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https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012758

The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has helped public hospitals in remote areas escape financial doom thanks to more government funding, an official from the Public Health Ministry said.

Dr Kiartiphum Wongrachit, the ministry’s permanent secretary, said on Friday that small public hospitals’ financial problems were eased after the government began giving them more funds to tend to Covid-19 patients.

Normally, he said, hospitals are granted funds based on the number of patients they treat over a year, and medical facilities in remote areas usually get small sums due to few patients.

On a scale from one to seven based on the severity of financial problems, 39 small public hospitals were at level six in 2020, but this reduced to eight last year and zero this year, Kiartiphum said.

There were 15 hospitals at the worst level of financial crisis in 2020, and the number reduced to one last year and zero this year.

He added that up to 829 or 92 per cent of 900 public hospitals in Thailand had a good financial standing in the first quarter of this year.

The number of hospitals in the bad (6th) and worst (7th) levels of financial crisis from 2011 to 2020 is as follows:

2011: 115 hospitals (worst), 15 hospitals (bad)

2012: 123 hospitals (worst), 17 hospitals (bad)

2013: 58 hospitals (worst), 10 hospitals (bad)

2014: 78 hospitals (worst), 17 hospitals (bad)

2015: 136 hospitals (worst), 33 hospitals (bad)

2016: 119 hospitals (worst), 22 hospitals (bad)

2017: 87 hospitals (worst), 124 hospitals (bad)

2018: 42 hospitals (worst), 99 hospitals (bad)

2019: 17 hospitals (worst), 79 hospitals (bad)

2020: 15 hospitals (worst), 39 hospitals (bad)

Published : February 25, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012757

A top virologist says Omicron subvariant BA.2 is overtaking BA.1 in Thailand and driving a rapid rise in new Covid-19 infections.

Dr Yong Poovorawan, head of Chulalongkorn University’s Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology, said on his Facebook page that it was not surprising to see the number of new infections increasing very fast now.

Thailand logged a record high of 24,932 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, rising by almost 1,500 cases from Thursday (23,557), according to health officials. The official figures are thought to be just a fraction of the true number of daily infections.

Yong said Omicron had replaced Delta as Thailand’s dominant variant because it was more infectious.

Meanwhile, the BA.1 subvariant of Omicron was now being replaced by BA.2, which spreads 1.4 times faster than BA.1 and is driving up the infection rate, he added.

Yong expects BA.2 to take over as the dominant subvariant in Thailand soon. However symptoms from both the Omicron subvariants are mild when compared with Delta, said Yong, citing studies from South Africa.

The doctor added that research in Denmark found that the people who catch BA.1 can be reinfected with BA.2, but this was a rare occurrence.

Published : February 25, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012756

The Public Health Ministry said it is closely monitoring the surge in Omicron cases, amid a doubling in the number of both intubated patients and fatalities over the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, infections have risen 70 per cent over the last fortnight, according to health officials.

Infections within households are now driving the surge, said the Department of Disease Control (DDC)’s epidemiology director Chakrarat Pittayawong-anon.

Meanwhile, the Omicron wave is rising globally but infections tend to be less severe than with Delta.

However, the surge of new cases in Thailand called for close monitoring of severely ill patients to prevent deaths, said officials.

Chakrarat reported that the majority of new cases in Thailand have no or mild symptoms.

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The fatality rate for Omicron variant is 10 times less than for Delta while the infection rate is similar, he added.

He said that in most cases it was unnecessary to seek an RT-PCR test after getting a positive result from an antigen (ATK) test.

DDC deputy chief Dr Sophon Iamsirithavorn said that most infections were among people working in at-risk areas who then spread the virus to their families. Meanwhile, more children are being infected than during last year’s Delta outbreak. The elderly are experiencing fewer infections than other age groups, but they were more likely to develop severe or even fatal symptoms, Sophon added.

Meanwhile the bed the occupancy rate stands at 52 per cent of a total 180,000 beds, according to the Department of Medical Services. Most available beds are at hospitals.

The government may open more community isolation centres in Bangkok if the infection rate climbs further, it said, adding that Favipiravir would be reserved for patients who develop moderate to severe symptoms.

Published : February 25, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012752

Divers and jet ski operators launched a hunt for 38-year-old Thai actress Pattaratida “Tangmo” Patacharaveerapong in the Chao Phraya in the wee hours of Friday, soon after she went missing.

The actress reportedly fell from a speedboat and disappeared in the river near the Rama VII bridge in Nonthaburi on Thursday night.

The crew contacted rescue workers for help as soon as they lost sight of the victim.

“Though the tides are strong, we will keep hunting for her,” one of the divers said.

The actress had last made the headlines in 2015 when she was admitted to hospital for an overdose of sleeping pills.

Published : February 25, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012749

Pro-democracy activist Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak was released from Bangkok Remand Prison at 7.15pm on Thursday after the Bangkok South Criminal Court granted bail to the Thammasat University student activist.

Parit had been detained for six months and 15 days while awaiting trials on multiple charges relating to his protest activities, including lese majeste and sedition.

Parit’s bail was set at 200,000 baht in cash. The court also set six bail conditions: he must not defame the monarch or courts; obstruct the justice system; participate in rallies that could cause public unrest, either in person or via social media; leave his residence from 6pm to 6am, unless he has a medical emergency or permission from the court; leave the country without court permission; and he must wear an electronic monitoring device.

