BANGKOK, March 9 (TNA) – The government has postponed the plan to consider
1,000-baht cash handouts for low-income earners to alleviate impacts of the
Covid-19 outbreak, said Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-ocha.
The cash handout of 1,000 baht for two months to three groups of people is proposed by the Finance Ministry among several measures as the economic stimulus package to help people affected by the outbreak.
Three groups of people are low-income earners, farmers and independent workers.
The cash handout will not be raised for consideration at the Cabinet, scheduled on Tuesday. The plan is postponed indefinitely, the prime minister said after chairing a meeting with senior officials to address the Covid-19 problems.
He said the outbreak situation in Thailand was limited and the country was ranked 25th among more than 100 countries.
Regarding Thai returnees from high risk countries, he said about 200 sites have been prepared for their quarantine but he denied to give further details on the locations.
To ease shortage of face masks, he said the probe found 11 manufacturers have production capacity of 38 million pieces a month or 1.2 million pieces per day. Out of all 1.2 million face masks, 700,000 pieces are sent for the medical sector and the remaining 500,000 face masks are supplied to the market.
Probes are being conducted for reports of hoarding and selling overpriced face masks, Gen Prayut said.
He ordered the Industry Ministry to discuss with manufacturers to increase production by 20 million pieces to meet high demand. (TNA)
