31 deaths, 2,631 new cases as Thailand’s third wave rolls on
Thailand recorded 31 deaths from Covid-19 and 2,631 new cases on Friday, including 189 inmates and 51 returnees.
Bangkok again leads the list with 824 infections, followed by 460 in Pathum Thai, 202 in Samut Prakan, 198 in Phetchaburi and 153 in Nonthaburi.
Meanwhile, 2,493 patients have recovered and been discharged in the last 24 hours.
As of Friday, the number of confirmed cases in Thailand had risen to 171,979. So far, 120,697 have recovered and been discharged, 50,105 patients are still in hospitals and 1,177 have died.
Separately, 24,786 people were given their first Covid-19 shot in the last 24 hours, while 31,233 people were given their second shot, bringing the total number of Covid-19 vaccines administered in Thailand to 3,961,589.
According to Worldometer, as of 10am on Friday, the number of confirmed cases globally had risen to 172.89 million (up by 471,297), 155.60 million of whom have recovered, 13.58 million are active cases (89,220 in severe condition) and 3.71 million have died (up by 10,296).
Thailand ranks 80th on the global list of most cases, which is topped by the US with 34.17 million, followed by India 28.57 million, Brazil 16.80 million, France 5.69 million and Turkey 5.27 million.
Third wave of infections delays opening of Betong Airport in Yala
Yala’s Betong Airport opening has been delayed because the third wave of Covid-19 infections has affected the licence approval process, Department of Airports director-general Apirat Chaiwongnoi said on Thursday.
The airport was initially scheduled to open in April.
Once it starts operating, Betong Airport will be the 29th airport under the administration of the Department of Airports and will service both military and commercial flights.
“The department applied for a public transport licence with the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand [CAAT], which wants the airport to make certain adjustments to meet the criteria,” he said. “We expect the adjustments to be completed in June, and the airport will obtain its licence shortly after.”
In February, Nok Air submitted a proposal to the Transport Ministry for flights between Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport and Betong Airport and put in for funding.
The airline also asked for a guarantee that its flights to Betong would be at least 75 per cent full for the first six months, and 60 per cent full thereafter.
Nok Air plans to fly between Don Mueang and Betong six times a week and will use small aircraft seating 86 passengers. The target customers are government officials and local tourists.
The 920-rai Betong Airport is located in Yarom sub-district and is just 12 kilometres from Betong downtown.
Built under a budget of Bt1.9 billion, the airport features a 1.8km runway that can accommodate small 70-80 seat planes and a terminal that targets 300,000 passengers yearly.
The airport plans to extend the runway to 2.1km to accommodate larger planes in the future.
Enforced disappearance becomes hot topic a year after activist’s abduction in Cambodia
Many embassies in Thailand posted messages on Friday marking the anniversary of the disappearance of pro-democracy activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit.
The activist was abducted by armed men outside the Mekong Garden Apartment in the Cambodian capital on June 4 last year. Though the incident was recorded on CCTV, little has been done to locate him.
Wanchalearm, 37, had fled to Phnom Penh in 2014 after being summoned by the junta following a coup in May of the same year.
He is among nine critics of the Thai government and military who are believed to have been abducted over the past few years. Wanchalearm’s case has become the focus of anti-establishment protests seeking to oust the Thai government and change the junta-sponsored Constitution.
His abduction has also brought the issue of enforced disappearances to the forefront, with people asking about the whereabouts of hundreds of Thai political activists who have gone missing since the 1932 Siamese revolution. So far, little or no progress has been made in their cases.
Several embassies, such as New Zealand, UK, Germany and Denmark, have all raised the same questions in their message – what would people do if someone they love suddenly disappeared.
“Would you miss them? Would you be begging to know what happened? Would you do all that you can to find them? Would you want justice?” they ask.
Thailand is not the only country suffering from the problem of enforced disappearances. Hundreds of thousands of people have vanished, usually during conflicts or periods of repression, in at least 85 countries.
Usually, agents of the state or people authorized by the state are believed to be behind these disappearances, in which the victim is either murdered or tortured. These disappearances do not just afflict great pain on the victim, but also lifelong suffering on their families and relatives. They are also in violation of every international human rights law.
26 assault rifles stolen from Narathiwat military base, not 28: Army
The 4th Army Area released a statement on Thursday saying that 26 AK102 assault rifles had been stolen from its military base in Narathiwat on May 18, not 28 as initially reported.
Asuspect, identified as Hazan Samae, has been arrested and has reportedly confessed to selling the rifles. Additional information on the suspect has been withheld for security reasons.
So far, officials have found six of the stolen weapons that were allegedly being used by insurgents. Search is ongoing for the remaining 20.
Constant development to make UCS on par with other health schemes
The Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS) is always seen by many people as a benchmark for future improvements in the Universal Coverage Scheme (UCS), despite their differences in several aspects.
One privilege that has long been being enjoyed by the people receiving healthcare services under the CSMBS is freedom of choice when choosing a hospital at where they seek services.
