News
Thailand news, politics, business, crime, lifestyle, and tourism—stay updated with breaking news and in-depth analysis from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and beyond. The Thaiger delivers the latest national news that matters.
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Sponsored Jungceylon turns up the heat with ‘POP YOUR SUMMER’
Phuket Square Co., Ltd., the operator of Jungceylon Shopping Centre in Patong, Phuket, is teaming up with over 300 partner stores within the mall to launch the special campaign called the JUNGCEYLON POP YOUR SUMMER to boost summer shopping and tourism....
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541 additional Covid-19 infections announced for Samut Sakhon, mostly migrant workers
On top of the numbers of new infections announced earlier today – some 315 both local and imported cases – the province of Samut Sakhon has reported 541 additional Covid-19 infections this afternoon afternoon. Most of them are migrant workers from the local seafood industry. The Mahachai Shrimp Market on the coast of Samut Sakhon, just south west of Bangkok,…
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Vandals target US politicians over pandemic relief package
Vandals have targeted the homes of US politicians over a hotly-debated $900 billion pandemic relief aid package. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell and Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi saw their homes littered with graffiti, fake blood and a pig’s head. “Were’s [sic] my money” and “Mitch kills the poor” graced McConnell’s front door and window in Louisville, Kentucky,…
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Covid hotspot Samut Sakhon adds 541 more Covid cases to today’s total
Thailand’s Covid hotspot of Samut Sakhon is adding 541 more Covid cases to the total amount of infections reported today. On the province’s Facebook page, it says 455 migrant workers and 86 Thais were found this afternoon to be infected with Covid-19, raising the total amount of cases in the province to 2,401 since the 2nd wave broke out in…
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Chonburi adds 62 more local transmissions today of Covid-19
Chonburi province has added 62 more cases of locally transmitted Covid-19 cases to the total amount of cases reported today in Thailand this afternoon. The accumulative confirmed cases in this new cluster of infections has now reached 305 patients with 1 death. Of the newly confirmed cases, 50 were discovered in the Si Racha district, 7 in Banglamung, 2 in…
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Rayong, Chon Buri (including Pattaya) and Chanthaburi face full travel restrictions
Rayong, Chanthaburi and Chon Buri (that includes Pattaya), could be facing a full lockdown as soon as tomorrow if a recommendation from the Ministry of Public Health is approved by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. The outbreak of new infections are almost entirely linked to illegal gambling dens, mostly in Rayong. Thailand’s Deputy Health Minister says the measure “is…
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Britons arriving in Thailand test positive for Covid UK variant
Britons arriving in Thailand from England, have reportedly tested positive for the Covid-19 variant that was first identified in the UK. The family of 4 arrived from Kent, in southeast England, and are currently under quarantine at a private hospital after receiving the positive test results. Dr. Yong Pooworavan, chief of the Virology Centre of the Faculty of Medicine at…
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Unidentified man’s body found hanging from tree in Koh Larn
Pattaya police are investigating an incident in which an unidentified man’s body was found hanging from a tree in the Koh Larn forest. They say the body could be that of a foreigner, as they await autopsy results. The body was discovered by a hiker last night at sundown, who called the police at 7pm to investigate. After taking speedboats…
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315 new Covid infections – 294 new, locally transmitted, 21 imported
Today, authorities at the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, are reporting 294 new, locally transmitted infections of Covid-19 with 21 new imported cases, bringing the total to 7,694 cases since the pandemic began. 38 more have been discharged from the hospital, with the overall death toll remaining at 64. Currently, there are 3,293 Covid active patients in the hospital or…
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Deputy PM says relying on tourism is “unacceptable”
Thailand’s deputy PM says that relying too much on tourism is “unacceptable.” In Supattanapong Punmeechaow’s speech, he said that the tourism industry will never be allowed to recover to its previous levels. For years, Amazing Thailand was the nation’s slogan, which brought in $56.2 billion in 2019 alone, but after Covid struck, it is clear that there has been a…
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“Red zone” provinces may see tightened measures amid Covid outbreak
The 28 “red zone” provinces in Thailand, which are deemed high-risk for the spread of Covid-19, may see a potential tightening of measures after the country has experienced a spike in cases. The clamping down on these provinces also falls in line with the temporary closures of 25 types of businesses in Bangkok, in a further effort to curb the…
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Thai Restaurant Association asks PM not to restrict in-dining services
As the 4 day New Year long weekend comes to a close, there are a number of proposed restrictions looming as the CCSA battles to contain the latest outbreaks of cases, particularly in and around Bangkok and the nearby easter provinces. There is currently a proposal to restrict Bangkok’s restaurants to take away services only, as well as full travel…
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3 eastern provinces being considered for full travel restrictions, including Pattaya
Rayong, Chanthaburi and Chon Buri (including Pattaya), are headed into a full lockdown scenario after the Ministry of Public Health formerly asked the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration to impose additional restrictions on travel in and out of the provinces. Most of the infections in the 3 provinces are linked to illegal gambling dens. A decision will likely be made…
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New Year holiday draws homegrown tourists to Phuket, Koh Samui
With the vast majority of foreign holidaymakers still steering clear of Thailand, or simply unable to get a visa at the moment, the country has become almost completely reliant on homegrown tourists. The New Year holiday has brought some slight relief to islands like Phuket and Koh Samui, as visitors from other parts of the country arrived to welcome in…
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Lucky escape for mother and baby after stray bullet enters house
A woman in the eastern province of Chon Buri has told of her lucky escape, after a stray bullet pierced the roof of her home and landed in the room where she was trying to get her baby to sleep. The woman, named in a Thai Residents report as 25 year old Aphitsaya Raksasuk, was attempting to get the 1…
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What’s closed in Bangkok? Decision on restaurants today.
