No casualties were reported in the fire that broke out in a building inside the Joint US Military Advisory Group Thailand (Jusmagthai) complex in Bangkok’s Sathorn area on Monday night.
Five fire trucks arrived at the scene at around 7.35pm and spent some 30 minutes extinguishing the fire. The flames had originated from an uninhabited two-storey building in the compound, which is close to the German Embassy premises.
Officials have blocked Soi Sathorn 1 to traffic as they are inspecting powerlines for possible damage.
The cause of the fire had not been determined as of press time and investigation is underway.
Chonburi authorities and foundations have come together to offer 354,400 baht each to the families of the 15 people who died in the Mountain B Pub blaze last Friday.
The fire at the unlicensed entertainment venue in Sattahip district also injured 40 others. Officials are investigating the cause of the blaze, the venue’s operation as a drinking establishment with just a restaurant permit as well as illegal alterations made to the building.
Chonburi deputy governor Naris Niramaiwong said on Monday that several state agencies and foundations have agreed to make contributions to aid the families of the deceased. The agencies and foundations making contributions are the Sattahip Municipal Office, the PM’s Disaster Relief Fund, Chonburi Justice Provincial Office, Chonburi Social Development and Human Security Office, Rajaprajanugroh Foundation, Sawang Rojana Thammasathan Foundation, Poh Teck Tung Foundation and Ngek Sian Hong Te Shrine. The compensation offered will also include 50,000 baht per person offered by the owner of the pub.
Naris added that victims who had taken out life insurance policies or social security will also receive compensation as stated.
The deputy governor added that the ad hoc administration centre for fire victims will be shut down so officials can return to their normal duties.
The Public Health Ministry reported on Tuesday (August 9) that over the past 24 hours, 1,955 Covid-19 patients have been admitted to hospitals, one of whom has arrived in Thailand from abroad.
The death toll has risen by 33, while 2,294 patients have recovered and discharged from hospitals.
The number of cumulative cases in the country since January 1, 2022, stands at 2,385,971 with 9,965 deaths.
The country’s total caseload from Covid-19 stands at 4,609,406 – 4,556,796 of whom have recovered, 20,947 are still in hospitals and 31,663 have died.
Separately, another 1,770 people were given their first Covid-19 shot in the last 24 hours, 2,831 their second shot and 15,184 a booster, bringing the total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered nationwide to 141,963,122.
According to Worldometer, confirmed cases globally had risen to 590.38 million on Tuesday, 562.16 million of whom have recovered, 21.78 million are active cases (43,765 in severe condition) and 6.44 million have died (up by 1,404).
Thailand ranks 28th in the global list of most cases, which is topped by the US with 94.02 million, followed by India with 44.17 million, Brazil with 34.08 million, France with 34.04 million and Germany with 31.31 million.
Thailand will host bilateral meetings with Malaysia in Bangkok on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The 14th Meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation and the 5th Ministerial Meeting of the Committee on Joint Development Strategy for Border Areas will be held under the theme “Fostering Resilience in Times of Challenges”.
Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and his Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah will preside over the discussions.
The meetings will underscore the importance of Thailand and Malaysia’s cooperation to enhance respective resilience and efforts at economic recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as other global challenges, the Thai Foreign Ministry said.
Particular focus will be given to promoting cooperation in three aspects:
Protection of the people to ensure their safety and security from traditional and non-traditional threats
Prosperity for the people by enabling them to seize the economic and social opportunities and by providing necessary infrastructure
Closer partnership between Thailand and Malaysia at all levels in order to advance the mutual interest of the two countries.
During the visit to Thailand, the Malaysian foreign minister will also pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at Government House on Tuesday.
Residents of Bangkok and surrounding areas are set to get a special three-day holiday in November as part of arrangements for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.
A proposal for a holiday from November 16 to 18 will be submitted to the Cabinet soon by the committee in charge of Apec summit preparations, government spokeswoman Traisulee Taisaranakul said on Monday.
