Bangkok authorities cancel its official New Year’s Eve activities due to Omicron concerns

Bangkok –

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) today, December 23rd, announced its cancellation of New Year’s Eve events hosted by the BMA officials to prevent the possible rapid spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant.

This means the New Year’s Eve traditional activities and the New Year’s Eve prayer between December 31st, 2021 and January 1st, 2022 at the Bangkok City Hall will be officially canceled, as well as other gatherings for New Year’s celebration organized by all district departments in the capital.

However, the private sectors, including major department stores, can continue organizing the New Year’s events but under strict preventive protocols, according to Bangkok Deputy Governor Kriangyos Sudlabha.

PHOTO: Matichon

He stated: “The private sector who already planned to organize a New Year’s event must abide by the Covid Free Setting measures set by the government, including health screening, providing alcohol gel, and keeping the place hygienic.”

“The social distance between the attendees must be strict, making sure that they all wear facial masks throughout the event. There must be an area for quarantine if any participants were found infected. All of the participants must be proved to be fully vaccinated. If not, the organizer must prepare an ATK (Antigen rapid kit) test for not-fully vaccinated people in order to confirm that they are not infected before entering the event.”

“The Authorities understand that the New Year is a festival of celebration but activities that involve a large number of people ask must need mutual cooperation. You will not be forbidden to celebrate among your family. But if once it is a large gathering of many people, we’d like to ask for your cooperation. For, BMA events, it will be regretfully another year that we have to cancel the events due to concern.”

For Bangkok, the countdown festivals and New Year’s celebrations will mainly be at major department stores, namely Icon Siam and Central World, which have already been approved by the BMA authorities.

Meanwhile, Pattaya authorities today stated that the official events locally will continue as officials say they feel confident in disease control measures.

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Nop Meechukhun
National News Writer at The Pattaya News from September 2020 to October 2022. Born and raised in Bangkok, Nop enjoys telling stories of her hometown through her words and pictures. Her educational experience in the United States and her passion for journalism have shaped her genuine interests in society, politics, education, culture, and art.