Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has urged his advisory team to launch measures to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and rising oil price, government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said on Thursday.
Thanakorn admitted that many people were suffering not only due to the Covid-19 crisis but also because of rising oil price in response to the Russia-Ukraine war even though the country’s economy had begun to recover.
He said the premier urged the team to work on:
• Reducing the expense burden on people, especially the vulnerable, regarding fuel, gas and electricity prices.
• Relieving the debt burden to ensure people’s assets such as houses and cars do not face confiscation.
• Boosting the country’s competency and increasing incomes by accelerating investment in large government projects, such as the Eastern Economic Corridor, and infrastructure.
Students who are infected with Covid-19 will be allowed to take the TCAS entrance exam, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) confirmed on Wednesday.
Department of Disease Control hazard communications director Sumanee Wacharasin said students who want to sit for the exam must follow these measures:
They should be asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and can apply via the student.mytcas.com website to take the exam at any of seven special centres from March 7.
This group will be separated from healthy candidates taking the test.
They can take a rest at a zone for the purpose midway into the exam.
The seven special centres will strictly follow maximum Covid prevention measures.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has installed 62,217 security cameras around the capital for the safety of Bangkokians, Governor Aswin Kwangmuang said on Thursday.
Aswin reported that the BMA had set up 13 CCTV monitoring centres and all security cameras in all 50 districts were online and linked to the centres.
The governor said the monitoring centres always check whether the cameras are online so that key incidents are not missed from being recorded.
He said the public can request footage from the cameras by contacting the centres. People who seek the footage must inform the centres of the serial numbers on the CCTV pole or on CCTV controlling boxes as well as the date and time when the accidents or untoward incidents took place.
The cameras have been installed in both busy areas and in remote sois, on pedestrian bridges and in other public areas, Aswin said.
“The CCTV cameras will record both criminal incidents and road accidents and the footage can be used as evidence,” he added.
The Labour Ministry on Thursday warned employers of workers from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos to renew their registrations by the end of this month.
Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin said Thai employers were allowed to hire workers from the three neighbouring countries under three Cabinet resolutions dated August 20, 2019, August 4, 2020 and November 10, 2020. The Cabinet then issued another resolution on July 13, 2021 to extend the effect of the three previous resolutions.
Suchart said labourers from the three countries employed under these three resolutions must complete legal steps for renewal of their registrations within the end of this month so that they would be eligible to be hired in the country until February 13, 2023.
The employers of immigrant workers, who are hired under the August 4, 2020 resolution, must inform the authorities to update the status of their workers and obtain their immigrant ID card by March 31, Suchart added.
Department of Employment director-general Pairoj Chotikasathien said there are about 11,000 immigrant workers who need to update their registrations and receive the immigrant ID card.
Pairoj said the Cabinet is mostly concerned about this group because if their registrations are not updated and completed by March 31, they would not be eligible to stay in the Kingdom.
Pairoj said employers who hired unregistered immigrants could be fined from Bt10,000 to Bt100,000 per illegal immigrant. If the employers are caught repeating the same mistake, the fine would be doubled and they would be subject to a maximum jail term of three years.
An illegal immigrant will be subject to a fine of Bt5,000 to Bt50,000 if he or she is arrested working in Thailand without registration and immigrant ID card and will also face deportation.
Police and forestry officials have found the remains of an elephant, which was apparently shot dead for its tusks in a forest reserve in Yala.
The remains, which included bones, skull, teeth and skin, were discovered during a patrol by a team of policemen from the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division and forestry officials in the Kabang forest reserve in tambon Bala, Yala’s Kabang district, on Wednesday.
An inspection of the remains found several holes in the elephant’s skull, while its tusks were missing.
The remains were found in an area connecting Ban Mai village in tambon Bala with Ban Rai Nua village in tambon Bahoi of Songkhla’s Saba Yoi district.
The officials used metal detectors to scan for bullets for use as evidence in tracing the poachers responsible for the horrid deed.
