Don’t fall for ‘too good to be true’ visa offers, warns US embassy
The US embassy along with missions from other countries recently issued a warning about fraudulent visa agencies who make offers that are too good to pass up.
“Don’t think it can’t happen to you! Every day there are visa applicants who fall victim to fraudulent visa agencies. If someone is making you an offer that sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” the US embassy posted on its Facebook page on Thursday.
Apart from promising well-paying jobs, some scammers claim that all visa applications submitted through them have a 100-per-cent chance of getting approved. Some of these agencies also overcharge their customers.
Comments on a similar subject were also posted on the Facebook pages of Canada, New Zealand, UK and Australia embassies.
The US embassy has advised victims of these scams to report via support-thailand@ustraveldocs.com.
98 deaths, 9,186 infections as Thailand hits new record
Thailand logged a new daily high of 98 deaths and 9,186 new infections over the past 24 hours on Thursday, pushing the country’s caseload to 372,215 cases.
Of the total infections, 7,481 had tested positive in hospitals, 1,604 were found via proactive testing, 79 infections were found in prisons and 22 were arrivals from overseas.
Bangkok led the list with 2,224 cases, followed by Samut Prakan (846), Samut Sakhon (640), Chonburi (523) and Nonthaburi (355).
Meanwhile, 5,543 patients have recovered and been discharged in the last 24 hours.
Of the total 372,215 cases, 266,127 have recovered and been discharged, 103,056 patients are still in hospitals, and 3,032 have died.
Meanwhile, another 275,216 people were given their first Covid-19 shot in the last 24 hours, while 27,820 were given their second shot, bringing the total number of Covid-19 vaccines administered in Thailand to 13,533,717.
According to Worldometer, as of 11am on Thursday, the number of confirmed cases globally had risen to 189.16 million, 172.79 million of whom have recovered, 12.3 million are active cases (79,141 in severe condition) and 4.07 million have died (up by 8,715).
Thailand ranks 59th on the global list of most cases, which is topped by the US with 34.84 million, followed by India with 30.98 million, Brazil with 19.2 million, France with 5.85 million and Russia 5.82 million.
Rapid Covid-19 test kits already up for sale in Hat Yai
A pharmacy in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district has already started selling rapid antigen test kits after the Public Health Ministry approved the use of these kits earlier this week to combat long queues for RT-PCR tests.
The ministry’s plan was to first deliver a supply of the test kits to more than 300 state hospitals nationwide before getting pharmacies to stock up.
On Wednesday, reports said the rapid test kits were already available at Pharmaplex, a large drug store in Hat Yai.
The store has a stock of some 400 kits, which is expected to be sold out within a week.
Pharmaplex manager Dr Phashinee Saokaew said the test kits sold in her store are of the “For a” brand. She also said results from these test kits are sometimes unreliable, so people should test themselves again in three or five days of getting a negative result.
Dr Thiravat Hemachudha, chief of Chulalongkorn University’s Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, had voiced similar concerns in a Facebook post.
Thiravat warned that the result can be false if people don’t understand the principles of an antigen test. In other words, testing negative on this rapid test kit does not mean they are not infected.
For instance, he said, saliva and samples taken from the nasal cavity can give different results due to the virus levels at the sources.
However, he conceded that though the test kits would provide unreliable results, there is no other option at this point in time.
Bookings for Sinopharm jabs delayed due to app problems
Registration for Sinopharm jabs via Chulabhorn Royal Academy’s CRA SINOP smartphone application has been postponed to Sunday because the app is not ready yet.
The academy was scheduled to take bookings from today.
Dr Nithi Mahanonda, the academy’s secretary-general, posted an apology on his Facebook page on Thursday saying the CRA SINOP app will be ready for download via Google Play Store and the iOS App Store from Sunday.
Like Sinovac and Covaxin, Sinopharm is also an inactivated virus vaccine. It has been approved for use on people aged 18 and over. So far, more than 65 million doses have been administered in China, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Hungary.
Sinopharm is the sixth vaccine approved for emergency use by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which says it is 79 per cent effective against symptomatic Covid-19 infection. The vaccine can also be stored in a refrigerator at 2-8 degrees Celsius.
People rush to register for latest cash-handout scheme
People flocked to their nearest Social Security Office on Thursday to register so they can claim compensation under the government’s new relief measures.
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a cash-handout scheme for those affected by the curfew and Covid restrictions imposed in Greater Bangkok and the deep South.
The measures cover Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and Songkhla.
Thai employees under the social security system will receive half their salary in compensation, up to a maximum of 10,000 baht.
Self-employed people registered for social security will get payments of 5,000 baht.
Employers under the social security system will be compensated 3,000 baht per employee, up to a maximum of 600,000 baht.
Households and businesses will also get two months of discounted utility bills.
These relief measures apply to workers in the hotel and food industry, construction, entertainment/cultural venues, services, transportation and warehouses, wholesale and retail operators, administration and services, science and academia, and communications sectors.
To claim compensation, self-employed people and employers must register into the social security system within this month.
CSO Coalition seeks halt in sales of young fish, warns of extinction
The Civil Society Organisation Coalition for Ethical and Sustainable Seafood (CSO Coalition) urged traders and supermarkets to stop selling young fish to prevent extinction of aquatic wildlife.
