#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012514

More than 1 million pieces of substandard industrial products valued at over 40 million baht were destroyed on Friday to prevent them from reaching consumers, senior officials revealed.

Most of them were incinerated at the Map Ta Phut Eco-Energy Power Plant in Rayong province while the products with incombustible materials were used for road paving.

Among the substandard products destroyed on Friday were crash helmets, motorcycle exhaust pipes, toys, LED bulbs, extension plugs, power banks, grill stoves, microwave ovens, convection ovens, electric fans, speakers and amplifiers, pressing irons, and hair dryers.

Senior officials from the Ministry of Industry, the Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI), and Consumer Protection Police Division (CPPD) attended a ceremony at SCG Cement’s power plant in Rayong before the incineration began.

The power plant has an incinerator designed for various types and sizes of industrial waste. Its enclosed system meets international standards on pollution and waste control.

TISI and CPPD suggested that consumers look for electrical appliances that meet the industrial standards, with the quality mark certified by the TISI.

Those with information regarding substandard products with no TISI label may inform the CPPD through its hotline 1135 or its Facebook page.

Published : February 18, 2022

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012512

The Test & Go scheme is likely to be expanded to include vaccinated foreign visitors who are entering Thailand by land and sea.

At a meeting last week, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) considered a proposal by its operations centre to accept tourists entering the country through the border checkpoint in the northeastern Nong Khai province and aboard sea cruises or yachts, according to official documents available on Friday.

The visitors will be required to follow the same rules as those entering Thailand by air. These include registration through the Thailand Pass system and two Covid-19 tests with the RT-PCR method.

The CCSA, which is chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, has instructed its operations centre to discuss the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant agencies for implementation.

Regarding land entry from Laos through the First Friendship Bridge, the scheme will initially accept tour groups.

For those entering by sea, their first Covid test will be conducted aboard their ship and the second one at a local hospital.

Further details regarding the programme’s implementation were unavailable on Friday.

Published : February 18, 2022

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012508

Nutcharut Wongharuthai, 22, has become the first Thai woman to win the World Women’s Snooker Championship, defeating a former seven-time champion after pocketing the black in the deciding frame.

Better known among Thai snooker fans as “Mink Saraburi”, Nutcharut won the 2022 championship held in Sheffield, the United Kingdom, with a dramatic 6-5 victory against Wendy Jans of Belgium.

Jans, a professional snooker and pool player, is a seven-time former winner of the premier non-professional tournament, the IBSF World Snooker Championship for women.

Mink managed to pip Jans to the title after the Belgian player missed the final black in their best-of-11-frame face-off, after the two were tied at five frames each.

The match, held at the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy, lasted five hours and 40 minutes.

Mink’s victory has earned her a place on the professional World Snooker Tour. In the 2019 tournament, as a 19-year-old, she lost in the final to England’s Reanne Evans to finish runner-up.

Jans held a 5-3 lead at one stage and was one frame away from her eighth title. However, the Thai player staged a dramatic recovery to win the next three frames and claim the title.

Mink trained a gruelling eight hours a day for the world championship. Expectations have been high from Mink after she won the youth snooker world championship in 2018, when she was 18 years old. In 2019, she recorded a maximum break of 147.

Published : February 18, 2022

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012507

Sugarcane growers and sugar manufacturers have joined a campaign against the practice of burning plantations before each harvest, which is partly blamed for the increase of harmful particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) in the air.

Thirty-seven associations of sugarcane growers from across the country have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with three sugar manufacturers — Korach Industry, Buriram Sugar Factory, and Rayong Sugar — agreeing to limit the pre-harvest burning of sugarcane plantations, according to Ekapat Wangsuwan, secretary-general of the Cane and Sugar Board.

The sugar factories signing the MoU will require that the daily supply of raw material must contain no more than 10 per cent of burnt sugarcane.

The new agreement took effect from February 7 for growers and factories in the Northeast, and February 14 for those in the North, Central region, and the eastern seaboard.