On Wednesday, the Bangkok South Criminal Court denied bail to democracy activist Arnon Nampa. The court ruled that reasons for release cited by his lawyer – that Arnon wanted to take care of his family and earn a living – were insufficient to overturn the Appeal Court’s ruling against granting bail.

In Parit’s case, the court had said on Wednesday it would consider bail only if he presented official evidence that he had registered for his second semester Thammasat University as specified in his bail request.

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Published : February 25, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012745

Ukraine’s decision to close its airspace to civilian aircraft on Thursday (February 24) has not affected flights from Thailand, Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob said.

Ukraine shut its airspace after Russia attacked its capital Kyiv.

“Flights from Thailand are using the route to the south of Ukraine, passing over Iran and Turkey to avoid the conflict zone, at the suggestion of the International Civil Aviation Organisation,” Saksayam said.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand [CAAT] has also confirmed that no Thai carriers are using Ukrainian airspace, he added.

Currently, only Thai Airways (THAI) is operating flights from Thailand to Europe and none of its seven routes passes over Ukraine. The seven routes are Bangkok-London (6 flights a week), Copenhagen (3 flights/week), Frankfurt (7 flights/week), Paris (2 flights/week), Zurich (3 flights/week), Brussels (2 flights/week) and Stockholm (3 flights/week).

Saksayam added that the closure of Ukrainian airspace might however increase air traffic on the route over Iran and Turkey as many international airlines will now opt to use it to avoid the conflict zone.

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Published : February 25, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012744

Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob said on Thursday that the ministry is working on a new shuttle train project that will use EV (electric vehicle) technology to develop a shuttle train network that connects urban areas of big cities.

“The ministry by State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has been working with King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) in developing a prototype electric train,” he said. “In the testing phase, the train will run from Ladkrabang station of Airport Rail Link to the KMITL and Hua Takhe stations.”

Saksayam said he has ordered the SRT to study the ways to reduce manufacturing and installation costs so that the electric shuttle train can be used on other urban routes as soon as possible.

“The electric train project will help fulfil the government’s EV promotion policies that aim to make Thailand a leading manufacturer and exporter of EVs in the region and reduce the country’s emission of greenhouse gases by 20-25 per cent within 2030,” said Saksayam. “The government has also set EV manufacturing as one of the country’s 10 target industries as electric vehicles will greatly help reduce the transport sector’s reliance on fossil fuel.”
 

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Published : February 25, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012740

Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered the Foreign Ministry to help evacuate Thai citizens in areas affected by the conflict between Ukraine and Russia as soon as possible.

“The prime minister has been following the latest situations closely and is highly concerned about the safety of Thai people in Ukraine and nearby areas,” government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said on Thursday.

The Foreign Ministry has advised Thais to avoid the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine. The ministry has readied three plans to evacuate Thais in Ukraine:

1. Chartered flights have been prepared to take off from Lviv, which is on the Ukraine border.

2. If territorial airspace is closed, the ministry will organise road transport for Thais from Lviv to the Polish capital Warsaw.

3. Thai Airways and the Royal Thai Air Force have been told to prepare chartered flights from Thailand to either Lviv or Warsaw.

“PM Prayut also urged all Thais in Ukraine to follow the situation closely,” said Thanakorn. “If you required any assistance, contact Thailand’s embassy in Warsaw, which is also responsible for Ukraine territory.”

The embassy can be reached by telephoning +48 696 642 348 or e-mailing thaiconsularwarsaw@thaiemb.pl

Related News

Plan in place for evacuation of Thais in Ukraine as conflict with Russia aggravates

Russia-Ukraine conflict will hurt Thailand’s exports, tourism, Arkhom fears

Chartered flights ready to evacuate Thais in Ukraine if situation escalates

Published : February 25, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012734

Ministry of Public Health reported on Friday (February 25) morning that in the past 24 hours there are 24,932 new patients who tested positive for Covid-19, 167 of whom have arrived in Thailand from abroad.

Death toll increased by 41, while 15,774 patients were cured and allowed to leave hospitals.

Cumulative cases in the country since January 1, 2022 are at 595,847.
 

Published : February 25, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/in-focus/40012733

Thai workers in Ukraine have been advised to closely follow updates from the Ministry of Labour.

Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin said Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha had expressed concern over the well-being of Thai people residing in Ukraine amid the aggravating tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

“Our PM wants Thai people in Ukraine to closely monitor the situation and news closely,” said Suchart.

“The Ministry of Labour urges the brothers and sisters of Thais working in Ukraine to stay abreast of updates from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare for immediate evacuation if necessary.

“If there is an emergency, Thais there will need to emigrate to Thailand,” he said, also telling them to strictly follow the instructions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Department of Employment has a fund to help people working abroad who face difficulties, he said. The support is for Thai workers who are members of the fund and encounter problems in returning to Thailand before the end of their contract due to war, unrest, natural disasters or epidemics in their country of employment.

As of January 2022, there were 139 Thais still working in Ukraine, of whom 116 had travelled on their own and 23 have re-entry permits. Most of them work in massage parlours and spas. At least 126 of them will surely get some funding suppport as they are members of the Department of Employment’s fund, Suchart said.

Published : February 24, 2022

By : THE NATION