We entered in the second week of the state Emergency decree period. Since also in Thailand number of Covid-19 cases is rising, more restrictions have been made on the provincial as well on the national level. Although we don’t feel comfortable as on holidays and you can feel some strange fear most of the time, we still don’t have a feeling that situation is so terrible as in most of the Europe. As I promised in previous post, here are some updates.
Altough national curfew is limited to 6 night hours and there are severe sanctions, violations are on the rise
On Friday, April 2, the national curfew started and it’s banning all people from leaving homes from 10pm to 4am (with the exemptions of employees working night shifts, fishing etc.).
In a televised speech the PM ask the public not to hoard food as we will still be allowed to go out during the day. But now it’s required, that we wear a face mask at all times.
Different measures done by local super market to prevent virus spreading: they marked, where we can stand; they put one extra table beetwen shopper and cashier; you have to put product from your basket to the blue basket and you give money or card in the fish sack net. The only problem is that in most of the Thailand don’t have contactless card payment option, so when you gave the cashier a card, you have to go around next to her and put a pin. But they put a sanitizer gel next to the card machine and you must use it before writing a pin.
Critics say that the limited 6 hours period won’t help stop the virus, but the Deputy PM explain that the large numbers of mostly young Thai people gathering at night parties, as well as an increased criminal activities, thanks to millions being out of work, were also the reason for the (night) curfew.
The primary purpose of this curfew is to encourage social distancing and combat the spread of the virus. He also said that the nationwide 24-7 lockdown is not possible at this time, especially in Bangkok, but things can change if necessary.
“We hope it can limit the number of people wandering around at night because people don’t go gallivanting about during the day. They have to work. But during the nighttime, people would come out as they are depressed from quarantine, so we have to keep them at home. We will also use the time to clean the streets.”
Deputy prime minister Wissanu Krea-ngam
Every day the news report about police arrests of those who didn’t follow the rules of emergency decree or curfew. Beside facing jail (up to two years) and fine (up to 40,000 THB or 1,128 €), offenders are also publicly shamed.
Print screen of public shaming on one of the Thai news portals. Since I just want to show you an example and not to repeat the method, I blackened the names.
Media also banned from field report during curfew
Journalists will not be exempted from the curfew, meaning that they are not allowed to go out to report on the curfew. As Khaosod English reported, deputy PM said: “There shouldn’t be any news during that six-hour period.”
Check points
Last time I doubted about the check points across the country where they screen road travellers for the Covid-19 virus. Firstly this kind of checkpoints were existing just when entering into the new province (on the roads or airports) or before going to the islands, but these days they are much more expanded and even on Koh Lanta island we have two (one near beaches on the south, and the other on the north, before entering the Saladan pier – the main “commercial” district in the island.
But maybe I was wrong, since we could read in the news that police deputy reported that in one day they scanned more than 100 travelers around Thailand, who had cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing or any other body pained, and their names and information were being recorded for further tracking.
The photo of the check point near the Saladan in Koh Lanta. We were stopped by the police while driving scooters. They checked our body temperature and we must gave them information, such as name, passport number, date of arrival, where are we staying and even where and when did we rent the scooter.
Phuket closed the beaches and parks
Since it is one of the more besieged tourist destinations, it is not surprise, that Phuket is one of the most corona virus effected area in Thailand. Most of infected have visited or worked around popular party street Bangla Road. So, besides the bars and restaurants as in the rest of the Thailand, Phuket authorities closed seven most attractive beaches and touristic points such as Cape Promthep. People are also not allowed to go out from 8pm to 3am. Those who violets the closure can be fined up to 100,000 THB or sentenced up to 1 year in jail.
Alcohol sales is banned from 6 pm to 6 am
Chonburi’s governor has banned the sale of alcohol in the province, including Pataya. This restriction is to help prevent gatherings. Since regular alcohol sales law in Thailand prohibit to sale alcohol between 6am and 11am and 2pm and 5pm, this mean that you can buy alcohol just 4 hours per day.
A day after I publish this post, also Chiang Mai province announced they are completely banning alcohol sales for 10 days, from April 10 to 20.
Monks wear face shields as they make daily morning alms rounds
In Buddhism tradition, every morning, monks go to the morning alms among the village or city quarter. This means that they give to the people their blessings in exchange for fresh food people are putting in the monks alms bowls. Since this is quite social interactive situation, monks from temple Matchan Tikaram in Bangkok made their own face shields and wore it when doing the alms rounds.
The spiritual leader of many Thai Muslims ordered prayer suspended
While the Buddhist morning alms rounds are still happening, the Chularatchamontri, ˝unofficial leader” of Muslims in Thailand announced the suspension of Friday prayers at all mosques.
Friday prayer at mosque is the most important prayer of the week for Muslims.
He advised all Muslim to pray at home, to help curb the spread of the virus. But the officials in the southernmost province Yala, were afraid that local Muslim leaders will not follow orders.
Yala is one of the southern 4 provinces. It is bordering with Malaysia and it is a home to Thailand’s Southern Insurgency, a decades old separatist movement.
As Bangkok post reported: “The province has 514 mosques and they are in all districts. 30 of them defied the Chularatchamontri call and called the faithful to prayer at the local mosque last Friday.
As written by the same portal, Yala is one of the provinces that is hit hardest by the pandemic. What happened at the end, last Friday (3th April) I couldn’t find out in any news.
Private hospitals warned via government Facebook page not to bill for Covid-19 care
The government says private hospitals should keep records of medical treatment and services and send the bills to related agencies for reimbursement.
Drive-through tests for taxi drivers
Since taxi drivers have more contact with potential infected people, one of the Bangkok hospital has launched free drive-through Covid-19 tests for them. This service is limited to 10 drivers per day, who are working or living in the most busy Bangkok areas.
Ministries will give up 10% of their 2020 budget to fight Covid-19 in Thailand
Each ministry will contributed 10% of the country’s fiscal 2020 budget allocated to funding pool to cope with the pandemic and the revival of the economy. The measures will be focused on the people who live in rural areas and to stabilize the Thai financial market.
As written by Bangkok post, Deputy Prime Minister said, that “These contributions will be one of two key sources of funding to cope with the pandemic and the revival of the economy. The other is borrowing from domestic financial institutions, the government may issue an executive decree allowing this to be possible. The public debt-to-GDP ratio is 43%, well below the ceiling of 60% set by the government’s fiscal sustainability framework. This allows the government plenty of room to increase public debt to help the rural sector and stabilize financial markets.”
The total budget allocated to Thailand’s key ministries amounted to 1.98 trillion baht and included: The Education Ministry at 368 billion, The Interior Ministry at 353 billion, The Finance Ministry at 249 billion, The Defence Ministry at 233 billion, The Transport Ministry at 178 billion.
It seems this story will be continued again. Let’s hope it will be finished as trilogy. Until the next time, stay happy and healthy!