“The MEA has been using the same fee calculation model as in previous months with no immediate plans for adjustment,” he said. “The reason that power bills in April may be higher than other months is because of the hot weather in Thailand, which can reach 36-40 degrees Celsius during the day. This prompts people to use air conditioners for longer and at a higher setting.”

The difference between room temperature and targeted air-conditioning temperature grows bigger during summer, he added.

“In other seasons the average room temperature is 30C, which is only four degrees higher than the recommended setting on air conditioners, at 26 degrees. However, when the temperature reaches 40C in summer, air conditioners must cool the temperature by 14 degrees to reach the target, resulting in greater use of electricity.”

“Adjusting an air conditioner’s target temperature down by one degree will consume roughly 10 per cent more power,” he added.

“Another reason for the increase in power bills in the past month is the fact that more people are working from home in line with the government’s policy of social distancing to reduce the spread of Covid-19,” said Jaturong.

“People who stay at home during the day will use electrical appliances for longer periods, including air conditioners, electric fans, computers and TVs.”

“We recommend that users download our MEA Smart Life mobile application, which is available at the App Store and Google Play or at http://onelink.to/measmartlife,” he added.

“The app will help you track your electricity usage, as well as let you conveniently pay your bill via internet/mobile banking.”

MEA also recommends turning on an electric fan when using an air conditioner, since the breeze generated helps achieve the coolness of 24 degrees without lowering the setting on the air-conditioner. AC units should also be cleaned at least twice a year to reduce accumulated dust that can lower efficiency. The Bangkok supplier also advises users to make sure they check electrical wires for any damage, install a ground wire if they haven’t already done so, and unplug their appliances when they finish using them or when they are away.

More info on safe and efficient electricity usage can be found at MEA’s Facebook page, Line: @meathailand and Twitter: @mea_news, or contact MEA’s call centre on 1130 at any time.

Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Novartis said it donated Bt7.75 million on April 15 to Thailand’s Department of Medical Services Foundation to support public hospitals designated as Covid-19 centres.

The foundation is a charitable entity that manages Covid-19 monetary donations for hospitals under its network.

The donation includes supporting additional bed capacity for diagnosed and convalescing patients, Novartis said.

The money will also be used to stock a host of medications used to treat Covid-19 patients, including Favipiravir, an antiviral drug that has seen some success in treating those infected. The drugs will be distributed to Bangkok and provincial hospitals.

In addition, funds will be used to procure testing kits and medical equipment such as PPE suits and surgical masks, and support other diagnostic costs such as X-rays, the company said.

“We are thankful for this donation from Novartis as it helps us find additional support for patients, hospitals and healthcare professionals at a critical time,” Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul was quoted as saying.

“With this unconditional donation, we are proud to support the foundation’s efforts in battling this pandemic and providing optimal care for Thai patients,” Novartis Thailand president Sumalee Kristarnin said.

“Novartis established the Covid-19 Response Fund to support critical community and national programmes that can help address urgent public health needs. It is one of a number of measures we have put in place to help the Thai government and healthcare workers combat Covid-19, and we continue to provide support at this critical time as the safety of society is of paramount importance,” she added.

17th April 2020, Bangkok – Prime Minister and Defence Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, and Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta visit Siriraj Hospital to observe and follow-up on the utilization of the AI-Assisted solution provided by Digital Economy and Society Ministry and Huawei Technologies (Thailand) Co. Ltd., which aims to help Thai medical team on the COVID-19 initial diagnosis by analyzing whether the patient is at risk of infection. This technology was officially used in many hospitals in China including Wuhan and other cities, and is now already installed at Ramathibodi Hospital and Siriraj Hospital, with plans to be implemented at other hospitals in Thailand.

The AI-Assisted technology collected 20,000 CTs examples of patients’ lungs, of which 4,000 examples are confirmed cases. This allows the medical staff to process CT scans for patients, with the system automatically analysing the CT scan results by comparing with all existing examples, and deduce whether the patient is at risk of having a COVID-19 infection.

The process only takes 25 seconds per case, as it is supported by high speed and high accuracy 5G network. Therefore, this AI technology can greatly reduce the risk of infection for both Thai people and Thai medical staff, as it allows medical staff to keep their distance from patient while processing the CT Scan. Following the scan, only patients with found high risks of infection will go into the process of conducting a secretion test, which require at least 48 hours to get the confirmed result.

The AI-assisted solution based on HUAWEI CLOUD technology is co-developed by Huawei and HY Medical, and leverages the computer vision and medical image analysis technologies to segment the multiple pulmonary ground glass opacities (GGOs) and lung consolidation and make quantitative evaluations through CTs of patients’ lungs. More than 20 hospitals in China have adopted this technology to handle the COVID-19 and after continuous training and optimization, the solution has become more efficient with classification of accuracy rate at 96% and with DICE score higher than 85.

In addition, the 5G network also enhances the effectiveness of medical service in hospital by guaranteeing the quality of a high-speed connection, high reliability and low latency. The healthcare system will benefit from improved response times with 3-4 times uploaded efficiency – when compared to WiFi, and better patient monitoring, data collection and analytics, remote collaboration and resource allocation.

Electricity users in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan can choose a variety of different e-payment channels to pay their bills:

1. MEA Smart Life mobile application, available for free download at http://onelink.to/measmartlife

2. Bank account transfer

3. Credit card payment (Visa, Master Card, BluePay)

4. Mobile banking service

5. Internet banking service

The MEA Smart Life app also allows customers to report any electricity malfunctions at any time in just two simple steps, view their bill history for the past six months and track their electricity usage in graph form. They can also download a bar code or QR code to pay bills in convenience stores.

