Thailand News Today | Ministry of Health to declare covid endemic by July 1 (Thai style rules)
Tourism officials ignored a US CDC advisory that advised citizens to avoid traveling to Thailand.
Earlier this week, the US CDC added Thailand to its list of Tier 4 countries, due to the current Covid situation in the kingdom. However, Yuthasak Supasorn of the Tourism Authority of Thailand says it won’t make much difference in an already weakened sector.
According to a report, Yuthasak says the advisory is the same as that issued last year when infections in Thailand peaked at more than 20,000 cases a day. He doesn’t think the move will have a significant impact on people’s decision to travel, adding that rising inflation and rising travel costs due to soaring oil prices are more likely to affect international tourism. He admits the figures could be 30% lower than the TAT’s target of 330,000 foreign tourists expected in the first quarter of the year.
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The Thai government has approved the relaxation of tax rules for digital assets to promote and grow the industry. The move comes amid an increase in cryptocurrency trading in the kingdom, according to a Reuters report.
Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said the relaxed rules mean cryptocurrency traders can offset annual losses against gains in the case of taxes due on crypto investments, as well as VAT exemption 7% for cryptocurrency trading on authorized exchanges. The exemption is in effect from April 2022 to December 2023 and also includes trading in central bank retail digital currency to be issued by the central bank.
Reuters reports that there has been significant growth in cryptocurrency trading in Thailand over the past year. According to the Ministry of Finance, by the end of 2021, trading accounts had grown to around 2 million, from just 170,000 earlier in the year. The most popular cryptocurrency in Thailand is Bitcoin.
In the same vein, Arkhom has confirmed tax breaks for direct and indirect investments in start-ups in Thailand. Those who invest in start-ups for at least 2 years can benefit from a 10-year tax relief until June 2032.
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The Public Health Ministry’s plan to make Covid endemic in Thailand by July 1 has been given the green light.
The plan was approved by the National Communicable Diseases Committee yesterday, giving Thailand less than 4 months to downgrade the virus from pandemic status.
According to Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, Thailand is adopting a policy of simultaneously protecting the health of citizens and the economy, similar to what is done in several other countries. He says that for the virus to be classified as endemic, a number of measures must be implemented in the coming months.
Thai PBS World reports that Anutin says life should continue as normal despite the existence of such measures. The Minister of Health also said that even if the virus is given endemic status, the wearing of face masks may still be required, while avoiding mass gatherings, hand washing, antigen testing and vaccination. I can now feel the comments section screaming what’s the point then?
Dr Kiattibhoom Vongrachit from the Ministry of Health said that the journey to endemic status will take place in 4 stages. The first is by April and is to suppress the virus to reduce the risk of severe cases. The second stage will take place in April and May, when infections are expected to peak and then decline. In stage 3, in May and June, new daily infections are expected to drop to between 1,000 and 2,000. Finally, from July 1, or stage 4, Thailand will enter the post-pandemic phase, with Covid classified as endemic . The Ministry of Health says the virus will be considered endemic once the death rate drops below 1 in 1,000 patients, or 0.1%. The current death rate in Thailand is around 0.2%.
Meanwhile, Anutin says there are still around 2 million older people who haven’t even received the first dose of a Covid vaccine. This population will be particularly vulnerable if visited by young parents during Songkran holidays. To solve the problem, public health volunteers are sent to visit the elderly in rural areas to persuade them to get vaccinated.
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Bangkok residents lined up to sell their gold for cash yesterday as the ongoing war in Ukraine saw the price of gold hit a new high.
According to a Thai report by PBS World, Thais lined up outside gold shops along Bangkok’s Yaowarat Road to sell their gold items for cash. The report says that as of 12:56 p.m. yesterday, the buy price for gold bars had risen to 31,850 baht, with the sell price at 31,950 baht.
According to the Gold Traders Association, the purchase price of the gold set rose to 31,275.08 baht and the sale price to 32,450 baht.
The association predicts that the price of gold will reach between 32,000 and 33,000 baht if the Russian war in Ukraine continues. Prices are expected to remain volatile, with many gold market experts saying they could fall again when the war ends.
Between February 28 and March 5, the average price of gold bullion was between 29,350 and 30,250 baht. The price of gold was slightly lower the previous week.
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UNICEF, the Ministry of Public Health and other health officials today launched a case management platform at a hospital in Udon Thani. The platform, Primero, will help social workers work with children vulnerable to violent abuse.
It will move documentation cases online, linking them to the hospital’s information system. Primero will help children and families find resources inside and outside the hospital. These resources are often complicated to access and disorganized.
Primero will provide social workers with up-to-date information on patterns of violence and risk factors, so they can identify warning signs of violence at an early stage and prevent serious cases.
Children identified as at risk on another of the Thai systems will be transferred to Primero. Primero will then recommend what action to take and work with one-stop crisis centers in hospitals to monitor the situation.
Primero is already used in more than 40 countries and territories. It’s user-friendly and has clear workflows to help caseworkers document and manage cases. It helps with things like identification and registration, case planning, referrals and transfers, and case closures.
There are many cases of domestic violence in Thailand. In November last year, a 50-year-old man allegedly sexually abused his step-niece.
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A woman went to visit her father in a hospital, but when she passed she discovered that the patient the hospital had identified as her father was not him. She later discovered that the hospital had accidentally changed the IDs of two Covid-19 patients and that her father had died in January and his body may have been sent to another family for funerals. and a cremation.
The woman, identified in Thai media as “Thusupa”, says her 66-year-old father had symptoms of Alzheimer’s and stayed in a nursing home. Her father and others from the nursing home were sent to Pathum Thani Hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 in January. The hospital updated each patient’s symptoms to relatives day by day.
On Monday, Thusupa says the hospital contacted her to visit the hospital and spend the last moment with her father as he was in serious condition. She went to see him but said the patient on the bed was not her father.
Thusupa took a picture of the patient and sent it to staff at the nursing home, who had cared for her father for more than seven years. Staff confirmed the person was another man, named Boonna, who had lived at the nursing home. Thusupa contacted the man’s family and his daughter said her father died in January and had already arranged a cremation ceremony for him.
Boonna’s daughter went to the hospital and was shocked because the patient on the bed was her father. The hospital has yet to confirm which body has been sent to the family for cremation. Pathum Thani Hospital admitted the mistake and said it was sorry about what happened.
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