Thailand Time Machine: Looking back at this same week LAST year in top Thai news: Wave three of Covid-19 fully arrives along with closures and restrictions

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The following is a weekly feature article looking at this same time period LAST year in Pattaya and Thailand news.

This weekly feature takes a look back at news from the same period last year (and sometimes different time windows, such as six months or three months) to see how things have changed, follow up on the progression of stories, as well as look at potentially broken promises or things that didn’t take place as promised in Pattaya and Thailand.

As we publish dozens of stories a week this is a quick way for people to take a look at what the biggest stories were a year ago, as chosen by our editorial team, and how they impact us today and relate to current news. They are in no particular order of importance, however, are roughly in order of publication.

This week, we cover the second/third week of April 2021, from Sunday, April 11th, 2021, to Saturday, April 17th, 2021.

Let’s go!

1. As Covid-19 restrictions take place, entertainment venues take the blame from the government

A year later, the venues are still legally closed and operating as converted “restaurants” with a variety of restrictions and rules. There is no sign of a legal opening anytime soon.

Bangkok Criminal Court issues arrest warrant, sentences two-month imprisonment against two club managers in Thonglor areas, mainly for violating Emergency Decree

2.  Thai government refuses to let people quarantine or self-isolate at home despite rising Covid-19 cases

Luckily, this changed not long after as the government had little choice as people either avoided being tested or horror stories about quarantine emerged on social media.

Thai Government has no plan, despite rising Covid-19 cases, to allow people to self-quarantine or isolate at home

3.  Color Coding zones arrive for the first time

A year later, these are still around, but thankfully nobody is “Dark Red” anymore.

Ministry of Public Health divides provinces into color zones, Chonburi is one of five “red zones”, different from CCSA measures rankings

Thai government declares new control zones and increases Covid-19 control measures nationwide, effective this upcoming Sunday

4.  Huge travel for Songkran despite muted celebrations

This was later blamed for a lot of the spread of last year’s Covid-19 wave which eventually led to basically lockdowns and curfews for the second year in a row.

More than 7.87 million vehicles recorded traveling in and out of Bangkok during Songkran, Thailand’s Ministry of Transport reports

5.  Chonburi announces extensive list of new Covid-19 restrictions

These lasted for months with the alcohol ban at restaurants lasting until DECEMBER last year.

Chonburi province releases provincial orders, lots of additional Covid-19 closures and restrictions implemented starting April 18th, 2021

So far, this year has been an improvement, although slower than many would like.

See you all next week!