Applications for electricity usage and meter installation can be made via the M Easy service at https://eservice.mea.or.th.

To receive bills, tax invoices and receipts in electronic form, apply at http://ebill.mea.or.th.

MEA wants everyone to stay safe during the Covid-19 situation and will continue to maintain social distancing by providing quality services via electronic channels.

The plant will deliver masks to Chulalongkorn Hospital, which will then distribute them to other hospitals across the country. If there are extra supplies, they will be handed out to the general public.

The first batch of 100,000 masks was delivered to Chulalongkorn Hospital on Thursday.

CP Group announced last month that it was investing more than Bt100 million on building the plant to ease the shortage of masks in the country. The automated plant located in Samut Prakan province has a production capacity of 100,000 masks daily and runs on a 24-hour basis.

Once things return to normal, the factory will continue producing face masks, with all profits going towards the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital’s Cardiac Centre. Dhanin Chearavanont, CP’s senior chairman, said this reflects CP’s commitment to serve Thailand and its people.

The campaign, in which all commission and fees will be waived from April 15 to May 15, is applicable to existing Lazada partners as well as new ones, chief marketing officer Paradee Sinthawanarong said.

The businesses will also be allowed access to other Lazada services such as the live streaming application LazLive.

The e-commerce platform also launched the YesICan campaign in the beginning of this month to encourage entrepreneurs to switch to selling online.

With people having to stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus, up to 60 per cent more customers are visiting Lazada, and are spending at least 11 minutes browsing the website on average.

Over the past month, up to 26,000 new businesses have joined Lazada, bringing the total number of businesses showcasing their products on the website up to 200,000.

“Lazada has experienced overall growth from mid-March to mid-April,” Paradee said, adding that Lazada orders rose by 100 per cent while the trading value increased by 130 per cent compared to February and March. The best-selling products are electric appliances, kitchenware and toys.

Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said on Thursday (April 16) that the new discounts will run from today until June 30.

The products in the list include rice, palm oil, instant noodles, milk, frozen food, condiments, toilet paper, talcum powder, toothpaste, toothbrush, sanitary napkins, soap, shampoo, face cleansers, detergent and dishwashing liquid among others.

Wattanasak Sur-iam, deputy director-general of the Department of Internal Trade, said the drop in petrol price has not contributed to the discounts, because logistics cost has only dropped by between 1 and 3 per cent.

“It is our intention to alleviate people’s hardship during this period and help the public. The price of petrol is not related to this,” he said.

IsWhere is a combination of Google maps and Facebook works by location-based which allows Merchants to update information and promotions by themselves directed to customers near the business vicinity. IsWhere.com just recently launched the Digital Temple Thailand to help 40,000 temples to reach Buddhists near them. Customers can select from categories such as F&B, Services, Shopping, Entertainment and Temples and quickly find information and deals and communicate quickly to the business to get the products and services. This is extremely important during this crisis.

Covid Business Recovery Project has already gained commitment from, and is working with AIS Business, Teleinfo Media, Office of National Buddhism (ONAB), including Ministry of Commerce (Nakhon Pathom), Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation (TCG), Thai Coffee Association to invite all merchant members to use IsWhere to promote their business. We welcome more organisations to join this project.

Terence Mak, CEO and Founder said: From Covid-19 situation that happened to retailers over the world, all merchants need to go digital in order to survive and continue their business. IsWhere platform is designed to help retailers of all sizes to promote their product and services. Businesses with many locations can create different promotions to cater to the location demographic. Merchants can register for free and be listed on the platform to let consumers discover them. For unlimited promotions per month, merchants only need to pay a low fixed fee beginning from 500 baht. However, to help merchants during this crisis from now until end of June merchants can use all the features of the system including unlimited promotions for free. There are no other fees payable. Consumers can download our app on Google Play & IOS App store.

IsWhere is now open for merchants from F&B, Service, Shopping, Entertainment and Temple categories to join, other categories will be opened soon. Merchants can register for free here at iswhere.com/signup or call 02-262-8855 or email: iswhere@teleinfomedia.co.th

“Increasing the temperature of devices during summer affects people’s usage of electrical appliances, such as using air-conditioners and electric fans for long hours, or opening refrigerators more often,” she added. “We advise users to maintain electrical appliances in good condition to make them safe for heavier usage and to save on power bills.”

Phasuk further added that the optimal power efficient temperature of an air-conditioner during summer is 26 degrees Celsius or higher. “If you feel that is not cool enough, try turning on an electric fan towards the persons in the room,” she said. “An electric fan will create more airflow and increase wind velocity, which will help you feel as cool as 24 degrees without lowering the setting on the air-conditioner.”

She suggested that air-conditioners be cleaned at least twice a year to reduce accumulated dust that could lower maximum efficiency, besides sanitation reason especially when respiratory diseases are the main public concern at the moment.

“Make sure to check electrical wires for any damage, install a ground wire if you haven’t already done so. Also, unplug your appliances when you finish using them or when you are away to save on power bill and prevent electrical fire.”

For further information on safe and efficient electricity usage, visit MEA’s Facebook page, Line: @meathailand and Twitter: @mea_news or contact MEA call centre on 1130 at any time. Users can also download the MEA Smart Life mobile application via App Store and Google Play Store to get access to a variety of services of MEA.

Boonchai Chokwatana, chairman of Saha Pathanapibul, said the masks will be delivered to the ministry in several lots and are being produced by businesses under the Saha Group banner.