Buddhist monks wearing facial shields collect alms during a partial blockade in Bangkok.
Photographer: Andre Malerba / Bloomberg
Photographer: Andre Malerba / Bloomberg
Thailand will impose more restrictions on businesses and assemblies in regions at higher risk due to the latest outbreak in coronavirus cases, including the capital Bangkok.
Authorities have identified 28 provinces as high-risk areas and set new restrictions, such as suspending trade operations and meetings that could potentiate fans of infections, health ministry officials said in Bangkok on Saturday. The new measures will take effect on Monday, once approved by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, they said.
Thailand is battling a recurrence of the virus epidemic, with more than 2,000 new cases reported in just two weeks, prompting authorities to close schools in Bangkok and temporarily close some companies, including gyms, spas, pubs and bars. . Prayuth’s government has refrained from imposing a national blockade, but allowed provincial authorities to establish their own measures based on the risk of infection.
The new wave threatens to delay Thailand’s plan to gradually reopen its tourism industry and revive Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. The government intends to is expanding its domestic travel subsidy program after April to help the tourism industry cope with the success of the latest outbreak, Tourism Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said earlier this week.
According to the stricter rules of social distance recommended by the Covid-19 response center, travel will be discouraged between provinces with more than 50 active cases and people will be advised to work from home, officials said. The new curbs could be in place by the end of this month and will be reviewed later, they said.
The education ministry has also ordered the closure of all schools in these areas from January 4 to the end of the month, government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said on Twitter.
Thailand reported 216 new cases of the virus and one death on Saturday, with most infections being transmitted locally. While many of the new cases in recent weeks have been linked to a seafood market in Samut Sakhon province near Bangkok, local broadcasts have been reported from more than 58 provinces now, health ministry officials said.
New cases in Thailand, which relatively managed to contain the pathogen after becoming the first non-Chinese country to report the deadly virus, could increase to 18,000 a day if control measures are not implemented, according to Taweesilp Witsanuyotin, a spokesman for the Covid-19 Situation Management Center. The country can limit new infections to about 1,000 cases a day, with strict control measures, he said.
“With the assistance of Thomas Kutty Abraham.”
(Updates in order to close schools in several areas in the sixth paragraph.)