The contribution, aimed to help medical personnel combat the spread of Covid-19, will be divided among Chulalongkorn Hospital, Siriraj Hospital, Ramathidodi Hospital, Rajavithi Hospital, Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute and the Thai Red Cross Society.

CP said the aim is to equip medical personnel so they can meet the standards when it comes to treating Covid-19 patients.

“Today we provided 2,000 protective suits worth Bt1.4 million and 40,000 face shields worth Bt1 million,” a CP official said.

CP’s senior chairman Dhanin Chearavanont had previously donated several sets of protective suits, including goggles and shoe covers, to doctors, nurses and other medical personnel at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.

“CP and its associates want to provide encouragement to all medical personnel who are making sacrifices and putting themselves at risk to help people,” the official said. “The company is determined to provide assistance from all aspects and help Thailand overcome this crisis.”

This world-class technology will strengthen Thai medical staff capabilities to cope with COVID-19 pandemic effectively.

The AI-assisted solution based on HUAWEI CLOUD technology is co-developed by Huawei and HY Medical, a China enterprise that is a leading expert in the AI medical industry, focusing on medical imaging through artificial intelligence, with the technology of computer vision and deep learning. This technology 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. It can provide result of image analyzing as quick as 25 seconds per case, can help doctors more accurately distinguish between early, advanced, and severe stages of COVID-19. In addition, more than 20 hospitals in China has adopted this technology to handle the COVID-19 and after continues training and optimization, the solution has become more efficient with classification of accuracy rate at 96% and with DICE score higher than 85.

The 5G network will enhance effectiveness of medical service in hospital by guarantee quality of high-speed connection, high reliability and low latency. The healthcare system will benefit from improved response times with more 3-4 times uploaded efficiency compared to WiFi, patient monitoring, data collection and analytics, remote collaboration and resource allocation. It also sets an example for digitalized, data driven and Cloud-based innovative major public emergency response.

Recently, Huawei Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd., provided the AI solution for COVID-19 diagnosis to Ramathibodi Hospital and delivered Huawei Telemedicine Video Conference Solution to Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, as part of its plans to help coping with COVID-19 situation. The solution is real-time and full-functional teleconference system that can facilitate Thai medical staff to work smoother, doctors can monitor and diagnose patients from everywhere through their own smart devices. More importantly, this reduces risk of infection for Thai medical team.

Charvanin Bunditkitsada, JWD’s executive committee chairman and CEO, said due to the pandemic, consumers are becoming more careful about their health and safety, which is why JWD hired an expert in integrated disease control to find a way to eradicate all viruses, bacteria and mould at its facilities. The newly employed automatic intelligent UVC robot can accurately and completely kill viruses, bacteria and mould in five to seven minutes through UVC rays. This technology is normally used in operating theatres, sterile rooms, water- and air-treatment plants to name a few.

As for reports that the rate of storage has risen two to three-fold since February, JWD said that there is more demand from online businesses that require additional storage space in downtown Bangkok.

It also said that a large number of contracts have been signed for its Thien Ruammit and Ramintra branches, while its fifth branch on Rama IX will be open for business in June.

The Siam branch of JWD Store It is open 24 hours, while Art Space, which apart from providing space for storage also provides integrated logistics for art works, is open until 7pm and located near the National Stadium BTS station.

The MEA has prepared a plan to support electricity distribution during the period of increasing electricity usage in residences. The MEA is working to manage electricity systems to be stable, sufficient, safe and continuous.

In preparation for the high electricity usage, the MEA has maintained and Inspected electrical equipment including change of equipment on electricity poles and other related operations. Also, the MEA has a project to move the aerial electrical system underground, which is ongoing. A project is also being implemented to increase electricity distribution via high-voltage power lines to support the demand for electricity in key business areas that are constantly expanding, help stabilise the electricity distribution system, reduce the physical risks that may occur to high voltage electrical lines on the ground such as accidents, as well as reduce the effects of seasonal storms while having backup electrical systems installed in important locations, Phasuk said

The MEA’s power management system uses SCADA technology and DMS systems to automate power supply, helping to manage, inspect, analyse and operate pressure control systems and provide efficient and safe electricity distribution. In addition, FFM (Field Force Management) is also installed to resolve power failure conveniently, quickly, and accurately, Phasuk said.

