Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health confirmed 143 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday; with one additional fatality; bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,388.
The new fatality was a 68-year-old man who had gone to a boxing stadium; the site of Thailand’s largest outbreak. There are now 7 deaths related to the coronavirus outbreak.
The area of the largest outbreak continues to be Bangkok with 641 confirmed cases while the number of cases in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces rose to 82. Those cases are tied to a pilgrimage to a Malaysian mosque.
“Around 81.4 per cent of people who have the disease are asymptomatic, meaning that they could be home or walking around spreading the disease,” said ministry spokesman Dr Taweesin Visanayothin. “We are trying to identify these individuals.”
Phuket curfew
The governor of Phuket announced a curfew from 8 pm to 3 am every day after more cases were found on the resort island. Local media also revealed that people had not taken self-isolating orders seriously and were still getting together for events.
Police arrested four Chinese tourists on the island on Saturday for breaking curfew and visiting with other tourists and local establishments.
Government handouts
Nearly twelve million people registered for the government’s subsidy program on Saturday after the subsidy website was open. The number of Thais attempting to register for unemployment benefits forced the website to crash several times.
As part of the government’s second relief package worth 117 billion that was approved by the cabinet on Tuesday, a handout of 5,000 baht per month for a period of three months will be given to workers who are not registered with the social security system.