Ekapat said that the MoU was a collaboration between sugarcane growers and sugar factories aimed at reducing the worsening issue of PM2.5 dust. Also, the Cane and Sugar Board has requested provincial governors to issue directives against the burning of sugarcane plantations.

The Ministry of Industry had instructed the Cane and Sugar Board to address the issue to comply with the government policy of limiting the burning of sugarcane plantations to help reduce PM2.5 dust.

Published : February 18, 2022

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012505

Thailand is working with other Apec member countries over copyright protection of online content, in the face of streaming-service hacking and other infringements, Department of Intellectual Property director-general Vuttikrai Leewiraphan said on Friday.

The Kingdom and 20 other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) member states are pushing for measures to tackle the problem of copyright violation of online content, he said.

The move comes after numerous hacking attacks of online streaming services and cases of illegal access to online content. The Apec members also discussed measures to prevent the production and sale of devices used in copyright violations of online content, according to Vuttikrai, whose agency is under the Commerce Ministry.

On Monday and Tuesday, representatives of Apec member states attended an online meeting hosted by the Department of Intellectual Property.

Thailand is hosting the Apec 2022 summit and related meetings this year.

Vuttikrai said that copyright protection of online content was necessary for Thailand as the industry is worth an estimated 200 billion baht.

“Online streaming is a channel of distribution for Thailand’s content industry, including music, movies and drama series. The [online] channel is convenient, speedy and preferred by today’s consumers,” he said.

The department’s push is aligned with the government’s policy boosting Thailand’s soft power through digital content.

The director-general said his agency would also promote public awareness of the need to respect intellectual property rights through streaming systems and the Internet.

Published : February 18, 2022

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012503

The construction of Thailand’s first extradosed railway bridge, which would be a new landmark in Ratchaburi province, is expected to be completed in September this year, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) said.

An extradosed bridge employs a structure that combines the main elements of both a prestressed box girder bridge and a cable-stayed bridge.

The bridge will be a part of the 421 kilometres double-track railway southern line project between Nakhon Pathom and Chumphon provinces worth 33.9 billion baht, parallel to the Chulalongkorn railway bridge crossing the Mae Klong River.

The bridge will be 160 metres long, and the height from the rail to the apex of the pillar will be 16 metres.

Meanwhile, the SRT has approved two names for the new bridge – Burachat and Chulalongkorn 2.

The SRT said the names will be proposed to the Transport Ministry and the Cabinet for consideration within March this year.

Published : February 18, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012504

Bang Rak Hospital, which specialises in sexually transmitted infections (STIs), has been upgraded to a medical centre for providing one-stop services for sex-related health and wellness problems.

Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul presided over a ceremony on Friday morning to announce the hospital’s transformation into Bang Rak Medical Centre.

He was accompanied by Dr Kiartiphum Wongrachit, permanent secretary for Public Health.

Speaking during the ceremony, Anutin said Bang Rak Hospital has been an STI hospital for over 90 years and now the Disease Control Department has upgraded it to a one-stop service sex-related medical health centre.

The centre will provide examination, advice and treatment for STIs and skin diseases as well as administer hepatitis B vaccines. The centre will monitor the situation of STIs in the country and will make sure that the public would receive quality treatment, Anutin said.

He said the Public Health Ministry targets reducing the number of STI cases by 2030 with the goal of containing gonorrhoea cases to no more than 300,000 in that year and less than 100,000 syphilis cases.

Disease Control director-general Dr Opas Karnkawinpong said the Bang Rak Medical Centre would start providing sex-health medical services on March 1.

Among the services, the centre would administer Pre-exposure prophylaxis drug to prevent new HIV cases and would screen women for possible cervical cancer by checking for the HPV virus.

The centre is equipped with advanced laboratories to conduct immunological, biological and molecular tests. The centre also will carry out drug research with foreign organisations with the goal of transforming into a wellness centre and an STIs prevention training centre in the future, Opas added.

Next year, the centre will also provide services like checking for hepatitis C, as well as health checking for people before they travel abroad or apply for jobs, annual health checks and vaccination services, Opas said.