The team assigned Sub-Lieutenant Pimpa To-iam, a forestry official at the Sixth Wildlife Sanctuary Office in Pattani, to file a complaint with police to investigate the incident and bring the poachers to book.
Thailand voted in support of a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demanding Moscow withdraw its forces from the neighbouring country.
During an emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) late on Wednesday (Bangkok time), Thailand joined in the resolution demanding that Russia halt its aggression against Ukraine.
The resolution was supported by 141 counties with five nations voting against it and 35 others abstaining.
It was the first emergency UNGA since 1997.
Apart from Russia, four other countries – Belarus, Cuba, North Korea and Syria – voted against the resolution.
The 35 nations that abstained included China, India and South Africa. Asean members Vietnam and Laos also abstained.
The UNGA resolution has no legal binding but it expresses the common stand of the majority of nations.
Although Thailand voted in support of the resolution, Bangkok declined to name Russia in its statement in line with a statement issued by Asean foreign ministers on Saturday that they would not mention Russia.
Thai Ambassador to the UN Suriya Chindawongse said in a statement on Wednesday that “Thailand was gravely concerned with the worsening hostilities and violence as a result of the use of military force in Ukraine, which has led to the loss of life, including innocent civilians, and destruction of property and civilian infrastructure”.
The UNGA meeting came on the seventh day of Russia’s invasion.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that about 870,000 people have already fled Ukraine and the number could go to over a million soon if the war does not end.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry announced on Wednesday that 498 Russian troops were killed and 1,597 injured.
The National Health Security Office (NHSO) reported on Wednesday that its Covid-19 hotline 1330 received more than 70,000 calls on March 1, the first day new conditions for treatment under the Universal Coverage for Emergency Patients (UCEP) took effect.
Under old UCEP conditions, Covid patients received three days of free treatment at any facility before being switched to hospital treatment under their state health insurance scheme. However, after March 1, those who test positive for Covid-19 but do not require critical care will have to pay their own medical bills if they choose to seek treatment at private hospitals. Non-critical patients can still receive free Covid-19 treatment under home/community isolation.
“People have been calling in to the hotline to ask about the conditions for treatment in case they test positive for Covid-19, as well as how to register for home/community isolation,” said NHSO secretary-general Dr Jadet Thammathat-Aree. “From February 21 to March 1, the 1330 hotline received around 40,000 calls per day. The number of callers peaked on March 1 at around 70,300. Meanwhile, about 9,000 people per day have been contacting the NHSO via its Line official account and Facebook page.”
Jadet said the office is planning to add more volunteer operators to its existing 400 staffers.
“We have reached out to other agencies including the armed forces, Krungthai Bank and public nursing colleges to send in volunteers to help,” he said.
“Furthermore, Total Access Communication [Dtac] has provided mobile phone sim cards to increase available lines for the Covid-19 hotline.”
Jadet said that if the 1330 hotline is busy, people can contact the provincial public health office in their area via telephone, website or social media to inquire about Covid-19 treatment and community/home isolation system registration. Bangkokians can also use the city’s dedicated channel for Covid-19 inquiries via Line @Bkkcovid19connect.
To register for community/home isolation, contact hotline 1330 and press 14. If this line is unavailable, send a message to the Line official account @nhso or to Facebook @NHSO.Thailand.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) on Wednesday issued a Public Aerodrome Operating Certificate (PAOC) to Rayong’s U-Tapao Airport.
The certificate was presented by CAAT director-general Suttipong Kongpool to Admiral Woraphol Thongpreecha, director of U-Tapao Airport at CAAT’s head office at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
The PAOC is a new certification standard introduced by CAAT and is granted to operators of an airport that has been approved to provide service to the public and has met the latest international safety standards of air travel.
U-Tapao, which is officially called U-Tapao-Rayong-Pattaya International Airport, is the second airport in the country to be given a PAOC after Yala’s Betong Airport, which received the certificate in January.
U-Tapao International Airport serves both domestic and international flights and is part of the government’s Aerotropolis project that aims to make the eastern region a flying hub in Southeast Asia while supporting increasing air travel in the Eastern Economic Corridor.
