Chonburi reports 953 new Covid-19 cases with 7 deaths, 1,321 people recovered
Chonburi, Thailand –
Highlights:
953 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Chonburi today
1,321 people recovered and were released from medical care
7 new deaths
Si Racha main driver of new cases with 307 today
The Chonburi Department of Public Health announced 953 new and confirmed cases of Covid-19 today with 7 new deaths, August 23rd.
This makes a total of 55,374 cases of Covid-19 in the current round of infections, with 19,554 people still under medical care/supervision, and with a total of 304 recorded deaths in Chonburi since the start of this recent round of infections in early April. The details on yesterday's 7 new deaths were not given, which is standard for the health department.
Additionally, 1,321 people were also released and recovered yesterday in Chonburi. 35,516 people in total have now been released from medical care and recovered in Chonburi since this current wave began.
The district-level new cases were as follows today:
Mueang Chonburi 200, Si Racha 307, Banglamung (Pattaya) 189, Panat Nikhom 48, Sattahip 9, Ban Bueang 54, Pan Thong 64, Bor Thong 15, Ko Chan 4, Nong Yai 6, and 57 new cases transferred from other provinces for medical care.
The details on the cases are as follows:
Cluster Italian-Thai Company, Bang Lamung District, 7 cases
Risky occupations like taxi drivers, customer-facing roles, 27 cases
3 medical personnel
Many enterprises in Rayong Province 36 cases
Back from risky areas in Rayong – 9 cases, Chachoengsao, 3 and Bangkok 3 cases
Close contacts of confirmed patients 9.1 A total of 272 family members 9.2 A total of 153 co-workers 9.3 A total of 25 friends of previous patients 9.4 One person who joined an illegal party
Close contacts (under investigation) 202 cases
Cases currently under investigation in general for 194 cases
A total of 1,003 close contact searches were received today with 914 initial proactive searches, and more proactive search reports are pending.
Thousands of tourists leaving Phuket for other provinces
Koh Samui is one of the destinations vaccinated tourists can visit after spending their first seven days in Phuket. (Photo: Supapong Chaolan)
Thousands of tourists have departed Phuket by land since the Phuket Sandbox 7+7 Extension programme took effect on Aug 17, Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, spokesman for Centre for Economic Situation Administration, said on Monday.
Under the programme, the mandatory stay in Phuket for fully vaccinated international travellers is reduced from 14 to seven days. They can spend the other seven days in any of the extension areas in Krabi (Koh Phi Phi, Koh Ngai or Railay), Phang-Nga (Khao Lak or Koh Yao), or Surat Thani (Koh Samui, Koh Pha-ngan or Koh Tao).
Mr Thanakorn said so far 3,578 tourists had left Phuket by land for the extension areas. After seven days there, they could proceed to other provinces.
The favourite destinations were Bangkok, Surat Thani, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chiang Mai and Chon Buri. These destinations had complied with the pandemic controls required by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, he said.
Mr Thanakorn said a total of 22,810 tourists had arrived under the Phuket Sandbox scheme. Room bookings had been made for 409,390 nights at SHA (safety and health administration) Plus hotels throughout July-September.
Daily flights continued to bring in tourists. The five primary countries of origin were the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, France and Germany.
Almost 400 tourists under the Phuket Sandbox scheme had arrived in Koh Samui, Surat Thani, booking nearly 3,000 room nights or an average of nine nights per head.
Revenue was projected to be around 17.28 million baht. The main countries tourists arrived from under the Samui Plus programme were France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and the Netherlands.
Mr Thanakorn said the number of tourists to Koh Samui was still low because flights on the Phuket-Samui route had been suspended since Aug 3 by order of the Phuket communicable disease committee.
Since Phuket-Samui flights would resume from Aug 25, it was believed the number of tourists would go up, he said.
Responding to the US advisory for its citizens to avoid travelling to Thailand due to Covid-19, the Tourism Authority of Thailand had stepped up its campaign abroad under the "city marketing" concept, he said.
