The price of gold was unchanged in morning trade on Monday after rising by Bt50 per baht weight last week, the Gold Traders Association reported.
As of 9.23am, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt25,750 per baht weight and selling price Bt25,850, while gold ornaments were priced at Bt25,286.88 and Bt26,350, respectively.
Spot gold price rose to US$1,826 (Bt54,523) per ounce in the morning after falling by $3.6 to $1,823.2 per ounce on Friday due to the rise in US treasury yield and the strengthening dollar.
Also, gold was pressured by mass sell-offs of the precious metal to cope with risks during President’s Day.
Hong Kong gold price rose by HK$40 to $17,050 (Bt65,666) per tael, the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society reported.
A total of 654,864 foreign workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have registered since January 15 to screen for Covid-19 after the online registration system closed at midnight on February 13. Personal identities will be completely recorded within April 16, Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin said.
The registration process follows a Cabinet resolution on December 29, 2020.
The first group of aliens whose employers have submitted the list has 596,502 foreigners — 180,476 Cambodian, 63,482 Lao and 352,544 Myanmar.
Two groups of 58,362 non-employers comprise 23,203 Cambodians, 3,626 Laos and 31,533 Myanmar.
The two groups totalled 654,864 people — Cambodian 203,679, Lao 67,108 and Myanmar 384,077.
The top 5 provinces that approved the list of aliens are Bangkok 120,163, Chonburi 47,326, Pathum Thani 38,994, Samut Prakarn 37,621 and Samut Sakhon 28,953.
The top five types of businesses approved on the list of foreigners are construction 148,332 people, agriculture and livestock 117,430, selling food and beverages 49,702, services 45,118, and agricultural-related 39,025.
The Department of Disease Control (DDC) has found one patient infected with the South Africa Covid-19 strain in state quarantine facility.
The Thai male had travelled to Tanzania and Ethiopia before returning to Thailand.
Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of DDC, said on Sunday this was the first case found in Thailand. The 41-year-old Thai patient has an asthmatic congenital disease, high blood pressure, and is overweight, he said.
According to his travel history, he had spent two months working in Tanzania to buy gemstones and said that people in that area rarely wore face masks.
On January 29, the patient arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport after visiting Ethiopia and was quarantined in a state facility. On February 3, a positive Covid-19 test result was found and delivered a genetic transcription test sample since he was travelling from Africa. On February 12, the results were found to be a South African species.
“I assure that the South African species, found in state quarantine, hasn’t spread to any community.” Dr Opas said.
Guidelines for screening people coming from countries with South African mutated virus have been adjusted to be more sensitive, such as collecting samples immediately upon arrival in Thailand, screening and sending people with symptoms and history of risk to the hospital. There is also a system to monitor new species before travellers leave the hospital. The strict screening will help prevent this species from spreading to the community.
Dr Opas said that the world now had an eye on the South African strain of Covid-19. However, there were no other strains found to make the symptoms more severe. In Thailand, it was found that the strains that spread in the country were a G species which does not have more severe symptoms, but it spreads more easily compared to other species.
The increase in the lunch budget for students by 5 per cent, or from Bt20 to Bt21 per person per day, is not a “marginal increase” as widely criticised by the public, Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan said on Sunday.
The ministry announced the new budget last week to cover students from Anuban 1 [kindergarten] to Prathom 6 [Grade 6] levels in 49,861 schools nationwide, totalling 5,894,420 students.
“If you look at the meal budget alone, a Bt1 increase will seem insignificant,” he said. “However, we have discussed with the Budget Bureau to restructure the management cost of lunch budget, effectively reducing it from Bt4 to Bt2 per person per day. Adding this saved cost to the increased meal budget, each student will be allotted Bt3 more per day, or equal to a 20 per cent increase.”
Nataphol added that more adjustments to the lunch budget will follow in the future to suit the changing economy and the size of the schools.
“Small schools will need a lunch budget of around Bt30 per person per day, while large schools with more than 300 students can be easily managed with less than Bt20 lunch budget per person per day,” he added.
“With efficient management we can balance this out and make sure that the budget is adequate to provide nutritious meals to all students.”
The minister added that in the past year there had been significantly lower cases of lunch budget corruption, thanks to the ministry’s strict cost management system.
The Thailand Meteorological Department said on Monday that the weak high-pressure covers upper Thailand and the South China Sea, leading to an increase in temperature by 1-3°C with morning fog in the areas.
All vehicles should move with caution due to poor visibility, the department said.
Meanwhile, the weak northeast monsoon prevails over the Gulf and the South, resulting in less rain in the South.
The weather forecast for the next 24 hours:
North: Cool weather with fog in the morning; temperature lows of 16-20 degrees Celsius and highs of 32-36°C; temperature on hilltops is likely to drop to 4-12°C.
Northeast: Cool weather with fog in the morning; temperature lows of 16-20°C, highs of 32-34°C; temperature on hilltops is likely to drop to 9-14°C.
