourism officials are planning to improve safety standards for adventure activities like zip-lining in an effort to prevent accidents from happening and to gain tourist confidence.