Coronavirus

  • Covid-19 News

    Korean virus cases skyrocket; Japanese passenger turns positive

    The number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases in Korea has increased tenfold in just four days to 556, and a passenger on the virus-stricken Diamond Princess tested positive after arriving home in Japan, despite a negative result during the ship’s 14-day quarantine. Yesterday, China’s Hubei province, where the outbreak began, saw 96 deaths, another decrease, in line with the toll reported…

  • Việt Nam

    Hồ Bắc cảnh báo virus corona có thời gian ủ bệnh đến 27 ngày

    Một người đàn ông 70 tuổi tại tỉnh Hồ Bắc đã nhiễm virus corona nhưng không có triệu chứng cho tới 27 ngày sau. Theo thông tin được đăng tải trên trang web của chính quyền Hồ Bắc hôm nay cho hay một người đàn ông họ Jiang lái xe từ đông Ngạc Châu đến Thần Nông Giá ở tây…

  • Covid-19 News

    China reports further reduction in new coronavirus cases, down to 397; Korea has a second death

    China’s National Health Commission announced today that the country had 397 new confirmed cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus infections as of yesterday, down from 889 cases a day earlier. That brings the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 76,288. The death toll from the outbreak in mainland China had reached 2,345. Hubei province, the epicentre…

  • Covid-19 News

    No virus cover-up, PM tweets

    PM Prayut Chan-o-cha went on Twitter yesterday, in an apparent bid to counter “fake news,” and announced there is no COVID-19 coronavirus cover-up happening in Thailand. He insisted the government is neither hiding nor distorting the number of infections in the country and said citizens should “gain confidence” in its remarkable success managing the disease. Earlier in the day, Prayut…

  • Covid-19 News

    Israel travel ban rankles Thailand

    Thailand wants Israel to reconsider its decision, announced Tuesday, to ban Thais from entering the country in a bid to control the spread of deadly coronavirus (Covid-19). Israel banned all non-Israelis who have been in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau in the previous 14 days. Previously, Israel’s health ministry had imposed only a 14-day house quarantine on visitors from…

  • Northern Thailand News

    Principal beats 10 year old, threatens to kill him and “eat his liver with whisky”

    A grandpa in the northeastern province of Surin couldn’t take it anymore and decided to file a police report after a school principal gave his 10 year old grandson a head injury. The statement alleges that the principal threatened to beat the boy to death and to “eat the child’s liver with whisky.” 83 year old “Supon” filed the report…

  • Covid-19 News

    Three Thais on Yokohama virus ship have COVID-19 coronavirus

    Officials today announced that three Thai nationals aboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, moored off Yokohama, are infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus, the same day two elderly Japanese passengers are reported to have died from the disease. Foreign affairs spokesman Cherdkiat Atthakor said three Thais, one passenger and two crew members, are now being treated in hospital in Japan.…

  • Covid-19 News

    CORONAVIRUS update: Scientists debunk conspiracies, South Korea cases jump to 82

    “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.” China’s National Health Commission reports there has been 114 new deaths from the coronavirus outbreak bringing the death toll to at least 2,126. 16,433 people have now fully recovered around the world. Around the world, there are 31 new cases in South Korea…

  • Covid-19 News

    All but one of 138 Thai evacuees from Wuhan return home as quarantine ends

    137 Thai nationals evacuated from China’s city of Wuhan city, epicentre of the global COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak were allowed to return to their homes today after two weeks of quarantine. The 137 were certified by the Public Health Ministry yesterday to be free from the virus. One patient is still being monitored at a Chon Buri Hospital. Some of the…

  • Covid-19 News

    Korea reports 15 more coronavirus cases, total now 46

    South Korea today confirmed 15 more cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus bringing its total number of infections to 46, amid growing concerns that the illness is spreading despite tighter quarantine measures. According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), 13 new patients were found in Daegu, 300 kilometres southeast of Seoul. It’s presumed they contracted the illness…

  • Covid-19 News

    Chinatowns around the world fall quiet over coronavirus fears

    Chinatowns around the world, some centuries old, are quiet, as businesses to survive the effects of global concern over the COVID-19 outbreak. Businesses in Australia’s oldest Chinatown enclave, dating back to the influx of fortune-seekers during an 1850s gold rush, report their earnings have dropped by more than half and they have been forced to cut staff hours dramatically, a…