Central: Cool weather with fog in the morning; temperature lows of 22-24°C, highs of 34-36°C.
East: Cool weather with fog in the morning; temperature lows of 21-25°C, highs of 32-36°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres offshore.
South (east coast): Partly cloudy with thundershowers in 10 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 23-24°C, highs of 32-34°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres during thundershowers.
South (west coast): Partly cloudy with thundershowers in 10 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 22-26°C, highs of 34-36°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres offshore.
Bangkok and surrounding areas: Fog in the morning and isolated light rain; temperature lows of 23-25°C, highs of 33-36°C.
Health officials have accelerated proactive testing of merchants in Pornpat Market and Suchart Market, in the Thanyaburi district of Pathum Thani province after cases of Covid-19 infection were found.
Cumulative Covid-19 cases in the province after the latest outbreak have risen to 173.
Officers continue to screen merchants operating in the Pornpat and Suchart markets after the governor of Pathum Thani ordered the closure of both markets. Proactive testing found cases of Covid-19 infection on February 10-11. The markets will remain closed until February 16.
Proactive testing of 520 people on Saturday found 50 cases — 37 Thais, eight Myanmar workers and five Lao workers. Three results are awaited.
Thai-Myanmar border trade through Ranong province in January 2021 grew by 3.94 per cent in value compared to the previous month, with Thai exports increasing by 6.12 per cent, Wanida Arunothai, chief of Ranong Provincial Commercial Office under the Ministry of Commerce, revealed.
The main exports were fuel, lubricants, cement and components used for machinery among others, while imports increased by 0.33 per cent.
Teerapol Chalisaraphong, chairman of the Ranong Province Chamber of Commerce, said that Thai-Myanmar border trade in Ranong was robust despite a new wave of Covid-19 and Myanmar’s internal political problems.
In the beginning, many were concerned that it would affect the economy and border trade, but the situation is still normal without any change, he said.
Myanmar orders for cement and fuel products were more than usual due to the dry season, when transportation is not affected by rain. Increase in orders was likely to stock up well before the rainy season and infrastructure development in Myanmar, he said, adding, orders for essential consumer products had also gone up. This may be due to the fear of Covid-19 spreading.
However, regulatory restrictions on border trade due to Covid-19 have contributed to an overall decline in border trade. The problem at this time is transportation and export process from the coast of Ranong that involves more regulations, resulting in a delays in approval to access the port.
More than 10 victims have filed complaints at the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district on Sunday after being deceived by criminals to invest via smartphone applications, such as LEGO and Yao Thai.
One of the victims said the criminals claimed to be agents of an online shopping platform which has operated since 2013. The victim added that the criminals lured them to invest between Bt500 and Bt600,000 for dividends of between Bt10 and Bt80,000 daily.
“We have received dividends only once. After that, we no longer make transactions via LEGO and Yao Thai applications,” the victim said, adding that they had lost contact with the administrator since February 10.
The victim added that these criminals had caused over Bt100 million in damages to over 500 victims nationwide.
“We would like to warn other people to check the source before investing because they could suffer losses,” the victim warned.
Initially, the CSD investigation officers interrogated one of the victims and advised them to file complaints at the Economic Crime Suppression Division in Bang Rak district.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on Sunday reported 166 new cases, of whom 28 were overseas travellers in quarantine facilities.
Of the 49 people exposed to the disease while visiting high-risk areas, Samut Sakhon leads the list with 33 cases, followed by 11 cases in Bangkok (one of them considered a re-active case), two in Saraburi, and one each in Nakhon Pathom, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Samut Prakarn.
Meanwhile, proactive testing led to the discovery of 89 cases, 67 in Pathum Thani, 11 in Samut Sakhon, 7 in Tak, 3 in Rayong, and one in Nonthaburi.
Of the overseas travellers found infected in quarantine facilities, 23 Thais had returned from Germany, Maldives, United Arab Emirates, India, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Mozambique, United Kingdom and Russia, a Lithuanian had travelled from Russia, a Canadian from Kazakhstan, an Italian, a Pakistani, and a Spanish from their respective countries.
Meanwhile, 931 patients have recovered and been discharged.
As of Sunday, the number of confirmed cases in Thailand had risen to 24,571. Of these, 21,935 had been contracted locally, including 13,922 who were found via proactive testing, while 2,636 were returnees. So far, 22,111 have recovered and been discharged, 2,380 patients are still in hospitals, and 80 people have died.
According to Worldometer, as of 10am on Sunday, the number of confirmed cases globally since the outbreak had risen to 109.1 million (up by 372,367), 81.12 million have recovered, 25.42 million are active cases (98,686 in severe condition) and 2.4 million have died (up by 10,146).
Thailand ranks 114th on the global list of most cases, which is topped by the US with 28.19 million, followed by India 10.9 million, Brazil 9.81 million, Russia 4.05 million and the United Kingdom 4.02 million.
Dr Opas Karnkawinpong
