More than 360,000 tourists visited Phuket, a significant increase since the government eased Covid-19 restrictions.
The number of visitors in Phuket from May 1 to August 12 was 367,881, both locals and foreigners, officials said. The top five foreign visitors came from India, Australia, Singapore, Britain and Malaysia.
Apart from food and beverages, visitors at Lard Yai or The Old Phuket Town Walking Street were interested in handicrafts, such as batik painting and gel candle making.
Visitors also showed interest in street performances by local youths, covering both individuals and groups.
A local entrepreneur in Lard Yai said that trade on the walking street was bustling, similar to pre-Covid-19 levels, thanks to foreign visitors’ high purchasing power.
The entrepreneur added that the number of visitors had increased significantly over the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, the walking street owner said more than 20,000 visitors came to the street on Sunday compared to between 1,000 and 10,000 soon after the reopening.
Five manufacturers of instant noodles are pleading with the government to let them hike the price to 8 baht per packet as they have been shouldering increasing costs.
The executives of five companies — Thai Preserved Food, Nissin Foods, Thai President Foods, Wan Thai Foods Industry, and Chokchaipibul Co Ltd — on Monday together asked the government to consider allowing price adjustment for instant noodles, a popular food among low-income people.
Weera Naphaphreugchart, deputy managing director of Thai Preserved Food, manufacturer of “Wai Wai” noodles, said the company has faced inflation and rising transport cost in the past year, causing some of its products to run losses. “Also, we have not adjusted the price of our noodles for 14 years due to the price-fixing policy imposed by the Department of Internal Trade. It is therefore the time to revise the price to reflect the actual cost,” he said.
Kittiphos Charnphaworakit, deputy vice president of Wan Thai Foods, manufacturer of “Yum Yum” noodles, said the cost of key raw materials, such as wheat flour and palm oil, have been rising since the Covid-19 outbreak and is currently 40 per cent higher than the cost in 2019. He added that the company had already adjusted the prices of Yum Yum noodles in overseas markets, which are now sold at almost twice the price of Yum Yum in Thailand.
“Nissin” noodles manufacturer Nissin Foods (Thailand) has also adopted the strategy of hiking prices of its exports to stay afloat amid the rising cost crisis. The company has raised prices in overseas markets by 5-12 per cent since June, according to managing director Hijiri Fukuoka.
Phan Paniangwet, administration manager of “Mama” noodles manufacturer Thai President Foods, added that this is the first time that the five manufacturers are on board with the common plea to adjust the price, because everyone is already at their limit with shouldering the increasing cost.
“We urge the Department of Internal Trade to consider allowing the price adjustment so that our business can continue, as we are now suffering beyond just the loss in profit,” added Parinya Sitthidamrong, director of Chokchaipibul Co Ltd, manufacturer of “Seusat” noodles.
Instant noodles are among 18 consumer products and services that cannot raise their prices without approval from the Commerce Ministry’s Department of Internal Trade. The other 17 are: eggs and meat, canned foods, bagged rice, seasoning sauces, vegetable oils, carbonated drinks, milk and dairy products, electrical appliances, cleaning products (including detergents), fertilisers, insecticides, animal feed, iron, cement, paper, drugs and medical equipment, and services of wholesale and retail shops.
Malaysia is considering legalising cannabis and kratom for medical use, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Monday.
He made the remark after a discussion with Malaysia’s ambassador to Thailand, Jojie Samuel, on the issue at the Public Health Ministry in Nonthaburi province.
The discussion is considered a preparation to welcome Malaysia’s health minister who will participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Thailand of ministers responsible for health.
Anutin said Thailand and Malaysia have studied and exchanged knowledge about the two herbs so far. He added that Malaysia is studying its laws to legalise cannabis.
“If Malaysia announces cannabis legalisation for medical use, it will be the second Asian country to remove cannabis from the narcotics list,” he said.
He reiterated that Thailand’s cannabis legalisation had not been a burden on anyone, arguing that the ministry has laws related to cannabis use in public areas.
He added that a parliamentary commission would finish consideration of the cannabis usage draft act this week.
He also thanked Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt for informing them about the problem of cannabis smoke in public areas.
“We have worked with related government agencies to investigate the issue,” he added.
The former superintendent of Kaeng Krachan National Park Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn and three alleged accomplices have been charged with intentionally killing Karen activist Porlajee “Billy” Rakchongcharoen.
The official filing of the charge against Chaiwat and his alleged accomplices by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) changes the status of the case from missing to murder.
A letter from the OAG to the Department of Special Investigation on August 10 says Chaiwat and his accomplices have been charged with intentionally killing for personal interest or concealing wrongdoing, using a weapon to threaten another, detaining another person to cause death, and concealing the victim’s body to influence the autopsy or case outcome.
The OAG revoked the previous charge of misbehaviour against Chaiwut and his accomplices, as they had acted on their own.
The office also revoked charges on a private person for supporting the four suspects.
Billy was last seen at Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi province on April 17, 2014, when he was apprehended by Chaiwat and three of his men for allegedly collecting wild-bee honey illegally.
A piece of skull proved to Billy’s was found in a submerged oil drum near a bridge leading to Kaeng Krachan Dam in April 2019, leading to the issuance of arrest warrants against the four.
The three alleged accomplices are: Boonthaen Bussarakham, Thanaseth, or Phaitoon Jaemthes, and Krisanaphong Jitthes.
The cost of household electricity will rise to 4.72 baht per unit from September when the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) will raise the fuel tariff (Ft) used to calculate bills.
On Monday, the ERC said it would hike the fuel tariff by 0.6866 baht to 0.9343 baht per unit for the September-December period.
The ERC reviews the Ft every four months – in January, May and September.