  • Covid-19 News

    Ministry says no entry for banned cruise ship passengers, even by air

    The Thai Public Health Ministry announced yesterday that no flights carrying passengers from the barred cruise ship MS Westerdam, whether chartered flights or otherwise, will be allowed to land in Thailand before the end of February. Department of Disease Control deputy chief Dr Thanarak Palitpat says the decision is the result of a discussion among authorities including the DDC, the…

  • Covid-19 News

    Westerdam passengers in Thailand found virus-free

    Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob has announced that all 27 passengers from the cruise ship MS Westerdam who arrived in Thailand have tested negative for the COVID-19 coronavirus. The passengers, who disembarked in Cambodia on Valentine’s Day and came to Thailand, “…have tested negative and been allowed to continue to their destinations.” Two Thai passengers onboard the luxury cruise also showed…

  • World News

    Cambodia’s carelessness over coronavirus could bring disaster

    When passengers from the MS Westerdam disembarked in Sihanoukville, Cambodia on Valentine’s Day last week, it was smiles and handshakes all around, as Prime minister Hun Sen greeted them with roses. Protective masks were nowhere to be seen. Not only did the PM not wear one, his bodyguards ordered people wearing masks to take them off. The next day, the…

  • Covid-19 News

    Public Health Ministry urges Thais to delay visits to Japan, Singapore

    The Public Health Ministry is urging Thais to postpone any planned visits to Singapore and Japan, citing the rising number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases in the two countries. Thailand’s total confirmed cases of the virus has risen to 35. The permanent secretary at the Public Health Ministry Dr Sukhum Kanchanapima says that the virus outbreak in the two countries has…

  • Covid-19 News

    World travel suffers as coronavirus outbreak drags on

    The Public Health Ministry is asking Thais planning trips to Japan and Singapore to reschedule their visits, saying that travellers need to be aware of the rising number of people infected by the coronavirus (Covid-19) in those two countries. Dr Sukhum Kanchanapima, the permanent secretary at the Thai Public Health Ministry, says the coronavirus outbreak had reached the third stage…

  • Covid-19 News

    US evacuates citizens from Japan virus ship as China death passes 1700

    Some US citizens from the cruise ship Diamond Princess, currently quarantined off the coast of Japan, have been evacuated and flown home, where they face a further 14 day quarantine. Other nations are preparing to follow suit as global concern grows over the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and the death toll at its epicentre in China topped 1,700. More…

  • Covid-19 News

    UPDATE: China coronavirus deaths reach 1665, Taiwan reports first fatality

    UPDATE: Taiwan has confirmed its first death from the coronavirus. Malaysia says it won’t allow any more passengers from the Westerdam cruise ship to enter the country from Cambodia, after an American woman who flew into Kuala Lumpur was diagnosed with the coronavirus. China said today the number of coronavirus cases nationwide had reached 68,500, with the death toll rising…

  • Tourism News

    Embattled tourism sector to get lifeline from the government

    Thailand’s government is prepared to throw a lifeline to tourism operators ravaged by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, in the form of soft loans, tax incentives and training in return for income. Relief measures are urgently needed to protect tourism operators, according to Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak. State agencies have been tasked with proposing measures to the cabinet, which he…

  • Tourism News

    “Tourist arrivals to plunge 50% in first half of 2020” – Thai Tourism Minister

    Thailand’s Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn has painted a gloomy outlook for Thailand’s previously-robust tourism industry. He says he expects tourist arrivals to plunge by 50% in the first half of 2020 because of the coronavirus outbreak. His predictions are born out by sluggish arrival numbers at the country’s main airports, hotel forward bookings and ‘landing slots’ cancelled by international…

  • Covid-19 News

    Asian tourists cancelling flights, staying home

    Scores of flights to Asian destinations are being cancelled after South Korea advised its citizens to delay trips to countries where the COVID-19 coronavirus has been found. Especially hard-hit are Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. South Korea remains largely free of the virus, though one of its citizens tested positive for the virus after returning from…