It singled out Phuket as a safe destination, emphasing that the Thai government had imposed strict measures to control the pandemic, he said.
Despite the dire state of the pandemic in Thailand with record daily highs, the Tourism Authority of Thailand governor Yutthasak Suphasorn told Sanook that his target for foreign tourists before the end of the year is still one million.
Yutthasak was putting a brave face on Thailand's opening plans after the CCSA approved what is now being called "7+7 Phuket Extension".
This is allowing double vaxed foreigners to visit Phuket then other islands or areas of their choice in the second week of their stay.
Yutthsak said that the pandemic needs to be brought under control but insisted his target was one million foreigners with high season from October still part of his rhetoric.
This despite the first month of the Phuket Sandbox getting 14,000 visitors and only about ten a day going to Koh Samui.
To hit his target by December 31st ASEAN NOW did the math based on 25,000 having visited already.
Death rates underline importance of vaccination as government aims for November target for red zones
The Thai government is setting itself a November target for heard immunity through vaccination and infection in red areas across the country, a Ministry of Public Health source told Thai Enquirer on Monday.
According to the source, the government understands that lockdown measures will only mitigate the pandemic but will not be sufficient to end the spread of the disease or the increasing death rates.
Nearly 64 per cent of people who died from Covid in the past 30 days were unvaccinated, underlying the importance of inoculation, the government said on Friday.
"This is why we have to vaccinate as many people as possible, especially the vulnerable groups," said Dr Apisamai Srirangsan, the assistant spokeswoman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
The majority of the fatalities were 60 or older, officials said. According to the CCSA, more than 26.8 million Covid vaccines were administered between February 28 – August 21, including 20.3 million first doses, 6 million second doses and 542,188 booster shots.
Thailand is now jabbing nearly half a million people per day throughout the country.
"At this rate, the red zone provinces will reach herd immunity in November. If Covid-19 vaccine supplies keep up, if we can get more vaccines and expand our capacity we may even be able to resume normalcy by October," said the public health official who asked for anonymity.
"The main thing we have to prevent now is stopping the outbreak from reaching other provinces or taking our pedal off vaccine procurement," those are two major stumbling blocks that the government will do its utmost to prevent.
Breakdown of Fatalities
Of the 4,656 people who died from Covid between July 25 and August 19:
2,969 or 63.8 per cent were not vaccinated
316 or 7 per cent were vaccinated with one dose of AstraZeneca for more than two weeks before the infection occurs
118 or 2.6 per cent were vaccinated with one dose of the vaccine for more than four weeks before infection
26 or 0.6 per cent were vaccinated with two doses of the vaccine for more than two weeks before infection.
PHUKET: The latest Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO) daily COVID situation report has marked 124 new local infections on the island yesterday (Aug 22), bringing the total number of people recognised as infected with COVID-19 in Phuket since Apr 3 to 2,652.
The PPHO report, marked as accurate as of 10:53pm last night, also marked one new case of a Phuket Sandbox tourist being confirmed as infected.
The report marked no new deaths attributed to COVID-19, leaving the total number of deaths in Phuket attributed to COVID-19 since Apr 3 at 17.
The 124 new local infections bring the total number of new local infections on the island to a new record of 662 in the past seven days, as follows:
Aug 16 - 50 new cases
Aug 17 - 43 new cases
Aug 18 - 89 new cases
Aug 19 - 129 new cases
Aug 20 - 101 new cases
Aug 21 - 126 new cases
Aug 22 - 124 new cases
The current total of 2,652 infected in Phuket since Apr 3 does not include 10 people infected with COVID-19 in other provinces and 23 returning from other countries and testing positive.
The current Phuket tally also does not include 39 COVID patients brought back to Phuket under the "Bring Phuket people home" policy, or the 67 Phuket Sandbox arrivals who have tested positive for the virus after landing on the island since the Sandbox scheme began on July 1.
According to the PPHO COVID report for yesterday, 1,091 people were under medical care or supervision, an increase of 45 from the day before.