The airport, with a 3.5km-long runway, can accommodate large aircraft such as the B777, B787, A330 and the Antonov.
U-Tapao Airport has undergone a series of upgrades in recent years, making it Thailand’s third international airport following Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi.
The three airports will be connected by a high-speed rail link that is currently under construction, and together are expected to serve up to 200 million passengers per year.
More than 6.4 million fraudulent phone calls were made in Thailand last year, increasing 270 per cent from the previous year, anti-fraud application Whoscall reported on Wednesday.
Scams via the short message service, or SMS, rose by 57 per cent year on year, with the most common method being phishing links inviting victims to download apps that siphon personal information.
The number of fraudulent calls globally last year reached 460 million, a 58 per cent increase from the previous year, Whoscall said.
It expects the trend to continue and expand even faster towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, fraudulent messages worldwide in 2021 increased more than 70 per cent year on year, with phishing links being the most common form of scams. These links lure victims to add friends to fake accounts on social media or access fake websites that steal their information or charge money from their linked credit cards.
Thitinan Suthinaraphan, head of Marketing at Whoscall developer Gogolook Thailand, said SMS scams are popular since they have a low cost and can reach targeted victims in wider groups.
“People should be cautious when receiving calls or messages from suspicious sources, as answering or clicking them can lead to a loss of asset or personal information,” she warned.
Thitinan said the most common scamming calls found in Thailand were from call centre gangs who claim to be from a delivery service and ask victims to provide personal information or transfer money as customs or delivery fees in order to receive a package.
“These calls have been reported frequently since April last year. From September to December 2021, such fraudulent calls have cost victims over 100 million baht,” she said.
“Another form of scamming calls that were reported frequently is from persons claiming to be police officers investigating a case that the victim was supposed to be involved in. The callers then demand that the victims provide personal information or give them money to make the charge go away,” Thitinan added.
Whoscall has more than 100 million downloads worldwide. It can be downloaded for free from the App Store or Play Store. Once installed and set up, Whoscall will help identify unknown phone numbers and can also scan links from potentially malicious SMS messages.
Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Wednesday that he would next week present to the Cabinet new conditions for treatment of Covid-19 patients under the Universal Coverage for Emergency Patients (UCEP) scheme, which will ensure that patients in all categories receive treatment at suitable facilities.
“The new, improved UCEP scheme for Covid-19 patients will be called UCEP Covid Plus,” he announced. “There will be clear criteria on patient classification to ensure that patients in yellow and red categories can still receive treatment at any hospital free of charge.”
Yellow category patients are those who have moderate Covid-19 symptoms or underlying health problems that require close monitoring, while red category patients are those who have severe symptoms and/or require respirators.
The Public Health Ministry on March 1 adjusted the UCEP condition for Covid-19 patients in the green category, or those who have mild or no symptoms.
Under old conditions, Covid patients receive three days of free treatment at any facility before being switched to hospital treatment under their state health insurance scheme. However, after March 1, those who test positive for Covid-19 but do not require critical care will have to pay their own medical bills if they choose to seek treatment at private hospitals. Green patients can still receive free Covid-19 treatment under home/community isolation.
“The adjustment of UCEP conditions is possible when we know the cause of the disease, as well as how to contain and treat it properly,” said Anutin.
“The new conditions will help us manage hospital beds and medical resources efficiently by making sure the best treatment goes to those who really need it.”
Anutin expects UCEP Covid Plus to be officially announced on either March 16 or April 1, depending on cabinet approval and suggestions.
The minister also said the adjustment was not due to a shortage of drug supplies, and insisted that Thailand had an adequate stock of Favipiravir, despite the current average usage of 2 million tablets per day.
The cameras have been installed in both busy areas and in remote sois, on pedestrian bridges and in other public areas, Aswin said.
The officials used metal detectors to scan for bullets for use as evidence in tracing the poachers responsible for the horrid deed.
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