covid-19
- Covid-19 News
16 new dark red provinces and restrictions extended to August 16
16 more provinces will be added to Thailand’s dark red zones and all will see partial lockdown restrictions extended until August 16 according to a statement this late afternoon by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. The announcement extended the lockdowns set to expire August 3 for an additional 2 weeks, and expanded the number of provinces classified as dark…
- Hua Hin News
Hua Hin Maya Club execs get 3 months for superspreader event
Many people living in Thailand long term grow weary of the persistence of action without consequence, especially for those that are well connected or with deep pockets. But a new ruling Hua Hin gives credit where credit is due and sentenced 2 executives of the Maya Club in Hua Hin to 3 months in prison plus fines for the illegal…
- Covid-19 News
Foreigners able to register on vaccine site despite data leaks, glitches
The debut of Thailand’s new vaccine appointment registration site expatvac.consular.go.th has now opened to mixed reviews. Many reported a host of problems, but quite a few people said that in the end they received emails confirming their registration and forthcoming appointments. And of course, it opened to a data breach. The vaccine registration site launched at 11 am and within…
- Transport News
August flight plans: Bangkok Airways, Nok Air, Thai Lion
With lockdowns, sealed provinces, travel restrictions and ever-changing updates due to the continuously growing Covid-19 infections around the country, struggling airlines are scrambling to keep up. AirAsia was the first earlier this month to cancel all domestic flights, and other local airlines quickly followed suit. Yesterday Bangkok Airways cut nearly all of their domestic flights, extending their flight suspension until…
- Koh Samui News
Samui Covid-19: 14 new Black Club infections, 2nd cluster
[UPDATE 9 pm: Information on Black Club staff with Covid-19 has been updated, as well as Bangkok Airways Samui flight cancellations and Bangkok Hospital bed shortage details.] The emergence of Covid-19 in Koh Samui has caused some upheaval for the residents as more infections and more details are revealed each day. 14 new infections were diagnosed today on the island,…
- Phuket News
Phuket Sandbox Covid-19 infections: 35 today, 209 this week
35 new Covid-19 infections pushed rolling 7-day total in Phuket to 209, more than doubling the feared 90 per week that would trigger Sandbox reconsideration according to the original official plans. When the total first passed the 90 infection threshold and surpassed 100, the Department of Disease Control declared that the overall situation was still far from critical and the…
- Koh Samui News
Koh Samui unaccustomed to Covid-19, many act in dismay
Koh Samui is not accustomed to Covid-19 worries and has been rocked by the outbreak this week as many locals struggle to cope with the first significant cluster on the island. So far 40 Covid-19 infections have been identified from the Black Bamboo Club cluster, and several other seemingly unrelated infections had popped up also. A few more bars have…
- Phuket News
Precarious Phuket: open internationally, closed domestically
Phuket has become like one island but 2 different worlds, depending on your vantage point. A look at the news over the past few days has been a dizzying mix of the Phuket Sandbox pushing forward, some successes in statistically low Covid-19 infection and death, especially compared to the rest of Thailand, a green light for the Sandbox to continue…
- Covid-19 News
Friday Covid Update: 17,345 new cases; provincial totals
17,345 new Covid-19 cases and 117 coronavirus-related deaths were reported today by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. Since the start of the pandemic last year, the CCSA has reported 578,375 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 4,679 coronavirus-related deaths. Thailand now has 192,526 active Covid-19 cases. In Bangkok, the epicentre of Thailand’s latest wave, the CCSA reported 3,231 new Covid-19 cases…
- Covid-19 News
Survey shows Singaporeans making travel plans as country eyes re-opening
The findings of the latest Finder’s Travel Index show that 44% of adults in Singapore are planning to travel within the next 3 months. The Finder’s Travel Index is a series of surveys, conducted across 12 countries, to gauge travel sentiment. The latest findings show an increase of 20% in the number of Singaporeans planning to travel imminently, compared to…
- Covid-19 News
21 of yesterday’s Covid-related deaths died at home
The number of new infections in the most severe wave to hit Thailand since the start of the pandemic continues to rise. And of 165 Covid-related deaths reported yesterday, 21 of them died at home. The Bangkok Post reports that the highest number of infections is in the capital, with 3,963 new cases reported yesterday, followed by the neighbouring provinces…
- Koh Samui News
Samui re-opening plans under threat as island infections rise
Koh Samui’s re-opening plan, Samui Plus, may be cancelled if the Covid-19 situation worsens in the next 2 weeks. Yuthasak Supasorn from the Tourism Authority of Thailand says for now, the re-opening is still on, although a recently approved plan to allow participants in the Phuket sandbox to visit Samui and other islands after 7 days on Phuket has been…
- Covid-19 News
Friday Covid Update: 17,345 new cases and 117 deaths
17,345 new Covid-19 cases and 117 coronavirus-related deaths were reported today by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. In the latest and most severe wave of the virus in Thailand, first recorded on April 1, the CCSA has reported 549,512 confirmed Covid-19 infections. Out of the new cases reported today, 681 were found in correctional facilities. The latest wave of…
- Covid-19 News
Despite Covid-19 Phuket Sandbox continues at least 2 weeks
With Covid-19 infections surging in Phuket, many have questioned if the Phuket Sandbox scheme would continue or be shut down as the original provisions of the Sandbox said that thresholds like over 90 infections a week could trigger revisions or cancellation of the programme. Now the Deputy Director of the Department of Disease Control has confirmed that, despite the rise…
- Covid-19 News
Chulalongkorn University progressing on domestic mRNA vaccine
With Covid-19 battering Thailand and the third wave bringing the Sinovac-resistant Delta variant to the forefront of the pandemic, Thailand’s slow vaccine rollout is further burdened by the ineffectiveness of the Chinese made traditional vaccine that a majority of inoculations are using. AstraZeneca provides more protection, and talk of booster shots have come after mixing vaccine doses has begun. But…
- Koh Samui News
Black Club Covid-19 outbreak on Koh Samui widens
After announcing a Covid-19 cluster outbreak at Black Bamboo Club in Koh Samui with 16 infections, many more people were found to have the virus. Over 600 people were tested yesterday in connection with the outbreak now sourced most likely to a fitness instructor in Lamai and reports of up to 90 additional cases are circulating with 38 infections currently…
- Bangkok News
Sleeper trains in Bangkok to become isolation facilities for Covid-19 patients
Sleeper trains in Bangkok are being converted into isolation facilities for Covid-19 patients who are waiting for a hospital bed to become available. With the surge of Covid-19 cases, today hitting a record high of 17,669 new cases, hospitals in Bangkok, the epicentre of infections, have run low on beds to treat patients infected with the coronavirus. At Bang Sue…
- Koh Samui News
Surge in new Covid infections on Koh Samui
Koh Samui has recorded its highest 1-day jump in Covid-19 infections since the southern island re-opened to international tourism. According to a Bangkok Post report, officials have confirmed 20 new cases but insist the development will not affect the island’s Samui Plus re-opening programme. 16 of the new infections are a cluster linked to a cashier at a local gym.…
- Covid-19 News
Private clinics in Bangkok enlisted to help with home isolation Covid patients
Privately-run clinics in Bangkok are being enlisted to help treat and monitor patients in the Covid-19 “green” group – those who are home isolating with mild or no symptoms. According to a Bangkok Post report, the National Health Security Office is inviting the clinics to sign up to the programme to increase the number of facilities helping home isolation patients.…
- Covid-19 News
PM hosts online meeting with governors of dark red provinces over Covid crisis
PM Prayut Chan-o-cha has held an online meeting with the governors of the 12 “dark red” provinces – Pathum Thani, Chon Buri, Nonthaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Samut Sakhon, Ayutthaya, Chanchoengsao, Samut Prakan, Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala, and Songkha. The Bangkok Post reports that the PM used the meeting to question them on the Covid situation in their province and to say he…