The report also marked 1,636 people in total being discharged from medical care for COVID infection since Apr 3 ‒ 80 more patients than the 1,556 reported for Thursday.
The report posted last night recorded 118 new cases of people suspected of being infected with COVID-19 after testing positive by antigen test kits (ATKs) yesterday (Aug 22).
Despite the 118 new suspected cases, which have yet to be confirmed by RT-PCR tests, the total number of people now currently held at 'COVID-19 Care Centers' across the island remained at 447, the same as reported yesterday.
The report did not confirm how many people who tested positive by ATKs were confirmed infected by RT-PCR tests or how many people had been released from ATK detention at 'COVID-19 Care Centers' and allowed to go home.
The PPHO daily COVID situation report posted last night also reported that Phuket currently has in total 1,353 beds available for COVID patients (+340 from yesterday).
The huge influx in the number of beds means that the percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients has fallen dramatically. As of Friday, the percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients remains the one key factor in local officials deciding whether or not the Phuket Sandbox scheme should be suspended.
As such, despite marking an increase of 65 new patients occupying hospital beds yesterday, the total number of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients in Phuket now stands at 870, or 64.3% of the new total, compared with 79.47% yesterday when Phuket had 805 beds occupied.
According to the report issued last night 483 hospital beds in Phuket now remain available, compared with 208 beds reported available just 24 hours earlier.
The report also marked that of the COVID patients in care 28 were designated as 'Red patients' (+4); 300 were designated 'Yellow' patients (-3) and 387 were 'Green' patients (+20).
The latest map released by the PPHO showing the locations of the new infections across the island was released yesterday (Aug 22), but marked as accurate as of 6pm Saturday (Aug 21), as follows:
A lone man walks on the beach in Pattaya. (Photo: Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)
Pattaya needs to overcome obstacles, including slow approval of standard operating procedures (SOPs), insufficient vaccinations and a spike in infections, as they could jeopardise its reopening plan this year.
Apichai Chatchalermkit, deputy governor of digitalisation research and development at the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said the private sector already submitted SOPs to Chon Buri Provincial Public Health Office and is waiting for approval.
The authority is dealing with a surge in new daily infections.
Chon Buri, deemed a dark red zone, saw daily infections exceed 1,000, while Bang Lamung and Sattahip districts, which were set as pilot areas to reopen, reported 221 and 34 cases, respectively, on Aug 20.
He said the province's vaccination rate is far from the herd immunity level of 70%, currently sitting at 33% of its population.
"Pattaya's reopening plan cannot start without those conditions," Mr Apichai said.
The Pattaya Move On scheme requires tourists to stay in alternative local quarantine, which has 19 facilities in two districts, during the first six days before travelling under the sealed route programme from the seventh day.
He said the length of stay in Pattaya was 5-7 days prior to the outbreak, which is shorter than in Phuket.
Tourists might not have to purchase tour packages in advance, but they have to use services from tourism operators who have received the Safety and Health Administration (SHA) Plus certificate. More than 10 operators are waiting for TAT approval of certificates.
If operators fail to prevent tourists from sneaking to other places, their SHA Plus certificates will be revoked.
Prior to the pandemic, Pattaya ranked third in the country with 9.4 million international travellers, of which 2.72 million came from China, followed by Russia at 1.14 million.
Mr Apichai said after the endorsement of the Sputnik V vaccination for the sandbox scheme, Russia is a potential market to spur demand, particularly from chartered flights as Chinese tourists are still not allowed to make overseas trips.
U-tapao airport in Rayong province, which is located outside the two districts of Bang Lamung and Sattahip in the reopened area, is ready to offer flights to Pattaya under the sealed route scheme.
India, South Korea, Taiwan and Germany are other source markets for Pattaya, though the TAT has to monitor the travel restrictions of each country, he said.
A food vendor walks past an empty Khaosan Road in Bangkok. Pornprom Satrabhaya
The Covid-19 pandemic has put the Thai government in a bind, having to choose between saving lives and protecting their livelihoods.