Published : February 18, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012502

Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Friday agreed to present AirAsia’s proposal to reduce landing and parking fees to Cabinet in a bid to help airline operators recover from Covid-19 impacts.

Anutin spoke after meeting with AirAsia’s CEO Tony Fernandes at Government House this morning. He said he would discuss the proposal with Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob and Airports of Thailand (AOT) before presenting it to Cabinet for approval.”

“If approved, the fees will be reduced for all airlines, not just AirAsia,” Anutin said.

Fernandes also urged the government to scrap the mandatory second RT-PCR test for visitors under the Test & Go scheme to boost tourist numbers.

Anutin said he promised he would look into the possibility of removing the test with the Disease Control Department and seek an alternative screening measure.

Published : February 18, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012494

Covid-19 will be taken off the emergency treatment list on March 1 to maintain the stability of the Thai public health system, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Thursday.

“However, people who have difficulty breathing, fatigue and severe cough will still be able to receive [free] treatment under the Universal Coverage for Emergency Patients (UCEP) scheme [after March 1],” he said. “Meanwhile, Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms will receive treatment under the home isolation scheme.”

Anutin said Omicron infections were less likely to lead to severe symptoms, adding that his ministry would be able to control the Covid-19 situation if more people were vaccinated. He urged over 2 million unvaccinated seniors to get their jabs to protect themselves against developing severe symptoms.

“Currently, 85 per cent of Covid-19 patients are not developing symptoms while over 90 per cent of Covid-19 deaths are among unvaccinated and vulnerable people,” he said. “However, the ministry is making efforts to minimise loss of life.”

Availability of hospital beds remains high, thanks to people cooperating with home and community isolation schemes, Anutin added.

Ministry permanent secretary Kiattiphum Wongrajit confirmed Covid-19 will be removed from list of emergency diseases, as most cases involved no more than mild flu symptoms while about 700 patients had been admitted to hospitals.

He said Covid-19 patients suffering from other emergency diseases, such as chronic kidney disease, can receive treatment under the UCEP scheme.

“Hence, we are considering a UCEP Plus scheme to support Covid-19 patients who have other emergency diseases.”

The Department of Health Service Support and National Institute for Emergency Medicine will decide which patients are eligible for treatment under the new scheme, he said.

He added that Covid-19 patients who don’t have other emergency diseases can receive treatment depending on their healthcare rights and symptoms.

“Hotel isolation is available for any patient who is unable to receive treatment under home isolation,” he said.

Department of Disease Control director-general Dr Opas Karnkawinpong said he didn’t want people to panic over the Omicron strain, adding that the Public Health Ministry and related agencies are monitoring the issue closely.

He advised people to keep their guard up by wearing face masks.

The number of Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms has not increased, he said, while the death rate has dropped from 0.22 per cent at beginning of January to 0.2 per cent.

“Meanwhile, the Covid-19 death rate worldwide dropped from 2.2 per cent to 1.4 per cent,” he explained.

He also urged the elderly to get their jabs as they were at risk of death from Covid-19. He asked seniors to be careful as their highest risk was from infection among family members.

Published : February 18, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012493

A construction camp in Bangkok’s Lak Si district has been sealed after 288 workers there tested positive for Covid-19.

District chief Sombat Kanokthippawan issued a closure order for the Italian-Thai Development construction camp on Soi Vibhavadi Rangsit 25, banning entry and exit for 10 days.

The order came after the district office received a hospital report that 96 of 150 workers in Lak Si district had tested positive, with a large number of high-risk contacts in the construction camp.

Last Wednesday, the district office conducted ATK screening followed by RT-PCR tests for Lak Si workers who tested positive. Of the total 845 workers tested, 288 were confirmed infected.

The district office ordered the site owner to transport patients to hospital and separate high-risk contacts from other workers. It also banned movement of workers without authorisation and ordered cleaning and disinfection of the workers’ camp.

High-risk contacts and workers at the camp will be tested again in three days.

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Published : February 18, 2022

By : THE NATION