Whooo hoo! A whole extra hour back. The national curfew has been reduced to just fours a night now. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has shortened the night curfew to 11pm – 3am effective from Monday night. Earlier it was thought the CCSA would remove the hour before midnight from the curfew.

General Somsak Rungsita, secretary-general of the National Security Council, says the CCSA found it necessary to retain a curfew “to prevent people from social drinking, gambling and because alcohol sales are still banned in food outlets and restaurants”.

Meanwhile, the CCSA is easing inter-provincial travel restrictions around Thailand, but hasn’t decided to reopen beaches. But it is opening “cultural, archaeological and heritage sites”.

Shopping malls will be able to stay open until 9pm from Monday, June 1, “but staying at home is the safest way to protect yourself against coronavirus”.

The PM’ Office has asked the Finance Ministry to set aside some budget for food subsidies, to be given to the country’s 250,000 monks, who are experiencing food shortages because the lockdown restrictions have prevented many of them from receiving alms from the public.

The office reported that a daily 60 baht food allowance would be sufficient for each monk.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World

Today the spokeswomen from the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, Dr Panprapa Yongtrakul announced just 1 new Covid-19 case. She revealed that the single confirmed case was an imported case from Saudi Arabia – a male Thai student who is now in state quarantine. This raises the national total to 3,077.

No additional death reported today leaving the accumulated toll at 57.

“Local infections significantly slowed and over the last 2 weeks, 43 of 52 new cases were Thais who had arrived from abroad.”

Over the past two days there have been 11 cases on each day, a jump from the single digit report days for the weeks before, but all imported cases.

“The student boarded a bus to the checkpoint at the Malaysian border on Monday and was put in a state quarantine facility in Narathiwat province. He tested negative on that day but 3 days later he had a fever, a cough and shortness of breath. A retest showed he was infected and he was sent to Narathiwat Hospital.”

Health officials will conduct retests on 39 other returnees who had been on the same bus.

59 patients still remain in hospital in Thailand.

Chon Buri, where Pattaya is located, has had no new confirmed cases in 46 days. Pattaya City has had no new recorded cases in 36 days.

Phuket marks it 5th day without any new Covid-19 cases.

SOURCE: Pattaya News | Bangkok Post

Panthongtae “Oak” Shinawatra, son of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, is a free man, after Thailand’s Attorney General decided to not appeal against his acquittal for alleged money laundering. He was charged by the Department of Special Investigations after 10 million baht was deposited into his bank account by an executive of the Krisdamahanakorn Group of real estate companies, which was granted a 10 billion baht loan by the state run Krung Thai Bank, despite the group’s poor financial standing.

The loan was later transferred to the accounts of companies affiliated with the Krisdamahanakorn Group and used to buy shares in Airports of Thailand Company, instead of being used to boost the financial status of Krisdamahanakorn Group.

The case dates back to 2004, when Thaksin was Thailand’s PM. Several executives of Krisdamahanakorn Group and Krung Thai Bank were given long prison terms in 2015, after being convicted of corruption and malfeasance by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders.

After his acquittal, the public prosecutors decided to not appeal the verdict, thus clearing Panthongtae, but the DSI insisted on appealing to a higher court and the case went to the Attorney General, who has now brought this high-profile case to a close.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World