Since March last year, Thailand has announced several economic stimulus packages in phases, covering cash handouts to severely affected persons, farmers, vulnerable groups and welfare cardholders; domestic tourism promotion; personal income tax reduction; employment subsidies; debt restructuring programmes; and soft loans to small businesses.
Funding for these packages came from both from the government's fiscal budget expenditure and borrowing.
The government approved a 1-trillion-baht emergency loan decree in April last year, part of a package of economic measures worth 1.9 trillion baht to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
In May of 2021, the government approved an executive decree to borrow an additional 500 billion baht to fight Covid-19.
On Monday last week, the Bank of Thailand urged the government to borrow an additional 1 trillion baht, roughly 7% of the country's GDP, to address the severe economic impact of the pandemic and improve the country's long-term growth prospects. Such a move would increase the country's public debt ratio to 70% of GDP by 2024.
Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith announced on Thursday there is no need for the government to borrow additional money to combat the pandemic because the existing 500-billion-baht loan is sufficient.
While the government ponders any new borrowing, the business sector believes it is imperative to think about the effectiveness of such enormous spending plans.
EFFICIENT SPENDING
Somchai Lertsutiwong, chief executive of Advanced Info Service (AIS), the country's largest mobile operator by subscribers, said it is vital the government has a clear action plan on how to use a 1-trillion-baht loan if such an amount is sought.
This requires an efficient spending plan, he said.
Seeking the loan is not a concern as long as it will be used to shore up economic and social sentiment during this difficult time, said Mr Somchai.
He said the government must focus on three tasks during this crisis: clarifying the vaccination programme, effective diagnosis and classification of patients according to the severity of their health conditions, and assistance measures.
As the government has dealt with the pandemic for more than a year, it should already have enough data about the level of impact on businesses and the labour sector, said Mr Somchai.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are likely to be the most affected by the pandemic, he said.
"The state should categorise them according to the level of impact and help businesses with fair remedy measures, such as the co-payment scheme, which can help ease their expenditure burden during the lockdown," Mr Somchai said.
Some people have cheated to qualify for assistance schemes and the state must hand out severe punishment, he said.
"People do not see a clear record of how government loans have addressed problems. Many hospitals still lack a sufficient budget to deal with the pandemic," said Mr Somchai.
"Any assistance measures may have loopholes, but the government must have a clear action plan and execute it. It is vital to update and explain necessary information to the public when problems are found."
LOOSEN THE PURSE STRINGS
Sanan Angubolkul, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said now is a critical time for all business sectors.
'Permanently closed' signs are displayed on stalls at Bang Kapi fresh market after a Covid-19 outbreak. Varuth Hirunyatheb
The chamber estimates the economy has lost at least 800 billion baht in damage from the pandemic year-to-date and the total will exceed 1 trillion baht for 2021.
The chamber proposed the government consider expediting the use of approved loans and plan for additional loans to heal the economy.
"The Bank of Thailand proposal of emergency loans worth 1 trillion baht is consistent with previous chamber proposals to the government and is a reasonable response to current economic problems," he said.
"It is necessary to accelerate economic restoration and stimulus because if we do not take any action, there will be enormous damage. If both small and large businesses have to close down permanently, it will affect the labour sector as well as millions of people in the country.
"By that time, the cost to the country would be tremendous and no one wants that to happen. If additional borrowing is needed, the plan must be clear, direct, transparent and quickly executed to truly help restore the economy."
The chamber already proposed the government inject at least 500 billion baht into the economy in the fourth quarter this year to increase consumer purchasing power, especially for businesses unable to survive, said Mr Sanan.
He said the measures must be accessible, convenient and uncomplicated to quickly put the money in the hands of people.
"In the first half of 2022, the chamber proposed an additional 500-billion-baht injection to restore the economy," said Mr Sanan.
"By that time, we hope at least 70% of the Thai population has received the first dose of a Covid vaccine, which should speed up economic activities, leading to signs of an economic recovery. New lending is necessary to support the economy and make it more resilient to reach its full potential."