Patients under the UCS had never before been offered the right to freely choose a hospital of their choice as do their CSMBS counterparts, until recently when the UCS has adopted a revamp in response to Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s new policy.
Mr Anutin, in his capacity as the chairman of the National Health Security Board, expects the UCS to keep improving until it more or less becomes on par with the CSMBS and the Social Security Scheme.
He has at this point expected the UCS to achieve in four areas of improvement, namely improve freedom of choice in choosing primary care units, stop using paper-based referral documents, offer more choices of cancer-treating hospitals and allow patients to instantly change their primary healthcare providers when they need to and without having to wait for 15 days as in the past.
After being piloted in Bangkok, also known as Area Health Region 13, on Nov 1 last year, a plan to offer UCS patients freedom in choosing primary care units has earlier this year been expanded to cover all four health regions in the Northeast, namely Area Health Region 7, 8 9 and 10.
A total of 623 million baht in budget has been approved to fund this expanded pilot project in these Northeastern provinces, said Dr Jadej Thammatac-haree, secretary-general of the NHSO.
And with all these health regions taking part in the primary care unit freedom of choice programme, the National Health Security Office (NHSO) and the Ministry of Public Health have in April agreed to jointly develop a single claim system for these health regions and all others to use when submitting claims for healthcare cost reimbursements under the UCS, he said.
In the Area Health Region8, for instance, patients have since March 2 no longer need a paper-based hospital referral document when visiting hospitals under jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Health, said Dr Poramet Kingko, the Udon Thani Provincial Chief Public Health Officer and director of the Area Health Region 8.
The Area Health Region 8 covers seven northeastern provinces, namely Udon Thani, Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, Loei, Nong Bua Lam Phu, Nong Khai and Bueng Kan.
Constant development to make UCS on par with other health schemesPrior to its implementation of this new policy, Area Health Region 8 had learned from Nakhon Ratchasima and adopted the province’s cloud computing technology-based hospital referral system and further developed it into its own system called “R8 Anywhere”.
A beta version of the paperless referral system was then tested at all hospitals in the Area Health Region 8 to garner feedback on it, which was important for the work of fine-tuning the system to as much as possible meet all users’ needs.
And one week before the launch of this project, all hospitals and other healthcare facilities in these seven provinces were well connected via the R8 Anywhere system, said Dr Poramet.
In the beginning, the manual hospital referral system was still run along with the online referral system to ensure the latter run smoothly, which it did, he said.
Aside from that no paper-based referral documents are required anymore in the Area Health Region 8, UCS patients from other neighboring health regions who visit hospitals in the Area Health Region 8 won’t be charged for healthcare services fee either, he said.
The same R8 Anywhere system already allows UCS patients from any of its primary care units to more freely choose to receive treatment at hospitals capable of treating cancer as well, even though this part of the project has yet to be officially announced, said Dr Poramet.
Because of its strength in IT system development and good teamwork and unity, the Area Health Region 8 required only about a month in preparing to implement this project, he said.
And with sufficient budget allocated by the NHSO to fund the project’s implementation in this health region, all hospitals here are assured they won’t encounter losses as a result of participating in this UCS development project, he said.
With electronic medical records stored in the Area Health Region 8’s IT system and shared among its healthcare providers, important and up-to-date information about medical and treatment history of all patients will literally follow them wherever they go to see doctors, said Dr Kawi Wirasetthakun, the director of National Health Security Office Region 8 Udon Thani.
“So now the UCS has been upgraded to be almost on par with the CSMBS in terms of freedom of choice when it comes to choosing a hospital to receive a healthcare service,” he said.
These improvements in the UCS are in line with Mr Anutin’s policy to improve equality and decrease disparities in healthcare rights in the country’s healthcare system, he said.
All other health regions in the Northeast have in March begun implementing Mr Anutin’s policy and now are keeping improving their system.
Dr Somroek Chuengsaman, the public health inspector for the Area Health Region 7, said this improvement in the UCS is aimed not only at improving services at the primary care level but also the secondary care and the tertiary care levels.
“Now we’re working to make it soon possible for patients to more freely visit any healthcare facilities at all levels anywhere in the entire Northeast. And when this region succeeds in this project the nationwide implementation of it will likely follow in the year to come,” he said.
Impact on dollar from US jobs situation to determine bahts direction
The baht opened at 31.22 to the US dollar on Friday, weakening from the previous close of 31.15. The Thai currency is likely to move between 31.20 and 31.30 during the day, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.
He said the strengthening of the dollar was affecting the baht.
The market strategist added that the US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) would be a factor in the movement of the dollar and the baht.
He predicted that if the NFP surpassed observers’ expectations, or was equal to at least 900,000 employment positions, the dollar would strengthen, as it would signal a strong rebound of the US economy. Such a scenario will pressure the US Federal Reserve to reduce its support for financial liquidity.
However if the NFP is below expectation, with only around 300,000 jobs, the markets would move into risk-off state, due to concerns about inflation rate due to an employment problem in the US.
