State of emergency extended for 2 months amid dire warning from Health Ministry
The Cabinet extended the nationwide state of emergency for another two months until September 30, government spokesman Traisulee Traisoranakul said on Tuesday.
The emergency was extended to tackle surging Covid-19 infections, with 288,643 cases reported between April 1 and July 9.
The epidemic is centred on Bangkok and surrounding provinces, where the caseload is now rising by thousands each day with dozens of fatalities every 24 hours. Bangkok logged 2,764 new cases and 41 deaths on Tuesday. Greater Bangkok, which includes surrounding provinces, recorded 5,468 new cases.
The Public Health Ministry warned that unless tighter restrictions are imposed, the current daily caseload of more than 10,000 new infections would generate more than 100,000 new cases over the next two weeks. This would bring the public health system to the point of collapse, it said. The state of emergency allows authorities to impose special measures to control the spread of Covid-19.