Thailand News Today, Wednesday, March 11, 2020

400 billion baht stimulus announced to boost Thai economy

Yesterday’s Thai cabinet meeting gave the greenlight to a new stimulus package.

The government expects the approved 400 billion baht to reduce the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. Last week’s 2,000 baht cash stimulus proposal, which was largely roasted in Thai social media after being proposed by the economic ministers, isn’t included in yesterday’s approved package.

The package will cover all sectors and is designed to benefit 14.6 million low-income earners who account for 22% of the Thai population, and 3 million small-to-medium-sized enterprises (99% of all business enterprises).

Full story at The Thaiger.com

All arriving passengers now required to provide additional contact info

The Department of Disease Control plans to impose compulsory measures for all inbound arrivals,

This will include notifying personal information and contact information such as mobile phone numbers and email addresses.

The additional arrival formalities will start tomorrow and officials say the new personal information provided by inbound passengers will stay in the system for 14 days after their arrival at a Thai international airport.

There will also be a new App from tomorrow where passengers will be able to provide the additional information OR they can add the new information on the current TM8 arrival form.

Three new coronavirus cases raises Thailand total to 53

The number of confirmed Covid-19 coronavirus cases in Thailand has now reached 53 with 3 new cases announced yesterday.

The Thai Ministry of Public Health announced that the new cases brought the Thai total to 53, with 33 patients already fully recovered. One person has died and the others remain in hospitals for treatment.

One of the new cases is a 41 year old woman, who hadn’t been travelling overseas but was in close contact with a Thai man, Thailand’s 45th case.

The other two cases are a 46 year old Thai woman who has just returned from Italy. Her 47 year old husband did travel with her but fell sick last Saturday with a high fever and muscle aches.

A few more flight cancellations and K-Pop curtailed

Airlines around the world are battling to re-assess and refine their flight schedules in response to the dive in passenger bookings following the outbreak and impact of the covid-19 coronavirus.

Thai AirAsia announced today that it will halt flights out of KL to and from Kunming, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao, from March 11 until March 31.

Customers with existing tickets have been given a range of options.

Meanwhile, Thai Airways has temporarily cancelled flights on its two routes to Italy up to the end of March as Italy has implemented a lockdown of all regions.

And Japan’s travel restrictions on South Koreans over the coronavirus epidemic have now caused cancellations of a string of K-pop concerts which were scheduled in Japan. K-Pop is a major export for the South Korean economy.

South Korean band Super Junior has called off its tours scheduled to take place on March 25 and 26 and the annual K-Con convention has been called off as well.

Back in South Korea, band BTS, the world’s most popular music act, has cancelled its scheduled April concert in Seoul.

Police intercept huge meth shipment and a tonne of marijuana

And two big drug hauls in Thailand’s north.

A drug gang was trying to transport 5.3 million methamphetamine pills to deliver to a customer. They were intercepted in Nakhon Sawan where police found the pills packed in with bags of dog food. In another case drug traffickers tried to barrel through a checkpoint south of Chiang Mai but were eventually intercepted. Police found 1000 kilograms of marijuana in the back of the truck, again hidden under sacks of dog food.