Situation updates by the Thai Prime Minister

Friday, 10 April 2020

Dear Thai people,​

As Prime Minister and Director of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), I wish to inform you of the following developments.

Medical and Public Health Issues

Our measures to control the spread of Covid-19 have included social distancing, encouraging work from home, and the vigorous efforts by over 1 million village-level public health volunteers throughout the country who have provided medical assistance directly to many households and also monitored quarantined persons, including those under observation thatare scattered in many parts of the country. They represent a solid foundation and a strong point of Thailand’s public health system, and I would like to convey my appreciation for their committed efforts.

To enhance our efforts to care for infected patients, the government has acquired an additional 200 thousand N95 masks for our medical personnel. These masks are also reusable for up to 4 times following UV-C treatment. We have now a quota of 1.5 million masks per day for doctors and nurses. Cloth masks for the general public, or those who are not ill, have been produced by each community for distribution, and total over 50 million so far, which is an adequate amount.  The CCSA has also been collecting information and monitoring the details concerning the production and distribution (by Thailand Post) of the types of masks mentioned above and other medical supplies through the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Interior, which are available to the public for transparency.

We have already received 5 shipments of the Favipiravir drug from the People’s Republic of China and Japan, totaling 187 thousand pills, with an additional 200,000 in the process of being further acquired. We have also prepared additional hospital beds and the necessary facilities to be able to receive patients in 98 locations in and around Bangkok and its surrounding locations. We have also prepared 80 more ICU beds and more state quarantine facilities in Bangkok and in other regions to be able to handle approximately 20 thousand people. Importantly, the protection of our medical personnel from being infected is a top priority for me.

​Protecting and assisting the public, including national security issues

The restrictions on cross-province travel and the current nation-wide curfew have been enforced by 20 thousand officials with over 1000 check points. So far we have received bettercooperation from the public, though there have been over 6.5 thousand arrests of those who have broken curfew from April 3-10. This is still not good enough as it is too high a number for effective curtailing of the spread of the virus. As a result, the majority of the people have called for stronger measures and laws, or increased curfew hours. For those without a social conscience and are behaving irresponsibly – you are harming your families and the Thai people by doing this, especially those who are already struggling to make ends meet. I caution you to stop this behavior and change your ways. For the moment, however, the CCSA will not increase the national curfew time.

Control of Consumer Items

There have been a lot of grievances on overly-priced items, hoarding, and the refusal of sale ofsome essential items. In the past 4 months, we have arrested and prosecuted 20 cases of price-hiking, 36 cases of fraudulent sales, and 75 cases of price-manipulation. Since the announcement of 4 February 2020 listing masks and alcohol-based sanitary hand gel as controlled items, there have also been 334 arrests of violators, with additional confiscations of over 2.7 million masks, 330 thousand liters of alcohol, 60 thousand Covid19 test kits, and 4 thousand thermometers, all totaling a value of over 177 million baht.

Economic assistance

Our fundamentals are to survive the current crisis and come out stronger and more resilient. To this end, the government has approved several assistance packages (Phases 1 & 2already implemented), which are considered “urgent” for the people. The next phase of assistance, or phase 3, will include a budget of 1.9 trillion baht, which is about 9 -10 per cent of our GDP. This will involve the following:

1. There will be a royal decree approving the Ministry of Finance to borrow 1 trillion baht to address the issue of monetary flow, through 3 operational plans, which are: 1) a Public Health operational plan to acquire medical equipment, medicines, and fund research 2) a Compensation operational plan for affected farmers and business owners, which will use about 6 hundred billion baht, and 3) an Economic and Social Revival operational plan to create jobs, stimulate spending, and promote investment so that we can return to normalcy, improve the quality of life for citizens, and maintain progress in our development, which will use about 4 hundred billion baht.
2. A royal decree will be issued approving financial assistance for SMEs with a budget of 5 hundred billion baht, with the Bank of Thailand working with commercial banks and other financial institutions to provide low interest credit for business owners to assist in liquidity and loan payments. There will also be debt relief for up to 6 months for SMEs, including adjustments to debt structures to alleviate repayment plans. It is estimated that 1.7 million business owners will be eligible for this scheme, which will help support our economy towards revival.
3. A royal decree will be issued approving the Bank of Thailand to support liquidity in our bond markets, with a limit of up to 4 hundred billion baht, particularly to prevent a lack of liquidity in the business sector.
4. There will be a drafting of a royal act to transfer parts of the fiscal budget from government agencies, to reduce at least 10 per cent of their uncommitted budget allocations to support assistance packages for people affected by Covid-19, drought relief efforts, and other natural disaster mitigation efforts. The Cabinet will expedite proposing this draft royal act for royal approval by June 2020.
5. The Cabinet has approved, in principle, the increase of medical and nursing staff, and Ministry of Public Health officials, including hospitals under institutions of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation. This includes over 45 thousand new positions, comprising around 38 thousand civil servants and around 7 thousand positions for new medical students in 2020. The Committee on Human Resource Management for Government Agencies has been tasked to carefully consider this matter within two weeks. In addition, given the importance of Thai Traditional Medicine, relevant personnel will also benefit from this proposal through restructuring within the Ministry of Public Health.
6. There will also be an increase of free electricity units, from 50 to 90 units per month for households that have metres of no more than 5 amps. This is expected to benefit over 6.4 million people across the country.

The previous Cabinet meeting also considered the matter of unemployment benefits, and has approved in principle, for the Ministry of Labour to draft laws to determine the conditionsfor receiving unemployment benefits due to an economic crisis or force majeur, so that those with social security can claim unemployment benefits that will cover their redundancy status due to the Covid-19 situation, as well as from other situations such as a city lockdown, the declaration of an emergency situation, a curfew,or orders to suspend business operations that are not officially directed by the government. As well, employees are entitled to assistance from the Employee Welfare Fund according to the law.

Spending on the borrowed funds and other budgets used for the Covid-19 situation in the areas of public health, assistance programmes, and other support remedies will be overseen(directed and followed up) by a committee, so that the Prime Minister, serving as the Director of CCSA can propose such programmes to theCabinet for approval.  Any news on the use of this budget, such as in social media, which is not based on Cabinet approval can thus be considered as not true and, therefore, not credible.

Foreign Affairs

So far, we have focused on quarantining persons entering the country for 14 days. We have now started to delay the return of Thai citizens from abroad until 18 April 2020, given that most of the new cases of infections are imported from returning persons. In the meantime, the government is considering other assistance measures for those who remain abroad, particularly in our neighboring countries, in the form of financial assistance for example.

Communications in times of crisis

Currently, cases of fake news or distorted news are continuing. Just yesterday there were a total of 26 cases, with charges brought against 10 cases involving 13 suspects, and arrest warrants out for 3 cases.