The three southern provinces of Surat Thani, Krabi and Phangnga will start accepting people flying in from abroad under the sandbox formula on Tuesday.

Agriculture officials are preparing to inspect pig farms nationwide in a bid to prevent the potential spread of African swine fever, which is suspected to be linked to a sharp drop in local pig supplies and soaring pork prices.

Thailand logged 8,263 new Covid-19 cases and 14 more fatalities during the previous 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry announced on Saturday morning.

The Kla Party will field candidates in all upcoming by-elections, seeing the contests as an opportunity to reach out to voters ahead of the general election, even if its chances of winning are slim.

Tourism operators in Pattaya and Bangkok have expressed concern about unequal opportunities to welcome tourists because they are not in a sandbox scheme as the Test & Go programme is suspended indefinitely.

Alcohol consumption in restaurants in 69 re-zoned provinces will be banned starting on Sunday as part of a raft of revised government measures to contain the recent surge of Covid-19 infections.

The suspension of the Test & Go no-quarantine programme for air travellers has been extended indefinitely, but three provinces will be added to the sandbox scheme that currently applies only to Phuket.

The Revenue Department is in talks with digital asset exchanges to enable the latter to collect withholding taxes on cryptocurrency profits, says department spokeswoman Sommai Siriudomset.

Phuket has experienced major problems with its sandbox scheme while the Covid-19 infection rate there keeps rising.

The prolonged suspension of the Test & Go scheme could cost the tourism sector at least 7 billion baht in January and shatter tourism confidence in the long run, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT).