Bangkok to ease some COVID-19 curbs despite rise in cases

Bangkok will ease bans on venues such as massage shops, clinics and parks applied to stop the spread of COVID-19, but schools, cinemas, gyms and zoos will remain closed, the Thai capital said in a statement on Monday.

Thailand has been battling since April its deadliest coronavirus outbreak so far. It reported 5,485 new cases on Monday, with 1,356 of those in Bangkok.

The Southeast Asian country also reported 19 new deaths on Monday, bringing to 1,031 the number of fatalities since the outbreak started.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said it was relaxing restrictions in venues where there had been no clusters of infections “to ease the suffering of the business sector and allow people to go on with their jobs under strict measures.”

Thailand’s tourism-reliant economy, meanwhile, could take until the first quarter of 2023 to return to a normal position due to a third wave of coronavirus infections and uncertainty over its vaccine rollout.

With the third wave and the vaccine rollout highly uncertain, the economic recovery is expected to take time, Bank of Thailand Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput told a seminar.

“It may have to wait until the first quarter of 2023 to get back to pre-COVID-19 levels,” he said.

Bank of Thailand Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput speaks during his first briefing on the economy and monetary policy after taking office in Bangkok, Thailand, on Oct. 20, 2020. (Reuters photo)

In March, the central bank said the economy might return to that level in the middle of 2022.

As the recovery will be slow, there is need to move quickly to resolve liquidity problems facing smaller businesses, Sethaput said.

The BOT recently introduced 350 billion baht (US$11.2 billion) of soft loans and a debt scheme to help businesses.

The recent outbreak began to affect the economy in April as private consumption and investment dropped, while tourism stayed low, the BOT said in a statement.

Exports, another key driver of Thai growth, jumped 19.1% in April from a year earlier, while public spending continued to support the economy, it said.

Earlier this month, the BOT said the economy would expand at a much lower rate this year due to the latest outbreak.

The BOT’s current GDP growth forecast is 3.0% this year and 4.7% next year. It is due to release new projections at its next policy review on June 23.

Source: Licas Philippines