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August 5, 2021 Thai Enquirer Summary COVID-19 News

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August 5, 2021 Thai Enquirer Summary COVID-19 News August 5, 2021 Thai Enquirer Summary COVID-19 News Thailand recorded yet another day of record infection today Today’s numbers are as follows: Total New Infections = 20,920 Community Infection = 20,658 Prison Infection = 262 Total New Death = 160 Total New Recovery = 17,926 Compare between July & August for the same number of days in the month July . Infection for first 5-days of the month - 29,932 . Death for the first 5-days of the month - 253 August . Infection for first 5-days of the month - 96,018 . Death for the first 5-days of the month - 806 The higher infection also means that there are more people in the hospital There is a total of 211,076 people under treatment with 71,946 in hospitals 139,130 in field hospitals 4,910 in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) 1,035 on ventilators The sad thing is that nearly 50% of the death yesterday were in Bangkok As many as 92 out of the 188 deaths in Thailand were in Bangkok alone with 2nd highest being in Yala province with 12 deaths and 3rd in Samut Prakarn with 10 deaths. Delta variant is now the dominant variant in Thailand with 78.2% of the cases in the country now from Delta variant. In Bangkok it was 86.2% of the total cases found. To make matters worse ¼ people testing are testing positive As of the latest data available (until July 31st) 23.99% of the tested people are testing positive for the virus. Date Total Tests Tested Positive % // Date Total Tests Tested Positive % All this means that the October 14 2021 deadline to open the country’s border is going to be next to impossible. The hyped up televised address to the country by Prime Minister Prayut in 120- days from June 16th announcement looks impossible to achieve under the current circumstances. Just 24-hours after the Ministry of Public Health came out to say that the report by Thai Enquirer that part of the shipment of the mRNA vaccine donated by the United States of America was going to Buriram, was “Fake News” today Bangkok Post reports that 7,200 doses of Pfizer was heading to Buriram which is not in the ‘highly infected zone’. https://www.thaienquirer.com/30754/part-of-pfizer-shipment-being-sent-to- buriram-health-official-says/ The announcement that Thai Enquirer’s report was ‘fake’ on August 3 Today’s Bangkok Post reports 7,200 doses going to Buriram. Infection not a hinderance to gambling and drug taking. Police raided an aread in Nakorn Ratchisma where 14 riders from a ‘light green’ wearing delivery were gambling with no masks. When drug test was taken they tested positive. Inoculation Drive The inoculation drive that started on June 7th with a lot of fanfare has seen Thailand achieve 18.58 million doses administered or about 18.58% of the population In the next 150 days another 81.42 million doses needs to be administered to reach 100 million doses by the end of the year as per the target set by Prayut Chan-o-cha Demand for vaccine is so high that the online booking for Chinese made ‘Sinopharm’ seems to be very high as the 75,000 doses to be allocated yesterday was sold out within the 1st hour of opening of the booking. While the government continues to say that there is no one who is dying on the streets, a 36-year old man dies at a petrol station in Samut Prakarn, but nobody was there to help him amid fears that there could be infection. This person fell in-front of a car of a doctor and died right away. Suicide rates are rising Yet another suicide as father kills himself after being stressed that his shop was unable to sell anything at their corner store. Father was stressed that he may have been infected. He was stressed if he was infected then would there be a place to cure in hospital or not. In Chiang Mai a father (64 year old) and daughter (25-year old) commit suicide as their investment in a business had gone bust due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Economic News The Thai Baht has come back in the news after a long break. Thai Baht has hit the weakest point in nearly 2-years as the ravaging outbreak of Covid-19 and the slowing economy amid lack of stimulus from tourism and domestic consumption starts to take a toll on the economy. Thai Baht was trading at 33.12 baht per dollar. which is the level not seen in nearly 2-years. Thai Baht has depreciated by as much as 9.6% year-to-date and is one of the worst performing currency in the world, although it was one of the best performing currencies over the past few years. Analysts fear that the situation could deteriorate further as the economy continues to remain in doldrums. The economy continues to remain weak as foreign investors contiue to remain sidelined or exiting the country coupled with the outbreak that has hampered production in various industries. To make matters worse Phayong Srivanich, President of the Thai Bankers' Association as chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB), committee of the 3 private sector institutions said that the body expects the country’s GDP to reduce the projected GDP to be in decline for the 2nd year in a row. JSCCIB said that it expects 2021’s GDP growth to be in the rage of -1.5% to at best ‘0%’ growth at best from previous projection of 0% at worst to 1.5% growth at best. During 2020 Thailand recorded the GDP contraction of -6.1% JSCCIB expect exports to grow 10.0-12.0% due to a well-recovered global economy, but need to take care of the supply chain to not be impacted with Covid-19 in a wide area by assessing the direction of the Thai economy, risking another year of recession from the inability to control the epidemic The number of daily and cumulative cases in hospitals is also increasing at a high rate. JSCCIB said that the lockdown and the lack of the government’s ability to build confidence are all having an impact. Meanwhile the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), under the Bank of Thailand (BoT) decided to lower the projection for the country’s economic growth for this year to a mere 0.7% from the previous projection of 1.8% that it had set during the last meeting. The central bank said that it had to lower the GDP projection due to the impact of the 3rd wave of Covid-19 that started at Krystal Club in Thonglor night life area in Bangkok and has engulfed the entire country with cases rising to more than 20,000 per day over the last few days. As the economy continues to weaken the MPC meeting yesterday voted 4 to 2, to keep the policy rate at 0.50% and also lowered the projection for GDP growth for 2022 to 3.7% growth from 3.9% previously expected. Meanwhile Kasikorn Research Center came out with a research saying that the MPC meeting this time, although the policy rate remained at 0.5%, but the unanimous vote reflected more risks to the Thai economy from the impact and if the situation does not improve. There should be a number of voices MPC voted to cut interest rates more in the next meeting Thonburi Healthcare Group Plc (THG) and Securities Exchange Commission The Securities & Exchange Commission has come out to ask Dr. Boon Vanasin, to give details about the various announcement he has made about his planned procurement of Pfizer vaccines for Thailand. Dr. Boon has over the past few weeks been saying that THG planned to bring in Pfizer but yesterday admitted that ‘90% chance that this was not possible anymore’. The announcement pushed the shares of THG which has risen from about 27 baht before the announcement to rise to about 31 baht per share but yesterday the shares dropped by 8.13% to end the day at 28.25 baht per share. Dr. Boon, said that for the past 13-months he has been negotiating to import 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, but the government refused to import, making the vaccine negotiable. It will be sold to hospitals in foreign countries that are in high demand instead, such as Myanmar or the Middle East. He wants to leave it to the government because the US and Israel are destroying the vaccines in their hand and in order to bring new vaccine to be injected as a third dose for their people. This he said is an opportunity to negotiate or buy a replacement for the 30 million doses of the missing AstraZeneca vaccine. He added that his deposit of 5-10% of the purchase price for the vaccine has been seized by the sellers 2-times and all the details are there in Hong Kong, where the company is located that was negotiating on behalf of THG and the vaccine makers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Political News There seems to be some confusion in the planned rally on August 7th by the Free Youth movement. Just after the better than expected turnout at the ‘Car Mob’ on August 1st the more radical ‘Free Youth’ movement has come out with plans to hold their rally on August 7th with plans to march from Democracy Monument to the Grand Palace (an area where previous such march has met with rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas).
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