  • Covid-19 News

    Thailand Post boosts anti-coronavirus measures

    Thailand’s postal service announced this week that it’s employing health and safety measures to protect customers and staff from the COVID-19 coronavirus. According to Thai Post CEO and acting managing director Kalong Subsa-ard: “We will be using disinfectant spray at stations that receive inbound parcels from overseas. This applies to all parcels from all countries, not only China, as a…

  • Việt Nam

    Tiền đạo Odion Ighalo của Man Utd có thể tham gia trận đấu với Chelsea

    Vị thuyền trưởng của Manchester United cho biết rằng Odion Ighalo sẽ đồng hành cùng các đồng đội đến London vào đầu tuần sau gặp Chelsea trong khuôn khổ vòng 26 giải ngoại hạng Anh. Tiền đạo người Nigieria đã bị cách ly khỏi khu huấn luyện liên hợp AON ở Carrington trong hoản cảnh anh trở về từ nơi…

  • World News

    Singapore megachurch suspends services, goes online

    Facing a burgeoning crisis in the southeast Asian island-state, Singapore’s biggest megachurch, with a congregation of 16,000, will stop holding services this weekend due to the rising number of coronavirus cases and instead broadcast its lively, gospel-style message online. City Harvest Church is one of the most profitable churches in Asia, but has been embroiled in a corruption scandal in…

  • Việt Nam

    Cận cảnh hình ảnh “tâm dịch” bị cách ly tại huyện Bình Xuyên, Vĩnh Phúc

    Từ ngày hôm nay, nơi được coi là “tâm dịch” Covid-19 (nCoV) – xã Sơn Lôi, huyện Bình Xuyên, tỉnh Vĩnh Phúc sẽ được khoanh vùng, cách ly hoàn toàn để phòng lây lan dịch bệnh. Hôm nay (13/2) là ngày đầu tiên xã Sơn Lôi (huyện Bình Xuyên, Vĩnh Phúc) áp dụng lệnh khoanh vùng cách ly hoàn toàn. Từ…

  • Economy News

    Coronavirus could cause huge damage to ASEAN economies

    The Covid-19 coronavirus is expected to cause damage valued at US$2.4-3.4 billion (74.6-105.7 billion baht) to ASEAN economies, according to estimates from the Kasikorn Research Centre. The jolt will likely result from a virus-related economic slowdown in China, which has close trade ties with ASEAN nations as well as investment and tourism, the centre reports. If the outbreak can be…

  • Covid-19 News

    Coronavirus myths busted

    The newly named Covid-19 coronavirus has killed over 1,300 people to date and infected more than 60,000 across 24 countries and territories. It’s perhaps unsurprising that myths and urban legends have sprung up surrounding the virus, both in how it’s spread and how to prevent it. The Thaiger is here to bust some of those myths, courtesy of information provided…

  • Covid-19 News

    UK prisoner tested for coronavirus after extradition is virus-free

    UPDATE: Neither Mark Rumble nor another suspect deported to the UK have the Covid-19 coronavirus, The Daily Mail reports: “Two British prisoners including a ‘drug dealer’ who were sent home from Thailand do not have coronavirus, tests have confirmed.” A British drug suspect, arrested in Pattaya on November 2 before being extradited to the United Kingdom in January, has been…

  • Covid-19 News

    Thai evacuee from Wuhan clear of coronavirus, discharged from hospital

    One of the three (out of 138) Thai evacuees from Wuhan, who has been at Sattahip naval base for treatment for coronavirus infection since February 6th, was discharged from hospital Tuesday night. The deputy director of Queen Sirikit Hospital, Dr Rewat Kitnarong, said this morning that the patient, whose name is being withheld, rejoined the other 136 evacuees, who are…

  • Tourism News

    Chiang Mai a “ghost town” as tourists stay away in droves

    The coronavirus outbreak has turned Chiang Mai into a ghost town. The city’s Thansettakij newspaper today reported the results of its survey on tourist attractions since February 8, Makha Puja Day and the start of a three day holiday. It showed a massive decline in tourists, especially from China. “Chiang Mai used to be very popular among Chinese tourists, but…