It said the main reason for the hike was the rise in imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from spot markets to compensate for a drop in production from the Gulf of Thailand.
The ERC said Thailand’s domestic LNG production has dropped from 3.1 to 2.5 million cubic feet per day, forcing the country to import additional LNG to feed its power plants. Meanwhile, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has driven up the price of LNG in the global market, increasing Thailand’s electricity generating costs.
The ERC predicts LNG shortages will linger through 2023 as supplies in Thailand and Myanmar remain uncertain and the economic climate deters investment in new LNG exploration projects.
It is studying the possibility of using other fuels to feed Thai power plants, including fuel oil, diesel, coal, hydropower and renewable energy. It also urged households and businesses to save electricity to reduce the country’s reliance on imported LNG.
Delivery of gas to Thailand from Myanmar’s Zawtika area has resumed following repairs to the pipeline operated by PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), the Thai national oil and gas conglomerate announced on Monday.
Gas pressure had dropped in the onshore pipeline on August 1, forcing PTTEP to suspend deliveries and order two weeks of repairs.
PTTEP said it found no evidence of damage to the pipeline from fire or explosions, countering initial reports that the leak was caused by an attack by anti-regime resistance groups.
On Monday, the company said it had resumed normal gas deliveries to Thailand on Sunday (August 14) after completing repairs on the onshore pipeline from the Zawtika project.
The Zawtika project produces up to 300 million cubic feet of gas daily, 80 per cent of which is transported to Thailand and the remainder to Myanmar.
PTTEP is one of only two major international oil and gas companies still operating in Myanmar after the pullout of major players including Chevron and TotalEnergies following the 2021 coup and resulting uprising. PTTEP has an 80 per cent stake in the Zawtika project, the other 20 per cent of which is owned by Myanmar’s state-owned MOGE, which has been sanctioned by the EU for its close ties to the military regime.
A Thai woman returning from Dubai on Sunday became the fifth confirmed monkeypox patient in Thailand, the Disease Control Department (DCD) chief said on Monday.
Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the DCD, said the 25-year-old woman was infected in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and she had symptoms before she took a flight back to Thailand so it was easy to detect her condition.
Opas said disease-monitoring officials at Suvarnabhumi Airport spotted the woman with apparent illness and they questioned her and noticed her blisters so they checked her background.
Opas said the woman provided full cooperation to the authorities and she was taken to a hospital before a subsequent lab test confirmed she was infected with monkeypox.
“The patient in this case was infected from abroad because she had symptoms before returning to Thailand,” Opas said.
He said since the woman had likely developed the symptoms abroad, there was no risk of local persons having been in close contact with her, except two foreigners who sat next to her on the flight.
Opas added that statistics from other countries showed that passengers sitting next to the infected passengers did not get the disease because monkeypox did not spread easily.
The Public Health Ministry would try to locate the two foreign passengers for checking as part of comprehensive preventive measures, Opas added.
Opas said the monkeypox virus was not airborne and the virus would spread only by physical or sexual contact and so far, none of the people in close contact with the four previous patients were found to have been infected.
Opas said that the Public Health Ministry had informed Dubai of the case as required by the guidelines of the World Health Organisation.
The girlfriend of a performer at the Mountain B pub in Chonburi’s Sattahip district succumbed to third-degree burns on Monday, becoming the 19th victim to die from the blaze.
The nightclub caught fire at about 1am on August 5, killing 13 people on the spot and injuring scores of others. The singer Chatchai Chuenkha, 30, was among the 13 who died at the site.
The victim’s mother Weena Insiri, 54, said on Facebook that her 23-year-old daughter Atitaya Insiri had passed away at 2.50am on Monday.
Atitaya was being treated at Chonburi Hospital for third-degree burns all over her body. She said her daughter’s body had been wrapped up with gauze and was put on a respirator.
“Atitaya died from septic shock after her blood was infected,” she said, adding that she believes her daughter tried her best to pull through.
Funeral rituals for Atitaya will be held at Wat Na Ta Khwan in Rayong.
Weena said the pub owner had provided the family with a total compensation of 20,000 baht but vowed to fight for more now that she has lost her daughter.
Residents in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai spent hours cleaning their homes and shops after floods began receding on Sunday.
Boontham Lertsukekasem, director-general of the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department, said flooding has damaged many shops and homes in the Sailomjoy market area. The roads are also covered in mud, he said.
“All district and municipality offices along with related agencies in the area are planning to deploy officials and equipment to conduct cleaning operations,” he added.
Boontham explained that road graders will first scoop up the mud before the streets are cleaned.
Those suffering from Long Covid will get better in time and people should not panic over news that the number of Long Covid patients is on the rise, a top virologist said.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Dr Yong Poovorawan said symptoms of Long Covid “may include fatigue, shortness of breath, headache, brain fog, muscle or joint ache, chest pain, coughing, diarrhoea, loss of the sense of smell and taste, depression and insomnia.
“This is not an uncommon phenomenon as patients of many other diseases also suffer from these lingering symptoms after recovery,” he said.
Yong added that Long Covid symptoms manifest more mentally than physically and are found more often in those who have recovered from severe Covid-19 symptoms. Older and unvaccinated persons are also more susceptible to Long Covid than younger vaccinated people.
“A recent study published in Lancet showed that significantly few Long Covid symptoms are found in patients who had contracted the Omicron variant of Covid-19 compared to the Delta variant,” he said. “It also revealed that patients of Long Covid will gradually get better over time.”
Yong added that people should not panic over the rising number of Long Covid patients. “The Covid-19 virus has infected several million people across the world and it is only natural to see many of those who have recovered having these lingering symptoms,” he said. “Also, you can minimise the occurrence of Long Covid by getting vaccinated and getting treatment early after testing positive to prevent symptoms from worsening.”