“From our research in 15 provinces, the biggest markets for young seafood are modern trade and supermarkets, while fresh markets and souvenir shops are only responsible for selling a small fraction of non-adult seafood products,” the CSO Coalition said in online seminar titled “Baby fish, a big issue of Thailand’s seas”.
“Catching juvenile fish will prevent them becoming adults and laying eggs to increase offspring and will drastically decrease fish population in the sea,” it pointed out.
“This will adversely affect the aquatic ecosystem and eventually hurt the economy as the fishery industry will yield lower output.”
CSO Coalition seeks halt in sales of young fish, warns of extinction
The coalition also revealed that some sellers use the trick of changing the names of young seafood to make customers think they are not young fish but a different breed of adult fish that are small by nature.
“Yong mackerel, for instance, has been renamed ‘clear mackerel’, while young anchovies have been called ‘Khao San fish’ [rice fish]. Young squid and horse crab are also marketed under totally different names of Katoy squid and Katoy crab, whereas ‘Katoy’ in the southern dialect means miniature but not necessarily young,” CSO Coalition said.
“As these young fish are small in size, they are often caught and sold in bulk at high prices,” it said.
“If fishermen had waited for another six months, those fish would have become bigger and could be sold at more reasonable prices per weight ratio. If the problem persists, consumers will eventually have to buy fish at higher prices as good quality fish will become harder to find,” CSO Coalition warned.
It therefore urged modern trade operators and supermarkets to stop selling young fish and invited people to support the campaign by signing up at Change.org/BabySeafood.
CSO Coalition seeks halt in sales of young fish, warns of extinction
“To solve this problem everyone must work together. The government must issue suitable laws to limit the catching of young fish and traders must stop selling non-adult seafood, which will help reduce market demand greatly, while customers must also stop buying such fish,” the CSO Coalition pleaded.
Anxious, bored construction worker flies the quarantine coup
A 46-year-old construction labourer, who reportedly slipped away from quarantine in Buriram, said he escaped because he was bored and anxious at being ordered to stay under detention.
On Wednesday, the Ban Huay village chief in Chaloem Phra Kiat district was informed by the quarantine facility that a man had escaped after four days into detention. The man (whose name was not revealed) was a construction worker who returned from a Covid-19 high-risk area in Nakhon Ratchasima province.
A search team finally found the man at his house.
The man told the village chief and his team that he flew the coup because of anxiety and boredom in quarantine. He added that his medicine for a congenital disease also ran out, so he decided to leave the facility and asked a taxi biker to take him back home.
He was immediately sent back into quarantine.
According to his medical history, he was a psychiatric patient.
GPO set to sign Moderna purchase contract with private hospitals
The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) will start signing purchase contracts for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine with private hospitals on Friday, while a contract with Zuellig Pharma, which imports Moderna, will be signed on July 23.
“As there are 285 hospitals which have expressed an interest in the vaccine, we expect the purchase contracts with them to all be finalised before July 21,” GPO deputy managing director Dr Sirikul Matevelungsun said on Wednesday.
“We can then expect to sign the contract with Zuellig Pharma next week on Friday [July 23], which is sooner than we previously estimated.”
Sirikul said the GPO expected the delivery of 5 million Moderna doses to arrive between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.
Moderna is among the top choices of alternative Covid-19 vaccines in Thailand, with private hospitals opening reservations earlier this month.
For example, Bangkok’s Phyathai 2 Hospital, which sells each dose of the vaccine at THB1,650, announced they were sold out in less than a minute after reservation opened on July 8 at noon.
Daily Covid-19 deaths reach new high on Thursday at 98 deaths with 9,186 new infections
Ministry of Public Health reported on Thursday (July 15) morning that in the past 24 hours there are 9,186 new patients who tested positive for Covid-19, 79 of whom have been found in prisons.
Death toll increased by 98, which is the country’s new high, while 5,543 patients were cured and allowed to leave hospitals.
Cumulative cases in the country are at 372,215 with 3,032 total deaths.
Bed situation for Bangkok virus patients reaches critical level
The bed situation for Covid-19 patients in Bangkok is at a critical level, especially for those in the red group, for which there are only 10 per cent of beds available, the Public Health Ministry revealed.
“Bangkok hospitals have a total capacity of about 1,000 beds for red-group patients. There are now only 10 per cent of these beds vacant,” said Dr Korakrit Limsommut, director of the ministry’s Health Administration Division.
“For patients in the yellow group, there are [only] 415 vacant beds, plus some 449 beds available in hospital isolation rooms. As for patients in the green group, there are 500 vacant beds at field hospitals, plus about 4,200 at certified hospitels,” the doctor said.
Patients in the red group are those with severe symptoms that require respirators, while patients in the yellow group display moderate symptoms but have underlying health problems that require close monitoring. Those in the green group have tested positive but are still asymptomatic.
Korakrit also said the ministry has 1,613 Remdesivir and 4,017,781 Favipiravir tablets in stock for treating Covid-19 patients.
“We are planning to procure 21 million more Favipiravir tablets to cope with the rising infections,” he said.
“The first big lot of 16 million tablets should be delivered within this month; two million will arrive in August and another two million in September. Negotiations are being conducted with the manufacturer for the remaining one million tablets,” he added.
CSO Coalition seeks halt in sales of young fish, warns of extinction
CSO Coalition seeks halt in sales of young fish, warns of extinction