Poon forecast that the baht would not weaken sharply, as the currency was still supported by funds of foreign investors in Thailand.
Poon also said that the Covid-19 vaccine distribution would be a key factor for investment. He believed that if the vaccine was distributed without any interruption, more people would invest in the Thai stock market, strengthening the baht in the next quarter.
Rohingya trafficking convict Manas dies in prison at 65
Former Army adviser Lt-General Manas Kongpaen, who had been jailed for involvement in a Rohingya trafficking case, died on June 2 from a sudden heart attack while exercising at the Medical Correctional Hospital in Bangkok, the Department of Corrections said on Thursday. He was 65.
“Manas reportedly passed out while exercising. Officials tried to give him a CPR for about 40 minutes, but he remained unresponsive,” the department’s director-general, Ayut Sinthopphan, said.
“The doctor concluded that the cause of death was a sudden heart attack. There is no trace of Covid-19 virus in his body,” Ayut said.
Manas’s funeral rites will be held at Wat Chonprathan Rangsarit in Nonthaburi province from Friday to Sunday.
Manas was among 103 people accused over their roles in the trafficking of Rohingya migrants to jungle camps in Songkhla province. He and the others were arrested in May 2015 for taking bribes and smuggling Rohighya migrants into the country by promising to take them to work in Malaysia in exchange for a fee. Instead, the Rohingya were locked up in the camp and not allowed to use phones or contact anyone. The crackdown also found more than 30 graves of migrants near the camp. The exhumed bodies showed evidence of torture.
The Criminal Court sentenced Manas and the others to 40 years in prison in May 2019 after finding them guilty of human trafficking and money laundering, among other charges.
In November, the Appeal Court increased the prison terms of 54 of the defendants, including Manas, to 82 years. Other defendants in this case included politicians from southern provinces, government officials, as well as Thai and Myanmar citizens.
Hot day forecast for Bangkok, upper Thailand with a few thundershowers
The weaker southwest monsoon prevailing over the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand would result in lesser rains throughout the country, the Thailand Meteorological Department said on Friday.
The Andaman Sea and the Gulf are also likely to see weaker winds and waves.
Meanwhile tropical storm “Choi-Wan” in the upper South China Sea would tend to move north towards the southern part of Taiwan on Friday, with no effect on Thailand, the department said.
The weather forecast for the next 24 hours:
Bangkok and surrounding areas: Hot day with isolated light rains; temperature lows of 27-29 degrees Celsius, highs of 34-39°C.
North: Hot day with thundershowers in 20 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 23-28°C, highs of 37-39°C.
Northeast: Hot day with thundershowers in 20 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 25-28°C, highs of 36-38°C.
Central: Hot day with thundershowers in 10 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 25-28°C, highs of 36-40°C.
East: Hot day with thundershowers in 20 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 26-28°C, highs of 33-38°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres during thundershowers.
South (east coast): Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 40 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 24-26°C, highs of 32-37°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres during thundershowers.
South (west coast): Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 40 per cent of the areas; temperature lows of 23-26°C, highs of 32-34°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres during thundershowers.
Border patrols at Golok River beefed up after Malaysia lockdown
Security has been tightened on the natural border with Malaysia, where a 14-day lockdown has sparked fears that more Thai migrant workers will try to sneak back into Thailand.
Patrols were beefed along 91 kilometres of the Golok River, which marks the border in Narathiwat province, after Malaysia imposed the June 1-14 lockdown. The move comes after four Thai migrant workers were arrested trying to cross the river into Narathiwat’s Su-ngai Golok district. The four workers told Thai officials they had been out of work for two months before Malaysia’s lockdown, which ended their hope of finding employment. They then decided to return to Thailand via an illegal route to evade the mandatory two-week quarantine.
Nine villages in Narathiwat’s Koh Sathon and Tak Bai districts were locked down at the end of May after Thai workers returning from Malaysia tested positive with the South African variant of coronavirus.
Health officials report the outbreak situation has improved in Koh Sathon, and some villages would be allowed to reopen on June 9 if no more infections are found.
Officials say the rate of vaccination registration in Narathiwat has also improved after early hesitancy on the part of many residents.
Chulabhorn Royal Academy to halt first jabs, citing lack of vaccine from govt
Chulabhorn Royal Academy (CRA) has announced it will stop administering first doses of Covid-19 vaccine to recipients from June 14, as it had not been allocated either AstraZeneca or Sinovac jabs by the government.
However, CRA said those who have an appointment for their second dose would get their jab as scheduled.
The academy urged those at high risk of infection and severe symptoms to register with a central vaccination centre as soon as possible to reduce the spread of the disease.
CRA announced last week that it would procure imports of alternative vaccine until Thailand had sufficient doses to inoculate the population.
Constant development to make UCS on par with other health schemesPrior to its implementation of this new policy, Area Health Region 8 had learned from Nakhon Ratchasima and adopted the province’s cloud computing technology-based hospital referral system and further developed it into its own system called “R8 Anywhere”.
