Thailand: Chiang Mai greenlights reopening of nightlife as govt confirms 836 new Covid-19 cases, mostly via active testing

Images courtesy of The Nation Thailand/ANN

BANGKOK, Feb 1 (The Nation/ANN): The Chiang Mai public health office has posted on its Facebook page that the provincial communicable disease committee had approved the reopening of entertainment venues from Monday.

All the venues must strictly follow Covid-19 preventive measures, which are:

1. Proper ventilation system with the capacity of at least 10ACH (air change per hour) must be installed and turned on during opening hours.

2. Customers must check-in and check-out via the Thai Chana platform.

3. Business owners must put up a notification of the maximum number of customers it can accommodate based on their service area (1 customer per 4 square metres)

4. Thermal scanning must be provided at all entrances based on CCSA regulations.

Chiang Mai’s entertainment venues including pubs, bars, karaoke booths and similar businesses had been ordered shut by the committee from Jan 6 in a bid to curb the spread of the virus after a new wave was reported in Thailand in December.

The public health office added that as of Sunday the province had not found new cases for 19 consecutive days.

All the 23 patients who were infected in the second wave had been treated and discharged.

Thailand on Monday reported 836 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, mostly detected via active testing in Samut Sakhon province, according to the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

Of Monday's newly reported cases, 832 were domestic infections and four others were imported cases, CCSA spokeswoman Apisamai Srirangsan told a press conference.

Of the domestic infections 793 were detected via active testing among migrants and Thai nationals in factories and communities in Samut Sakhon and southwestern suburbs of the national capital Bangkok, according to Apisamai.

Thailand has so far reported 19,618 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, 17,155 of which were domestic cases and 2,463 others were imported cases, she said.

Of the total, 12,514 patients have fully recovered and been released from hospitals while 7,027 patients are currently being treated in hospitals, and 77 fatalities from COVID-19 have been reported so far, she said. - The Nation Thailand/ANN