Thailand opens malls after nearly two months amid coronavirus outbreak

 

People walk in front of an Apple store in Icon Siam shopping center as shopping centers reopen nation wide during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Bangkok, Thailand May 17, 2020. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand on Sunday opened malls and department stores for the first time since March in its second phase of relaxing measures as the number of new coronavirus cases slowed.

 

The country’s top mall operator, Central Pattana Pcl said it was reopening 33 of its shopping centers nationwide.

 

Central Pattana said it would control density by only allowing one person per 5 square meters (54 square feet) and use robots to measure body temperatures and by using touchless elevators.

 

Scores of shoppers were seen queuing before entering the Iconsiam mall in central Bangkok. Customers are asked to scan a QR code and register on a government website before entering.

 

"I want to have Japanese food today because I haven't had it for three or four months. The QR code registration is inconvenient for an elder like me,” said Sa-nguan Khumrungroj, 65, at Iconsiam.

 

A machine sprayed disinfectant at shoppers' feet as they entered Iconsiam and another dispensed hand sanitizer.

 

On Sunday, Thailand reported three additional coronavirus cases, in line with a trend of fewer new daily cases in May. It has reported a total 3,028 cases, with 2,856 patients having recovered and 56 deaths.

 

"The cases have declined a lot which I think is suitable for the mall to open because the economy has gone bad," shopper Pornchai Laochunsuwan said at Iconsiam.

 

Thailand's government has ordered that malls will have to close by 8 p.m. and that areas where large numbers of people could gather such as movie theatres and bowling alleys must remain closed.

 

The government relaxed other measures on Sunday including shortening a nighttime curfew by one hour, to 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. At the end of April, the country lifted curbs on small businesses like restaurants and barber shops.

 

On Saturday, the country’s aviation regulator extended a ban on international passenger flights until the end of June.

 

(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng and Jiraporn Kuhakan; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Christian Schmollinger)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-18

 

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My GF, the whirling dervish as I call her, spent the entire day at Siam Paragon. Coming home with 6 bags of items...glad I stayed home. She said it was a mad house.

Well done,Thailand!

We will see how it goes...

Is it possible to enter a mall without a smart phone with the Thai Chana app?

1 hour ago, pookiki said:

Is it possible to enter a mall without a smart phone with the Thai Chana app?

I believe it is , however, you must fill out a form and have your identification documents (Thai ID or Passport)

Next they are going to want everyone's motorcycles to have GPS on them and have a new system to track every car's GPS. There will never just be enough to their opening of things. I for one will be spending less here now. Not going to have a complete buffalo nose ring with leader rope attached..

8 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

Next they are going to want everyone's motorcycles to have GPS on them and have a new system to track every car's GPS. There will never just be enough to their opening of things. I for one will be spending less here now. Not going to have a complete buffalo nose ring with leader rope attached..

The laughable thing is that they never use the information they collect and have no idea how to store it and analyse it, so it is all show. Just take the mountains of paperwork that Immigration require, that never sees the light of day again. 

Edited May 18, 20206 yr by Pilotman

6 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

The laughable thing is that they never use the information they collect and have no idea how to store it and analyse it, so it is all show. Just take the mountains of paperwork that Immigration require, that never sees the light of day again. 

Maybe or maybe not. Immigration still uses tons of papers I presume for the purpose of aggravational hoop jumping for us, but they certainly are getting better and upgrading for online storage being at their disposal. Maybe starting with the airport fiasco restructuring first. As for this QR façade, they could farm it out to servers outside the country and then store it in data bases say like in China. Now isn't that a scary idea.

51 minutes ago, Geoffggi said:

I believe it is , however, you must fill out a form and have your identification documents (Thai ID or Passport)

I went to Central Festival in Pattaya yesterday. G.F. did the app thing and I didnt. I had to write my name, the time of entering, my telephone number and initial it. I wasnt asked for any Identification. Then to go into an individual shop, the same applies. Fill in the form or use the app. I didnt stay long enough to check on all floors to see if it was universal. Maybe in future, ID will be needed if someone doesnt have the app. Who knows.

Went to Tops in Central in Udon Thani yesterday, forgot about it being opening day.

Crazy trying to find a parking spot.

Absolute cluster<deleted> at the entry, people packed in like sardines because must scan the QR code.

Scan QR code, it's in Thai of course, press the check mark, enter telephone number, I entered an old unused number and got a green check mark. So if your worried about the phone number thing just enter a random number, nobody checks.

Supposed to wipe your feet on a sanitary carpet, nobody checks.

A table with five places to register, nobody registers, a guy waves the falang along

Enter mall.

Lots of choke points with people packed in.

Won't go again until its calmed down a whole lot

25 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

Maybe or maybe not. Immigration still uses tons of papers I presume for the purpose of aggravational hoop jumping for us, but they certainly are getting better and upgrading for online storage being at their disposal. Maybe starting with the airport fiasco restructuring first. As for this QR façade, they could farm it out to servers outside the country and then store it in data bases say like in China. Now isn't that a scary idea.

This is a real and serious concern.

I can imagine going out to quickly get my groceries, having to wait outside while others dawdle enjoying the free aircon with ALL the family.

My wife loves mk restaurant but how will the screen work?

Will it go straight across half the pot?

To be honest I don't like it that much if not the sauce and the duck noodles it all seems like hard work to me.

9 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

My wife loves mk restaurant but how will the screen work?

Will it go straight across half the pot?

To be honest I don't like it that much if not the sauce and the duck noodles it all seems like hard work to me.

I'm with you. My wife loves MK and I could care less. But if she's happy--I'm happy. Fortunately she doesn't like farang food so she's always a cheap date. LOL

2 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

I believe it is , however, you must fill out a form and have your identification documents (Thai ID or Passport)

I've made my ancient iPhone intentionally stupid--no QR (whatever they are!). Advise bringing your own pen!

They a creating long cues making people sign in and scan the QR code

it's worse than if they just let them in! madness!! ????
And why do they turn the Air Conditioning to warm so people leave quicker??

16 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

I've made my ancient iPhone intentionally stupid--no QR (whatever they are!). Advise bringing your own pen!

 

How does this QR code works? Do they expect everyone to know how to use it?

 

I've never used it before. How does it identify a foreigner? Does all Thai have a QR code?

Edited May 18, 20206 yr by EricTh

8 hours ago, webfact said:

I want to have Japanese food today because I haven't had it for three or four months.

Christ, you poor poor  lamb, maybe a sit down also, get real!!

1 hour ago, kwak250 said:

My wife loves mk restaurant but how will the screen work?

Will it go straight across half the pot?

To be honest I don't like it that much if not the sauce and the duck noodles it all seems like hard work to me.

Pay  to  cook  your  own  food, always  saw it as pointless.

2 hours ago, kwonitoy said:

Went to Tops in Central in Udon Thani yesterday, forgot about it being opening day.

Crazy trying to find a parking spot.

Absolute cluster<deleted> at the entry, people packed in like sardines because must scan the QR code.

Scan QR code, it's in Thai of course, press the check mark, enter telephone number, I entered an old unused number and got a green check mark. So if your worried about the phone number thing just enter a random number, nobody checks.

Supposed to wipe your feet on a sanitary carpet, nobody checks.

A table with five places to register, nobody registers, a guy waves the falang along

Enter mall.

Lots of choke points with people packed in.

Won't go again until its calmed down a whole lot

So when you are in close quarters with someone who tests positive, they will contact your old unused number. You may then be positive, and infect others instead of getting tested yourself. Maybe you will visit a older relative and then they die. Good work gaming the system. You really showed them!

19 minutes ago, brucec64 said:

2 hours ago, kwonitoy said:

Went to Tops in Central in Udon Thani yesterday, forgot about it being opening day.

Crazy trying to find a parking spot.

Absolute cluster<deleted> at the entry, people packed in like sardines because must scan the QR code.

Scan QR code, it's in Thai of course, press the check mark, enter telephone number, I entered an old unused number and got a green check mark. So if your worried about the phone number thing just enter a random number, nobody checks.

Supposed to wipe your feet on a sanitary carpet, nobody checks.

A table with five places to register, nobody registers, a guy waves the falang along

Enter mall.

Lots of choke points with people packed in.

Won't go again until its calmed down a whole lot

So when you are in close quarters with someone who tests positive, they will contact your old unused number. You may then be positive, and infect others instead of getting tested yourself. Maybe you will visit a older relative and then they die. Good work gaming the system. You really showed them!

This might happen in lockstep the way you described it if we all live in a perfect world. But we don't, not here in Thailand anyway. The virus is already out of the bottle, and there's no vaccine in the (far far off) horizon. Yes some will die but you can safely blame it on the CPC. 

1 hour ago, brucec64 said:

So when you are in close quarters with someone who tests positive, they will contact your old unused number. You may then be positive, and infect others instead of getting tested yourself. Maybe you will visit a older relative and then they die. Good work gaming the system. You really showed them!

Well to test positive you first have to test.

The whole setup is for show only, hey we're in Thailand                                                                       

Udon province has a total of 9 cases so far, 

I'll risk it, and no I don't visit an older relatives. I don't have any relatives in Thailand.

 

 

Edited May 18, 20206 yr by kwonitoy

Today in Tesco, I signed in as A. Another, mobile number 012345678.  Totally useless exercise. I think tomorrow I may be John John, Max Miller or Charlie Chaplin.  Same phone number though so a bit confusing, but as the paperwork will never been seen again, I doesn't matter one jot.

Edited May 18, 20206 yr by Pilotman

43 minutes ago, kwonitoy said:

Well to test positive you first have to test.

The whole setup is for show only, hey we're in Thailand                                                                       

Udon province has a total of 9 cases so far, 

I'll risk it, and no I don't visit an older relatives. I don't have any relatives in Thailand.

 

 

There are getting ready for the bat eating Chinese to return. They like the malls and 7/11's .They don't like bars so it doesn't matter if we pi$$ everyone else off. We will just keep them closed and keep thousands out of work. 

9 hours ago, pookiki said:

Is it possible to enter a mall without a smart phone with the Thai Chana app?

 

At Central Chidlom and Robinson's Sukhumvit yesterday and today, there were two choices:

 

--you could use a mobile phone to scan a QR code that takes you to a website on your phone to register your entry and exit with a couple taps... or...

 

--at least at those two locations, they have paper guest sign-in and sign-out books where you could write in your name, phone number, gender, time, etc etc.

 

AFAIK, nothing Central is doing, at least, involves installing any kind of app on your phone.  And once you leave the store and depart, supposedly, there's nothing residual remaining on your phone.

 

5 hours ago, EricTh said:

 

How does this QR code works? Do they expect everyone to know how to use it?

 

I've never used it before. How does it identify a foreigner? Does all Thai have a QR code?

 

You need a QR code reader app on your mobile phone... The LINE messaging app has a built-in QR reader app that will do the job. There are also standalone QR reader mobile apps you can install from the app stores.

 

Basically, you open the QR reader, point your phone's camera at the little QR code posters they have at the entrances, it takes a photo scan of the QR code poster in a second or two, which then opens a browser on your phone where, with a couple of taps, you register your entry and later exit from the store. Nothing to type...just tap to confirm.

 

AFAIK, there's nothing in the check in/check out process that distinguishes between Thai vs farang.

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 20206 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK