#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012517

Ministry of Public Health reported on Friday (February 19) morning that in the past 24 hours there are 18,885 new patients who tested positive for Covid-19, 224 of whom have arrived in Thailand from abroad.

Death toll increased by 29, while 10,946 patients were cured and allowed to leave hospitals.

Cumulative cases in the country since January 1, 2022 are at 469,927.
 

The country’s total caseload from Covid-19 stands at 2,693,362 – 2,513,269 of whom have recovered, 344,775 are still in hospitals and 22,594 have died.

Separately, another 81,794 people were given their first Covid-19 shot in the last 24 hours, 61,413 their second shot and 231,984 a booster, bringing the total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered nationwide to 121,300,004.

According to Worldometer, confirmed cases globally had risen to 422.23 million on Saturday, 346.7 million of whom have recovered, 69.64 million are active cases (82,441 in severe condition) and 5.89 million have died (up by 10,268).

Thailand ranks 31st in the global list of most cases, which is topped by the US with 80.02 million, followed by India with 42.8 million, Brazil with 28.06 million, France with 22.15 million and the UK with 18.55 million.

Published : February 19, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40012515

The Khon Kaen labour employment office said that Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin has instructed Department of Employment officials nationwide to start training Thai workers for jobs in Saudi Arabia. 

The Middle East country needs staff for industries, large construction sites, tourism and service sectors, Prapas Promkhambutr, an official from the Khon Kaen office, said.

Thai workers would also need to study English and pass a test before being employed in Saudi Arabia.
Workers have who registered their interest in working in Saudi Arabia would be informed about job opportunities by the department, Prapas added.
He warned Thais not to fall prey to websites that claimed they could secure employment in Saudi Arabia because most of those offers con the workers into paying job placement fees for nothing.
Department director-general Pairoj Chotsathian had said earlier that more than 300 Thai workers had already registered to work in Saudi Arabia with the Department of Employment.

He said the department is now drafting a memorandum of understanding (MoU)with  Saudi counterparts to send Thai workers to the Middle Eastern state following the recent normalisation of bilateral ties after three decades.
Pairoj said the MoU would be completed in early March after which the department would be able to start registering applications for jobs in the desert kingdom.
At present, workers are allowed only to register their wish to work in Saudi Arabia, Pairoj added.

Published : February 18, 2022

By : THE NATION

#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