- Covid-19 News
Phetchabun sugar factory closes with Covid-19 cluster
After a cluster of 90 workers was discovered to be infected with Covid-19, a factory in Phetchabun producing sugar has been instructed by government officials to close down for a week. The Thai Roong Ruang Industry Co in the Si Thep district received the orders yesterday to close from now until August 2. The provincial communicable disease committee made the…
- Covid-19 News
Police investigate hackers selling stolen vaccine appointments
Amid vaccine scarcity in Thailand’s slow rollout, and a tumultuous registration process with changing systems and tiny sign-up windows, people have taken to desperate means to get vaccinated. People posing as doctors online sold fake vaccine appointments, and authorities accused members of the Hi-So elite of renting motorbike taxi vests to pose as taxi drivers who are given priority for…
- Covid-19 News
Despite low riders, Covid-19 train to continue
Despite a rocky start, the special train service the Transport Ministry arranged with the State Railway of Thailand to help bring Covid-19 infected patients in Bangkok to their hometowns for treatment will continue. The train, dubbed the “Covid Express”, will schedule more trips from Bangkok to the North and Northeast provinces even though the first train ended up with less…
- Covid-19 News
Koh Samui bar and club finds 16 Covid-19 infections
The Thaiger recently reported that some bars and clubs in Koh Samui continue to operate seemingly indifferent to Covid-19 restrictions in place without any masks or social distancing and during periods that nightlife was shut down nationally. Now the freedom from regulation on the island has come back to bite as 16 Covid-19 infections were found traced to one of…
- Covid-19 News
Girls infected with Covid after mother dies at home; public criticises healthcare system
The story of the two Thai girls who woke up to find their 44 year old mother dead in their bedroom, possibly due to Covid-19, grabbed public attention and shed light on the death toll of the current wave of cases where more than 4,000 people infected with the virus have died. Medical examiners have not declared the Apaporn Suntarachon’s…
- Covid-19 News
Crowds rush to Bang Sue for vaccination ahead of walk-in registration ending
There were scenes of overcrowding reported at Bangkok’s Bang Sue station yesterday as people rushed to try to get a vaccine before walk-in registration ends. According to a Nation Thailand report, the rush was sparked by the announcement that walk-in registration for the elderly ends on Saturday. The following day, registration opens for everyone over the age of 18 but…
- Covid-19 News
Thai PM predicts current Covid crisis will be over in 2 or 3 weeks – 4 at the most
The Thai PM says the country’s worst Covid-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic should be over in 2 or 3 weeks, maybe 4. The Bangkok Post reports that Prayut Chan-o-cha was addressing a Cabinet meeting yesterday and has instructed all relevant agencies to keep the public updated on the ongoing crisis. Thailand has continued to report new cases…
- Covid-19 News
Health Ministry says all frontline medical workers will get donated Pfizer doses
With 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine expected to arrive in Thailand tomorrow, the Public Health Ministry insists they will be given to all frontline medical workers in the country. The doses have been donated by the US government and will be offered as third, “booster” shots, according to Sura Wisedsak from the Health Ministry. “I can confirm that…
- Covid-19 News
Wednesday Covid Update: Record high of 16,533 new cases
A record high of 16,533 new Covid-19 cases were reported today by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration. In the latest and most severe wave of infections in Thailand, first recorded on April 1, the CCSA has reported 514,498 Covid-19 cases. Today, the CCSA also recorded another 133 coronavirus-related deaths. Out of the new cases, 202 were found in correctional…
- Covid-19 News
Tuesday Covid Update: 14,150 new cases; provincial totals
CAPTION: Bang Sue railway station yesterday, the main vaccination centre in Bangkok. The photographer said that it was “chaos”. PHOTO: Facebook/Akbar Senior Motani 14,150 new Covid-19 cases were reported today by the CCSA this morning, raising the total since the start of the pandemic last year to 526,828. The latest and most severe wave of Covid-19 infections, first recorded in…
