Thailand’s Cabinet has extended the state of emergency nationwide for two months, until the end of September, to cope with the domestic COVID-19 situation.
Deputy government spokeswoman Traisulee Traisoranakul said the extension is from 1 August to 30 September, as proposed by the National Security Council (NSC), which functions as the operations unit of the government’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
She said the extension is necessary to facilitate the swift and integrated implementation of measures to control COVID-19 for the sake of public safety.
Ms Traisulee said the decision was in response to the thousands of new COVID-19 cases being recorded daily in Greater Bangkok, where easily transmissible and drug-resistant COVID-19 variants are spreading and being carried by workers returning to their home provinces. The Public Health Ministry predicts about 10,000 new COVID-19 cases and more than 100 fatalities a day.
Today (21 July), Thailand’s daily COVID-19 infections reached a new high of 13,002, bringing cumulative infections, since 1 April 2021, to 410,614, with new 108 deaths reported. 2,921 new infections were found in Bangkok.
