Thailand News Today, February 25, 2020 – Daily news for Thailand

Two news cases confirmed in Thailand, pushing total to 37

The Thai Public Health Ministry has announced two new Coronavirus cases in Thailand, up from 35 to 37 cases since the outbreak starts in late December last year.

A 31 year old woman and a 29 year old taxi driver are the two new cases.

Permanent secretary for health confirmed that the woman was a housemaid and was initially diagnosed with a pneumonia of “unknown causes”. Doctors later discovered she had a relative who had recently returned from China.

The male patient has been admitted to a hospital in Nonthaburi. He told doctors he had been in close contact with many Chinese tourists and initially showed up with a fever and cough.

Health officials are now tracking down any people that had been with the pair during the past few weeks.

22 of Thailand’s 37 cases have already fully recovered.

8 people injured, including school children, in Songkhla bomb attack

Eight people have been injured by shrapnel from a roadside bomb, including two school children, in a Songkhla bomb blast today.

The eight were amongst a group gathered near a public park in the Sabayoi district of Songkhla, in Thailand’s south. Also amongst the injured were the local district assistant chief, a local defence volunteer and Sabayoi villagers.

Security authorities currently speculate that southern insurgents detonated the bomb as a converted pickup truck passed the spot. The blast blew the vehicle onto the side of the road.

British sailor, adrift for 3 days, rescued by Thai navy

A British man had to be towed back to shore along with his yacht after the vessel’s motor broke down off Phuket, leaving him adrift for three days before he was rescued.

The operations centre of the 3rd Naval Area in Phuket got a request from a cargo ship yesterday afternoon to help a sailboat, the Pollen Path, which was spotted helplessly drifting at sea, about 40 nautical miles from Phuket.

The Navy towed the Pollen Path to shore arriving in Phuket at 9.30am this morning.

Bangkok has a surplus of 100,000 new condos as Chinese buyers stay home

Bangkok’s condominium market is facing its biggest challenge in decades with one of its key feeder markets sitting it out at home.

The capital’s soaring condo market, once a favourite for Chinese investors, looks towards a bleak year with Chinese investors having other things to worry about, or simply unable to travel to Thailand, due to coronavirus fears.

Bloomberg economists predict that foreigners could account for as little as 10% of purchases this year, that’s down nearly 50% from last year.

The president of Agency for Real Estate Affairs, estimates there is 100,000 vacant completed condominiums in and around Bangkok.

Thai Baht on the slide over fears of spread of Coronavirus outside China

What goes up must go down. The Thai baht has continued to weaken against leading international currencies.

As of this morning the baht was trading at 31.70 baht to the US$ . The falls reflect regional concern over the coronavirus spreading beyond China. In the past few days both central South Korea and parts of northern Italy have reported outbreaks of the virus. We have a daily coronavirus update at the thaiger.com

Meanwhile the Thai stock exchange plunged 4% in trade yesterday.

At least 30 injured in head-on train collision

There was a train collision yesterday at Pak Tho station in Ratcha Buri province, just west of Bangkok, injuring at least 30 people.

Traffic Police radio and local Jor Sor 100 radio reported the crash between a passenger express train and a freight train , which took place around 6:30pm.

Thai media report that station staff couldn’t switch the tracks in time for one of the trains to pass on the main track while another was waiting on another track. At least 30 people were injured, including railway staff, but no fatalities have been reported.