Bangkok governor says he won't curb mass activities in capital

BANGKOK • Mass activities in the Thai capital can continue as usual, said Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt yesterday, with those attending such events urged to strictly follow the rule on masking to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

"I believe that life must go on. There is no need to shut down (activities) in the present situation because the spread of the virus this time will be less severe than the previous spikes," he said, according to the Bangkok Post online.

He spoke to the media before attending a meeting between the Public Health Ministry and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) on whether to reduce or cancel public events to prevent new Covid-19 clusters.

Mr Chadchart said the number of Covid-19 patients in Bangkok is stable, while the number of those testing positive via antigen test kits has risen only slightly, The Nation online news quoted him as saying.

He added that the situation is not worrisome because most patients had been infected either at home or while at work, and not by attending public events.

There have been rising concerns about the resurgence of Covid-19 with cases caused by the two new subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5.

The Health Ministry's permanent secretary Kiattiphum Wongrajit said on Sunday that it would tell the Bangkok governor to limit public events because large gatherings could spread the coronavirus. A major event planned this month is a competition of marching bands between schools in Nakhon Ratchasima and Bangkok on July 31.

Thai Covid-19 cases have been on a downtrend since April, according to statistics on pandemic data site Worldometer. Thailand logged 2,028 new cases on Sunday, the website showed, compared with 28,379 a day on April 1.