Thai Prime Minister gives full authority to provincial governors for curfews, tougher restrictions to control Covid-19

Thailand-

On a social media post on his official Facebook account late this afternoon, April 24th, 2021, the Thai Prime Minister, Prayut Chan O’Cha, released a statement that, among other things, stated he gave full approval to provincial governors to institute curfews and other “harsh medicine” measures to control the current Covid-19 breakout in the country.

First, here is a recap of the current situation with Covid-19 in the Kingdom of Thailand.

The Prime Minister discussed several items on his Facebook post, we will list the important ones below, we have bolded the most important ones:

-The Ministry of Public Health has been ordered to secure additional hospital beds in Bangkok as quickly as possible and ensure they provide proper care and comfort.

-1,423 people currently self-isolating and waiting for hospital beds will be found a bed as quickly as possible based on the urgency of their symptoms.

-The government will solve communication issues leading to phone calls to Covid-19 hotlines not being answered.

-The government will expand places to conduct Covid-19 screenings, including at field hospitals, to lessen congestion at major hospitals.

-The government is considering reducing the quarantine time for asymptomatic patients from fourteen days to ten days in a hospital, but the patient must strictly self-isolate for the final four days under a monitoring system. This will help free up space.

-More volunteers will be called up from around the country to assist at hospitals and field hospitals.

-Provincial Governors will be given full power to institute harsher and tougher measures to control the Covid-19 situation, including curfews, travel restrictions, closure of businesses, and similar steps. (TPN Media notes the Nonthaburi governor issued a “request” today for people to stay home overnight between 9:00 P.M. and 4:00 A.M. Also, some provinces like Sa Kaeo has ordered the “lockdown” of individual remote villages with Covid-19 breakouts)

The Prime Minister encouraged everyone to work together to resolve this crisis overall.