MORE IS BETTER
The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) welcomes the central bank's proposal of another 1 trillion baht in borrowing, and even views the amount as "insufficient" to restore the severely damaged economy, said FTI vice-chairman Kriengkrai Thiennukul.
The value should be increased to at least 1.5 trillion baht, he said, though the government must ensure wise spending of the loan by injecting money at the right time.
Thailand badly needs more fiscal injections after the three Covid-19 outbreaks caused the government to resort to lockdown measures to contain the spread, at a huge cost to the economy, said Mr Kriengkrai.
The FTI's demand for more loans is in line with the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking, which earlier suggested the government borrow 2 trillion baht.
He played down any concerns that more lending will exceed the public debt ceiling, currently fixed at 60% of GDP.
During this economic crisis, Thailand needs to borrow more money and the ceiling can be increased to 70%, said Mr Kriengkrai.
The government must also carefully plan its money distribution, he said. It is useless to inject money while drastic lockdown measures remain in place because it will not effectively stimulate economic activities, said Mr Kriengkrai.
The government should gradually inject the money and keep the spending in line with the number of vaccinated people, he said.
Authorities should spend a portion of the loan when 30% of the population is inoculated and make a full injection when the 70% mass vaccination target is achieved, said Mr Kriengkrai.
"The central bank must have seen the whole economic picture before it urged the government to borrow more and suggested ways to increase revenue," he said.
The central bank suggested the government increase the value-added tax by one percentage point, which is expected to increase state revenue by 60 billion baht a month.
The suggested tax should only be enforced after the Thai economy recovers, said Mr Kriengkrai.
FTI chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree thinks it will not be easy for additional government borrowing when past and current interest rates are taken into consideration.
"The timing of the loans is crucial. The interest rate has begun to increase. This will be a difficult decision for the government," he said.
A parking lot in Charan Sanitwong Soi 13 is packed with taxis owned by two cooperatives that claim about 2,000 cars have been returned by drivers who cannot afford the rental fees, despite recent reductions. Nutthawat Wicheanbut
GOOD PROTECTION
If the government decides to seek an additional 1-trillion-baht loan for economic rehabilitation, it must stockpile high-quality vaccines and antigen test kits to end the current outbreak, said Chamnan Srisawat, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand.
The dispute regarding test kit procurement needs to be rectified to ensure quality test kits are distributed to people to allow self-testing, and hopefully those who test positive will seek medical treatment before spreading the virus to others, he said.
The ability to control the virus will increase opportunities to reopen tourist destinations as well as restore the travel confidence of both international and domestic tourists, said Mr Chamnan.
"Vaccination is the sole solution for combatting the virus and allowing tourism to restart," he said.
"Instead of offering individual financial aid during lockdown, which cannot make up for financial losses, tourism operators would like to restart their businesses with a consistent flow of tourists once it is safe to travel."
A portion of the 1-trillion-baht budget should be allocated for financial support for tourism operators via the 10-billion-baht fund to restore operations after most businesses in the sector struggled to survive during the pandemic, said Mr Chamnan.
He said tourism has been the hardest-hit industry for almost two years, but there is no concrete or accessible financial measure for SMEs in this sector from the government.
SMEs entrepreneurs can only access the tourism fund under a cross-guarantee mechanism, meaning the companies act as loan guarantors for each other.
Moreover, budget gearing for effective and continuous domestic tourism stimulus projects is necessary to drive local sentiment, said Mr Chamnan. Such measures will support operators' long-term recovery while they await international travel to fully resume, he said.
Mr Chamnan said tourism operators should be consulted when creating any stimulus campaign to ensure the schemes are worth the budget and can successfully boost domestic trips.
SITUATION DEPENDENT
Nonarit Bisonyabut, research fellow at Thailand Development Research Institute, thinks additional government borrowing should depend on the scenario.
If the pandemic is controlled in Thailand by the end of this year and the country reaches herd immunity, the government is likely to need a budget to assist workers in the informal and formal sectors for around three months, paying them 5,000 baht per month, he said.