“However, government agencies that provide services to the public, such as hospitals, courts and banks, can consider these holidays as they see fit,” she said.
The committee has also appointed the foreign and finance ministries to issue commemorative coins for the Apec summit to boost public awareness.
She added that Apec ministerial meetings in the run-up to the summit would cover tourism, public health, food security and forestry.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has expressed confidence that Thailand will host a successful Apec summit, despite tensions among the trade group’s members. May’s Apec meeting in Bangkok ended without a joint statement after representatives of the United States and six other countries staged a walkout to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prayut said Thailand, as this year’s Apec chair, would use November’s summit to raise issues such as post-Covid economic recovery, trade and investment facilitation, global warming, and the BCG (Bio-Circular-Green) economy.
The environment minister said the global community must back Thailand’s push for carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero emissions by 2065.
Speaking after the two-day Thailand Climate Action Conference (TCAC) in Bangkok, Varawut Silpa-archa said climate change was an existential crisis for Thai people – especially farmers suffering worsening floods. Measures to combat climate change and its effects on Thailand’s 67 million people were not a choice but a necessity for survival, he added.
Varawut said his ministry was coordinating preparations for climate change among public and private agencies in every province. However, he told foreign envoys that the international community’s pledges of financial and technological aid were essential if Thailand was to meet its UN climate pledges for carbon neutrality and net-zero emissions.
The TCAC was held on Friday and Saturday by the Environment and Resources Ministry under the theme “Thailand’s Future, World’s Future: Our Future, Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity”.
On Friday, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told the conference that Thailand ranked ninth among countries most affected by climate change.
Varawut said that the ministry would send Thailand’s revised long-term emissions and nationally determined contributions to the United Nations before the UN COP27 climate summit in November.
The Expressway Authority of Thailand (Exat) will waive toll fees for motorists on its three expressways on Mother’s Day next Friday (August 12).
Motorists can use the three expressways free of charge from 00.01am to midnight on Friday, Exat announced.
Road users will get a free ride on the Chalerm Maha Nakhon Expressway with 19 toll gates, the Sirat (Second Stage and Outer Ring Road) Expressway with 31 gates, and the Udon Ratthaya (Bang Pa-in-Pak Kret) Expressway with 10 gates.
Exat said free access to its three expressways will also be provided on five more public holidays in October and December as follows:
– October 13 (commemorating the death of King Rama IX)
Thais armed with swords, shields and magic potions battled to glory at the world’s largest cosplay competition, grabbing four prizes in Japan at the weekend.
The “World Cosplay Summit (WCS) 2022” saw costumed contestants from around the world converge on Nagoya City to do battle for the prestigious awards on August 6-7.
Photo credit: World Cosplay Summit Thailand
Thai cosplayers Thames Malerose and Jasper Z caught the eye of judges on Saturday in the “Stage” section of the event, where they appeared as characters from the action role-playing game “Elden Ring”.
Photo credit: World Cosplay Summit Thailand
Cosplaying the fearsome female warrior Malenia, Blade of Miquella, Thames cut down international rivals to win third place in the competition. Jasper Z appeared as “The Tarnished” and clinched the coveted “special prize” costume award.
First and second place on Saturday went to cosplayers from France and Australia, respectively.
Photo credit: World Cosplay Summit Thailand
The two Thai cosplayers triumphed again during Sunday’s “Video” section, winning third place and a special comedy prize. Cosplayers from Sweden and Mexico won first and second place on Sunday.
Photo credit: World Cosplay Summit Thailand
The WCS sees cosplayers from across the world gather each year in Japan’s third city to create new forms of international and cultural exchange, inspired by pop culture in Japan and elsewhere. The event was first held in 2003 and has drawn support from the private sector, government and overseas diplomatic missions.
The Rural Doctors Society on Monday called on the Public Health Ministry to allow state hospitals to buy Covid-19 medicine on their own without having to depend on “problematic” allocations from a state firm.