People can report power outages through the MEA Smart Life Application that can take pictures, mark location on the map, and coordinates with staff who standby 24 hours, making MEA’s electricity distribution systems efficient, secure, and fully prepared for any situation.

For further information, visit https://www.mea.or.th/content/detail/87/5323 or contact MEA Call Centre 1130 or Line @meanews.

Jaturong Suriyassin, deputy director-general and spokesman of Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) has said that the Energy Regulatory Commission has ordered MEA, Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) and Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) to reduce the electricity fee after VAT for all users by 3 per cent to help alleviate people’s financial burden during the Covid-19 situation.

“All eight types of users will automatically receive three per cent discount in their power bill of April, May and June,” he said. “Unlike the returning electricity deposit campaign, there is no need for registration in advance.”

Jaturong added that this campaign is applicable to all channels of payment, including online, bank account transfer or payment via agencies such as convenience stores.

“With this measure, we expected to help 3.9 million households save up to Bt1.6 billion in power bills,” he added.

MEA has also announced several measures to help electricity users during the Covid-19 situation, including offering grace period of six months to postpone paying power bills, returning electricity deposit, canceling minimum electricity charge for business users and increasing free usage cap for residential users with less than 5 amps meters from 50 to 90 units per month.

For further information on these measures, please visit https://www.mea.or.th/content/detail/87/5317 or contact MEA Call Center 1130 or Line @meanews.

From left to right;

1. Sitamon Ratanavadi, Corporate Social Responsibility Assistant, Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited
2. Porntipa Chinvetkitvanit, President, Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited
3. Sarath Ratanavadi, Chief Executive Officer, Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited
4. Professor Piyamitr Sritara, MD, Dean, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University
5. Wg. Cdr. Sirintara Singhara na Ayudhaya, MD, Deputy Dean for International Relations, the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University
6. Pairoj Boonkongchuen, Director, Ramathibodi Chakri Naruebodindra Hospital
7. Associate Professor Pavit Pienvichit, M.D, the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University

Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited or GULF presented a donation of twenty million baht to the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University to fund the procurement of five ventilators and three Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machines that are able to provide prolonged cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are unable to fully function. This much-needed medical equipment is vital and in short supply amidst the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.

Mr. Sarath Ratanavadi, Chief Executive Officer, Gulf Energy Development, Public Company Limited stated, “GULF has consistently supported public health programs for many years. Given the current situation, the company is aware of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Thailand. We therefore would like to provide 20 million baht support to the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital for the procurement of this essential medical equipment to improve the hospital’s ability to treat COVID-19 patients and increase their chances of survival. This is also a long-term investment as the medical equipment could be used to help other patients with lung and heart disease moving forward.”

Professor Piyamitr Sritara, MD, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital added, “As the COVID-19 outbreak is getting worse, the medical personnel at Ramathibodi Hospital need to speed up preparations to treat critically-ill patients whose numbers may increase in the future. As such, ECMO and ventilators are crucial equipment in a situation like this.”

With regards to COVID-19 infection, Assistant Professor Kamthorn Malatham, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Ramathibodi Hospital explained, “For this new coronavirus, 85% of patients have only a few symptoms without complications. However, we are concerned about the remaining 15% with complications who present severe symptoms as their condition worsens rapidly. They develop pneumonia, which requires life-support technology such as the ECMO that acts as artificial heart and lungs.”

“The state of the outbreak in Thailand is still in the golden period. This means that the number of infected people is relatively low but is starting to increase. There are two possible scenarios for Thailand, either a steady rise like in Singapore or a huge spike like what happened in Italy and Iran. Medical personnel hope that it will be like the former so that there will be sufficient medical personnel on the front lines and medical equipment for treating patients. Of course, prevention is better than cure, especially since there is currently no vaccine. As a result, we would like to ask for everyone’s cooperation to take care of themselves so that we all could get through this situation together,” Associate Professor Dr.Patarawan Woratanarat, MD., Head of Orthopaediecs Department, Ramathibodi Hospital concluded.

The extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine acts as a temporary medical intervention for patients whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of oxygen to their bodies, such as patients with respiratory failure due to severe infection. The device also helps patients who are waiting for a heart or lung transplant. It is regarded as medical innovation that significantly reduces the mortality rate of patients in hospitals.

Assistant Professor Kamthorn Malatham, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Ramathibodi Hospital

Associate Professor Dr.Patarawan Woratanarat, MD., Head of Orthopaedic Department, Ramathibodi Hospital

Mr. Sarath Ratanavadi, Chief Executive Officer, Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited

 Professor Piyamitr Sritara, MD, Dean, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University

The extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine

At the same time, the company is rolling out a range of measures to limit exposure of its employees to the virus , so that they could continue to provide mobile services without interruption.

Dtac chief executive officer Sharad Mehrotra said: “As the coronavirus outbreak spreads and causes a series of serious disruptions, mobile connectivity becomes the most critical way for everyone to stay connected with loves ones, continue to conduct business and receive information from the government. This is why dtac has put in place measures to keep our customers and employees safe, while also ensuring reliable services”.

Most needed services

Should the Covid-19 outbreak escalate, dtac will have to respond to both changing behaviour in mobile usage and the need to maintain uninterupted services for its customers.

Dtac will ensure continuous monitoring of its network with a backup Network Operation Center. dtac has also readied three alternative call centres and automatic response systems to serve any spikes in customer queries.

“We have to be ready to not only maintain our current level of service but adapt it to changing needs if need be. We have the teams ready to do this, and we can even roll out mobile units if need be. We will not let our customers down when they need us most,” said Mehrotra.

Ensuring continued service

Dtac has also implemented measures to limit the organisation’s exposure to possible disruption. dtac has implemented mandatory temperature check for all employees and visitors to its offices. Moreover, cleaning of high-contact surfaces is now performed hourly. Disinfection professionals spray antiseptic solution in its offices every night and all salespersons are required to wear face masks in the shops.

There have been no cases of COVID-19 infection among dtac employees but all employees must self-quarantine for 14 days after returning from high-risk countries or in contact with a possibly infected person.

On March 18-19, dtac is conducting trials for work arrangements where one half of the company headquarters’ employees work from home, alternating with the other half every other day.

The information will serve as guidelines and daily practices to prevent the spread of the epidemic in the office, the manufacturing plant and at home.

Siripong Arunrattana, chief operating officer of CPF’s livestock business, and a group of executives and employees will attend the session at CP Tower Silom in Bangkok.

The presentation also will be viewed through video conference at CPF’s offices and processing plants in 57 areas nationwide.

CPF has announced stringent restrictions to all employees and control measures in the processing line aimed at preventing infections.

The addition, to be effective as of Monday (March 16), will significantly strengthen KPMG’s current Customs and supply chain services capabilities, the company said

“KPMG in Thailand’s move on the country’s Customs scene is aimed at further enhancing how it can help businesses with the ever-increasing complexity of Customs requirements and international trade regulations while meeting the highest standards of compliance. I am delighted to welcome our new partner, Malika Bhumivarn, and her team. Their wealth of experience will further strengthen KPMG in Thailand’s Customs capabilities,” said Charoen Phosamritlert, chief executive officer, KPMG in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.

“The synergies of our combined strengths as well as the resources of our global network will allow us to meet the unique needs of our clients,” said Benjamas Kullakattimas, partner, head of tax and legal, KPMG in Thailand.

“I am excited to be part of KPMG’s rapidly expanding service offerings. I believe my Customs and supply chain expertise, when teamed with KPMG’s network and resources, will be of strategic assistance to clients,” said Malika Bhumivarn, tax partner, KPMG in Thailand.

KPMG in Thailand, with more than 1,900 professionals offering audit, legal, tax, and advisory services, is a member firm of the KPMG network of independent firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative, a Swiss entity.