In this scenario, the government would need 300-400 billion baht and could use funds from the existing 500-billion-baht decree earlier this year, making additional borrowing unnecessary, said Mr Nonarit.
If the outbreak is not controlled until the first quarter of 2022, the government might need to pay workers in the informal and formal sectors 5,000 baht per month for six months. This scenario would necessitate a budget of 600-700 billion baht, requiring more government borrowing, he said.
Mr Nonarit suggested the central bank provide direct soft loans to businesses and take the risk on itself, instead of lending via banks as happens now. He said this is because commercial banks are providing loans to borrowers on a selective basis to avoid the risk of bad debt, even if they are instructed otherwise.
The Bank of Thailand could also use branches of state-run banks to allow businesses to apply for direct loan.
Mr Nonarit said while the central bank might be restricted by its rules from providing direct loans to borrowers, an emergency decree could enable direct loan provision.
The Thai public health department has announced an additional 19,014 infections for Sunday along with another 233 Covid-related deaths. 20,672 patients have been released from state care, again exceeding the number of new cases over the past 24 hours.
5,239 patients remain in a serious condition and another 1,117 are on artificial respiration.
The published numbers extend a general trend over the past week which suggest the number of new cases across Thailand may have peaked.
"There are encouraging indicators and the number of new infections is no longer on a steep upward curve. However, the public have to keep their guard up because fully vaccinated people can still be infected." – CCSA assistant spokeswoman Dr. Apisamai Srirangsan.
Number of people who received vaccines in the past day…
1st dose – 298,479
2nd dose – 97,206
3rd dose – 8,393
TOTAL number of doses – 26,832,179
Here are the provincial totals for the last 24 hours in Thailand, from the NBT…
• 24 people have been arrested in Koh Samui after police raided a party over violations of the emergency decree and current restrictions.
13 Thais and 11 foreigners were arrested during the raid on a luxury villa on the Gulf island.
The resort was on upscale Khao Plai Laem in front of the Samui airport in Bophut on Friday evening.
Police found people, mostly men, drinking beer, whiskey and wine. All were detained on charges of violating the executive decree and the Communicable Disease Control Act, according to the Bangkok Post.
They also seized a small amount of cocaine from 2 of the foreign guests. Some of the people arrested already had a criminal history. Everyone was taken to the Bophut police station for formal charging.
• Thailand's Public Health Ministry has signed a contract to purchase another 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccines, raising the total to 30 million doses for delivery by the end of this year, according to the NBT.
Disease Control Department Director-General Dr. Opas signed a supply agreement for 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccines on July 20 and the Cabinet approved 9.3 billion baht for the contract to procure the new batch last Tuesday.
Thailand's 2022 budget passed by House, debate in Senate on August 30th
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The Thai government's 3.1 trillion baht spending budget for the 2022 fiscal year passed its second and third readings in the House of Representatives late Saturday night, with 257 in favour and 180 against, following five days of debate. Four MPs voted to abstain and one did not cast a vote.
The bill will now move to the Senate, which is scheduled to debate it on August 30th.
During the debate last night, Move Forward party's MP Natthapong Ruangpanyavuth said he disagrees with the decision, by the majority of the House budget scrutiny committees, to slash the budget allocated to local administration organizations and to put them under the Central Fund, adding that he does not trust Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is authorized to disburse money from the fund.
Defending the cuts, Palang Pracharat MP Wichien Chavalit, representing the majority of the House panel, said the 16.3 billion baht in cuts are residual budgets which are not expected to be spent during the current fiscal year.
Speaking on behalf of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, at the end of the vote, Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow thanked all MPs for endorsing the budget bill, as he pledged that the government will take their observations, made during the debate, into consideration and will utilise the budget with utmost efficiency and in the public interest.
House Speaker Chuan Leekpai also thanked the MPs and adjourned the House session at about 1.20am.
• 24 people have been arrested in Koh Samui after police raided a party over violations of the emergency decree and current restrictions.
