Thailand continues to support COVID-19 victims

People queue for assistance in front of a bank in Thailand (Photo: www.bangkokpost.com)

Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s cabinet on June 16 approved four aid packages for people hurt financially by the COVID-19 pandemic who have not previously been given help.

Deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said the recipients included 1.16 million holders of state welfare cards who have not received any state assistance during the pandemic.

They would be given 1,000 THB (32 USD) a month each during May to July, with 3.49 billion THB allocated to the package.

Another group was 302,160 people who were unsuccessful in registering for help on a website. They must not have received any state assistance before and they must not be workers under Section 33 of the Social Security Act. A budget of 906 million THB was allocated for this group, Rachada said.

The third group was people in a fragile state selected by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

Some 6.78 million people in this group had not received any state assistance before, including nearly 1.4 million children under six in poor families, over 4 million over-60 people and more than 1.3 million people with disabilities. Total support budget for the group was 20.3 billion THB.

The fourth group was farmers whose lives were affected by the pandemic.

There were 137,093 in need who did not get access to agricultural infrastructure, and another 120,000 farmers whose registration for state assistance on May 15 was unsuccessful.

The same day, the Thai cabinet also approved a domestic tourism stimulus worth 22.4 billion THB to revitalise a key sector of the country./.