Here’s the full list of closures from the BMA that went into effect at midnight last night in the city of Bangkok. The Bangkok Metropolitan Organisation has closed “high risk’ venues around Bangkok.(Pattaya/Banglamung list of restrictions and closures below) Entertainment venues, water parks, amusement parks, playgrounds, floating markets, flea markets, snooker and billiards clubs, arcade game premises, games shops, Internet…
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Government confirms social security net for workers laid off due to virus restrictions
The Thai government has confirmed it will compensate employees forced out of work by Covid-19 restrictions, by paying 50% of their salary for up to 90 days. The country has found itself in the grip of a sudden resurgence in cases, with many provinces under strict restrictions in an attempt to control the spread. Read the latest on closures HERE.…
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Thailand looking to speed up Covid-19 vaccination timeline
Amid a new surge in Covid-19 cases, Thai officials are planning to increase the number of vaccines available and speed up the timeline for administration. Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin from the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has confirmed the plan, following complaints from the country’s tourism industry when an initial statement said vaccination might not begin until as late as June.…
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More closures in Bangkok as BMA mulls further restrictions
• High risk entertainment venues closed • BMA’s 437 schools closed for at least 2 weeks • CCSA considering restricting Bangkok restaurants to take-any only services only The Bangkok Metropolitan Organisation has closed “high risk’ venues around Bangkok as of midnight last night. The city’s 437 public schools run by the BMA have also been ordered to close until at least January 17.…
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UPDATE: 279 new Covid infections, 2 new deaths
Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin has announced 279 new infections of Covid-19 from the past 24 hours at this morning’s media briefing in Bangkok. There’s also been 2 new deaths. 16 of today’s new infections are Burmese migrant workers, 5 are imported cases from arrivees returning to Thailand. The first of the 2 deaths was a 44 year old Thai man who…
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How Asian countries celebrate the arrival of another year
As the dust settles on this year’s somewhat muted New Year celebrations, some Asian countries still have their own festivities to look forward to. And it’s not all fireworks and drunken parties – in Asia, the dawn of a new year is seen as a time to celebrate family and good fortune, while washing away the bad luck of the…
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Good things that happened in 2020
There’s no disputing the fact that none of us are going to remember 2020 with great fondness. With a global pandemic wreaking havoc around the world, and no end in sight in the immediate future, it’s hard to see any positives in the year just gone. However, buried in the midst of all the doom and gloom, there were some…
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WHO approves emergency use of the Pfizer/BionTech Covid vaccine
The World Health Organisation has granted “emergency validation” for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, allowing countries across the globe to now approve its import and distribution for their citizens. In a statement released on the final day of 2020, the WHO said its validation, the first since the start of the pandemic, “opens the door for countries to expedite their own…
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2020: A year in Covid-19 milestones
As the world embraces the dawn of a new year, while tentatively waiting to see what it has in store, it will be some time before the trauma of 2020 can be laid to rest. The year that has just ended will forever be remembered for the Covid-19 pandemic that has claimed over 1.8 million lives to date, infected millions worldwide,…
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Day 2 of the New Year road safety campaign – 74 people dead
Day 2 of the New Year holiday period (December 30) on Thailand’s roads ended up with 74 dead out of 586 road road accidents. 576 people were injured. It was the second day of the “New Normal, Safe Driving, No Accidents” campaign which was prepared to raise road safety awareness, but ended up buried under much of the Covid news…
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Why Thailand celebrates the New Year not once, not twice, but 3 times
While the year just gone may be referred to as 2020 by most of us (with perhaps a few expletives thrown in, given the year it was), we are currently in the year 2563 in Thailand. As everyone who lives here knows, Thailand uses the Buddhist calendar, as well as the Western, or Gregorian, calendar, adding to our eternal confusion…
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Dawn Wells, “Mary Ann” from Glligan’s Island, dies at 82
Dawn Wells, one of the castaways in Gilligan’s Island, playing Mary Ann, has died in Los Angeles from Covid-19 complications. She was 82 years old. Her career lasted a lot longer than the fateful trip of the SS Minnow… the three hour tour! Dawn was born in Reno, Nevada, and started a career in Hollywood where she appeared in TV shows…
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2020’s top 3 stories in Thailand… besides Covid-19
Covid-19 dominated headlines in 2020. Here’s the other major stories in Thailand this year as rated by the Thaiger editorial team. We’ve also prepared a story rating the Top 10 stories as ranked by you, counting the number of clicks on the stories. You can watch that HERE. February mass shooting On February 8, a Royal Thai Army soldier shot…
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Musical composition of His Majesty King Bhumibol the most popular New Year song in Thailand – VIDEO
A song written by His Majesty, the late King Bhumibol, and Prince Chakrapan Pensiri, in December 1951, is still the most popular New Year song among the people of Thailand today. Pohn Pee Mai, which translates as “New Year Blessing” can be heard on TV channels, radio stations, and at public gatherings, and has been a part of Thai culture…
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2 dead, 1 missing, as tourist boat capsizes in eastern Thailand | VIDEO
Click HERE to watch Thai news report on the story. A tourist boat carrying 12 passengers, including 2 children, has sunk in the province of Chachoengsao, just east of Bangkok. 2 people have drowned, with a third still missing. The accident happened yesterday afternoon, as the sightseeing boat was carrying tourists on the Khlong Siyad Reservoir, a popular attraction in…
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The case for temporarily closing hotel and restaurant operations
OPINION by Bill Barnett As the final days of disruptive 2020 come screeching to an erratic end, hotel, and restaurant owners are peering into an unpredictable year ahead. Here in Thailand over the past week, the tourism industry has been shaken to its core over an uptick in Covid-19 cases and backroom speculation over fears of another round of lockdowns. (Restrictions,…
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