{"id":68049,"date":"2020-03-31T20:33:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T12:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=68049"},"modified":"2020-03-31T20:33:56","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T12:33:56","slug":"covid-19-thai-pm-hints-at-tougher-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=68049","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19: Thai PM hints at tougher measures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h5>By Linda Khoo Hui Li<br><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>BANGKOK, March 31 (NNN-BERNAMA) &#8212;\u00a0Thai\u00a0Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan o-cha has hinted that tougher measures may be put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the kingdom as the total number of positive cases rose to 1,651 while the death toll stood at 10 today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the kingdom was placed under a state of emergency on March 26, Prayuth said, the number of new cases had continued to rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of 1 pm today, 127 new cases and one more death have been&nbsp;reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf there is no improvement, stricter measures may have to be introduced,\u201d&nbsp;he told a press conference here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thailand declared a state of emergency starting midnight March 26 to April 30 to contain the pandemic in the kingdom.&nbsp; However, no curfew or travel ban has been imposed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Prayuth said the Transport Ministry would find ways to reduce public movement and activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA high number of people are still travelling via public transport in Bangkok. We may consider reducing the frequency of public transportation, including buses and trains. If that&nbsp;doesn\u2019t work, then we may consider temporary suspension of&nbsp;the services,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government plans to cut public journeys by 90 per cent in a bid to flatten the curve&nbsp;of COVID-19 infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Centre&nbsp;for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA)&nbsp;spokesman Thaweesilp Wissanuyothin confirmed that a 48-year-old Thai man&nbsp;from the Maha Sarakham province died at 5 am yesterday due&nbsp;to COVID-19. He had a history of diabetes and cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of the 1,651 cases so far, 1,299 people are still undergoing treatment at hospitals, including 22 in critical condition, while 342 have been discharged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;A total of 61 of the 77 provinces in the kingdom have reported COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As more cases are being recorded outside Bangkok, provincial governors are taking tougher measures, including closing&nbsp;tourist destinations, beaches and entertainment outlets, to stem the spread of the virus.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212; NNN-BERNAMA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Linda Khoo Hui Li BANGKOK, March 31 (NNN-BERNAMA) &#8212;\u00a0Thai\u00a0Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan o-cha has hinted that tougher measures may be put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the kingdom as the total number of positive cases rose to 1,651 while the death toll stood at 10 today. Since the kingdom [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":68050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[288,300,318],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68049"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}