SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand: Thailand confirmed 427 new coronavirus infections and urged about 1,000 people spanning a quarter of the country’s provinces to seek tests on Tuesday, in a bid to contain its biggest COVID-19 outbreak yet.
The new cases include 397 migrants in the southwestern province of Samut Sakhon, where an outbreak was discovered at the weekend following positive tests for COVID-19 among hundreds of workers at a large seafood center.
More than 1,100 cases, mostly from neighboring Myanmar with no symptoms, have since been traced back to the now shuttered center, where scores of vendors typically deal in shrimps and other seafood sold widely.
Authorities said buyers from 22 provinces were known to have been there from Dec. 1-18 and should get tested.
“There are about 1,000 people across the country who went to buy goods at the market,” Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the country’s COVID-19 taskforce, told a briefing.
“But don’t panic. Anybody who went should be tested for COVID.”
Thailand had previously kept its epidemic in check, with about 4,300 confirmed cases and 60 deaths before the weekend, among the world’s lowest numbers.
Its success has been largely down to swift contact tracing and quarantine and strict entry requirements that have decimated its tourism industry, a crucial sector for its economy, Southeast Asia’s second-largest.
There were 16 other cases reported on Tuesday in eight different provinces, including five infections in Bangkok. Fourteen imported cases were also confirmed.
Myanmar is a key source of labor for Thailand’s seafood sector and authorities suspect some workers may have returned from the country since infections there started to surge in August. Myanmar has reported nearly 117,000 cases.
Thai authorities are setting up a field hospital in Samut Sakhon to test and treat migrant workers.
Thailand tells market buyers to seek tests as coronavirus cases climb
Thailand tells market buyers to seek tests as coronavirus cases climb
- Thailand had previously kept its epidemic in check, with about 4,300 confirmed cases and 60 deaths before the weekend
- Authorities said buyers from 22 provinces were known to have been there from Dec. 1-18 and should get tested
Kremlin welcomes US sanctions waiver says US and Russia share interest in stable energy markets
DUBAI: Russia sees a U.S. sanctions waiver on its oil as an attempt by Washington to stabilise global energy markets, and the two countries have a shared interest in this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"We see actions by the United States aimed at trying to stabilise energy markets. In this respect, our interests coincide," he said.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a temporary authorisation allowing countries around the world to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea on Thursday extending a measure that had previously been granted only to Indian refiners.
Bessent stressed in a post on X that the authorisation would not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government.
“This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” Bessent said on a post on X.
However, the measure received mix reviews in European capitals, with many fearing it could help replenish Russia's assualt on Ukraine.
"I am concerned that we are further filling Putin's war chest," German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said in Berlin on Friday.
Reiche said that she saw both sides to the United States' decision to issue a 30-day waiver for the purchase of Russian oil products, understanding the increasing ecnomic and political turnout from the oil crisis, particurlarly in South Korea and Japan.
"It seems to me that domestic political pressure in the United States is very, very high," Reiche said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was more direct, saying on Friday that it was wrong to ease sanctions against Russia for whatever reason. The sentiment was echoed by Norway’s Prime Minister, who also said sanctions should not be eased.
Oil prices held gains above $100 Friday and most equity markets dropped after Iran's leader called for the blocking of the crucial Strait of Hormuz and the opening up of new fronts in the war against the United States and Israel.
With the conflict heading towards its third week and showing no signs of ending, investors are growing increasingly worried about an extended crisis that could fan inflation and hammer the global economy.