In its Facebook post on Monday, the group welcomed the ministry’s permission for state firms and private clinics as well as hospitals run by medical schools to buy Covid medicine on their own.
The society was referring to a letter sent on July 27 by acting Public Health permanent secretary Thongchai Kirattihatthayakorn to the Health Service Support Department and to the permanent secretary at the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry. The department is in charge of private hospitals and clinics while the higher education permanent secretary is in charge of medical schools of universities.
The letter states that Thailand has reached the post-pandemic stage in coping with Covid-19 and the government is preparing to announce the disease as an endemic. As a result, the Public Health Ministry agrees to allow private hospitals and clinics as well as medical schools to buy antiviral Covid medicines on their own from September 1.
“It was right to free the medicine [from the control of the Public Health Ministry]. Why should hospitals be dependent on the monopoly of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation? This move will definitely end the situation of inadequate medicine,” the group said in the post.
“But what is still confusing is whether hospitals under the Public Health Ministry will be able to buy Covid medicine on their own. Or will they still be bound by the condition that they must buy the drug only from the GPO?”
The group said since private hospitals and clinics can buy Covid drugs on their own, the liberalisation should also be applied to hospitals of the Public Health Ministry.
It said full liberalisation would end inadequate drug supplies caused by the GPO’s monopoly and troublesome logistics management.
Jessada Denduangboripant, a popular science lecturer of Chualongkorn University, has been campaigning on his Facebook wall for full liberalisation of Covid medicines. He said the availability of drugs was inadequate in Thailand while a course of Molnupiravir could be bought in a neighbouring country for only 300 baht. He said his family members had got Covid and they had to buy the drug online as doctors would not administer the drug.
Similar complaints have been posted on Facebook about many patients in vulnerable groups not being administered the antiviral drugs, and being given only general medicine to treat symptoms because hospitals did not have enough stocks of antiviral drugs.
Getting vaccinated could help reduce the severity of symptoms of monkeypox patients, a senior virologist said.
In a Facebook post, Dr Anan Jongkaewwattana, director of the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology’s Veterinary Health Innovation and Management Research Group, said that they could get the vaccine even after coming into contact with an infected patient, though a vaccination at that stage will not prevent the infection.
He cited a study in France that the vaccine could reduce the severity of monkeypox symptoms even after contact with patients.
The study “Breakthrough infections after post-exposure vaccination against Monkeypox” was published on the MedRxiv website (https://bit.ly/3P6sW62) on Thursday.
The study collected information from 276 high-risk contact people — 91 per cent of them came in direct contact through aerosol while 71 per cent contacted patients indirectly, such as through things that were used by patients, while 54 per cent of them contacted patients through unprotected sexual activities.
Anan explained the anomaly in the percentage numbers to some respondents assuming they may have been come into contact with a patient in more than one way.
On average, most respondents received vaccines 11 days after they came into contact with patients (the earliest was eight days while the longest period was 14 days).
They were given Imvanex vaccine. The study confirmed that they had no symptoms on the day of vaccination.
Of the sample group, 12 were found to be infected with monkeypox. Three of them were detected one day after receiving the vaccine, one person was detected on the second day and another on the third day.
Five others were detected with monkeypox four to five days after receiving the vaccine while two others were detected with the virus 22 to 25 days after being vaccinated.
The study added that one patient infected by a contaminated syringe received the vaccine immediately after the incident. However, the person was detected with monkeypox four days later.
Half of the 12 patients who were infected suffered from rash on their skin, along with other symptoms such as fever, swollen lymph nodes, and sore throat. However, their symptoms were less severe than that experienced by unvaccinated monkeypox patients.
The study team concluded that the vaccination of high-risk contact people might not prevent them from being infected but it could reduce the severity of monkeypox.
Photo credit: World Cosplay Summit Thailand
Photo credit: World Cosplay Summit Thailand
Photo credit: World Cosplay Summit Thailand
Photo credit: World Cosplay Summit Thailand
Photo credit: World Cosplay Summit Thailand
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