"entertainment venues"

Dozens of pubs in Bangkok were temporarily closed on Saturday after fire-safety inspections ordered in the wake of a deadly blaze in Chonburi.

All 77 provinces in Thailand will be declared Green (surveillance) zones on July 1, when business and entertainment activities will be permitted to return to normal.

Public Health Ministry officials descended on entertainment venues in Bangkok’s Ekamai area on Wednesday night for a close inspection after the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) lifted its shutdown order on pubs, bars, karaoke joints and massage parlours from June 1.

Pubs, nightclubs and other entertainment venues will be allowed to reopen in 31 provinces from Wednesday (June 1), as Thailand prepares to declare Covid-19 an endemic disease in July.

Entertainment venues in 46 yellow provinces, or high-surveillance zone, are still not allowed to reopen on June 1, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) clarified on Thursday.

Entertainment venues in tourism pilot provinces or blue zones and those in green zone provinces can operate until midnight from June 1, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said on Friday.

The Public Health Ministry will ask the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on Friday to allow entertainment venues located in the green zone to open, a source said on Wednesday.

Thailand’s daily Covid-19 caseload has risen to more than 3,000 after the New Year break because of some people’s irresponsible behaviour and entertainment venues ignoring prevention measures, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday.

Workers whose earnings dropped significantly since the government closed entertainment venues to curb the spread of Covid-19 will soon be given 5,000 baht each in compensation, deputy government spokesperson Traisulee Traisoranakul said on Saturday.

The Cabinet meeting on Tuesday has approved the reopening date for entertainment venues, pubs, bars and karaoke joints across Thailand on January 16, said deputy government spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirek on Tuesday.

The date of reopening entertainment venues, pubs, bars and karaoke joints across Thailand was shifted from December 1 to January 15 on Friday.

Entertainment venues carry the risk of Covid-19 transmissions, Dr Yong Poovorawan, an expert virologist at Chulalongkorn University, warned in a Facebook post on Thursday.