#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/in-focus/40010964

The Cabinet has in principle approved measures to support women in the civil service as proposed by the Social Development and Human Security Ministry.

The aim is to protect the female workforce, strengthen their finances and boost men’s role in raising children.

The measures approved on Tuesday include:

• Child development facilities: Nurseries or creches will be set up for children up to the age of three, with opening and closing times adjusted based on parents’ working hours.

• Promoting paternity leave: New fathers will be given time off to help look after their newborns. They will also be given the option of using up their 15-day paternity leave in batches instead of in one go.

• Extending paid maternity leave: Civil servants can now take 98 days paid maternity leave – up by eight days – and can extend their leave by another 90 days at half the salary. In all, women can take up to 188 days or about six months off as maternity leave.

Previously, women were only allowed 90 days paid maternity leave and could take another 60 days without pay.

Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40010961

Thai livestock officials on Tuesday launched urgent action after discovering the much-feared African swine fever (ASF) in a province neighbouring Bangkok.

The Livestock Development Department said a sample collected from a slaughterhouse in Nakhon Pathom tested positive for ASF, prompting emergency actions to stop the virus from spreading. Department chief Sorawit Thanito has declared a 5-kilometre containment zone around the slaughterhouse.
 

The infected sample was among a batch of more than 300 samples collected from pig farms and slaughterhouses in Ratchaburi and Nakhon Pathom on January 8-9. All other samples tested negative for ASF, said Sorawit.
Livestock officials are now tracing the source of the infected pig while liaising with the Pig Farmers Association, the Thailand Veterinary Dean Consortium and other agencies on how to contain the spread of the virus.
The department also called an emergency meeting of its ASF containment committee.
Sorawit noted that ASF virus does not cause disease in humans, so pork is safe to consume provided it is cooked at a temperature higher than 70 degrees Celsius.
Thai authorities earlier this week denied ASF was behind a shortage of pork supplies and soaring prices in Thailand.

Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40010959

Bangkok’s Covid-19 emergency response centre has been upgraded to tackle the latest wave of Covid-19 driven by the Omicron variant.

The 1669 hotline at the Emergency Medical Centre (Erawan Centre) has increased its number of lines from 30 to 60 with staff working 24 hours a day, said Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang on Tuesday. It plans to add another 60 lines next week to ensure no patients are left behind.

The centre has also doubled its patient-transfer capacity to 300 per day.

The centre uses a citywide network of police, soldiers, volunteers and foundations to transfer patients to home and community isolation or hospitals, depending on the severity of illness.

Bangkok recorded 593 new Covid-19 cases and one fatality on Tuesday.

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Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40010956

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has urged all government and private hospitals to accept children sickened with Covid-19.

Prayut was deeply concerned over reports of hospitals denying treatment to infected children, said a government spokeswoman Traisulee Traisoranakul on Monday.

“The premier asked the Public Health Ministry to implement a system to ensure that children infected with Covid-19 receive treatment as soon as possible as they may have low immunity to the virus,” she said.

Prayut also urged Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health to provide guidelines on treating Covid-positive kids for hospitals nationwide.

Authorities advised parents to get vaccinated, avoid taking children to crowded places and keep monitoring their symptoms.

Children with fever, cough, runny nose or contact with Covid-19 cases should receive an antigen [ATK] test and a second test 3-4 days later.

Parents of children who test positive should contact their local hospitals for help, while parents living in Bangkok and surrounding areas can contact Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health or the National Health Security Office hotline on 1330, added the spokeswoman.

Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40010953

Social security cardholders can now get free treatment for Covid-19, Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin said on Monday.

He said the Social Security Office (SSO) has negotiated free Covid-19 treatment deals with more than 50 medical institutions that fall under the social security system.

“As of January 5, 3,230 beds in hospitels nationwide have also been earmarked for social security beneficiaries,” he said.

Suchart added that SSO was also negotiating Covid-19 treatment deals with the National Health Security Office (NHSO).

He said social security cardholders who develop mild symptoms can register for treatment under the home isolation scheme at the NHSO website.

He added that people should not panic about the pandemic and new variants.

“The Labour Ministry will take good care of all social security beneficiaries and we will overcome the crisis together,” he said.

Covid-19 patients who are social security cardholders can call the Labour Ministry hotline at 1506 (press 6) for immediate help.

Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40010942

The Banglamphu canal as well as the waterway behind Wat Parinayok Worawihan in Bangkok’s Phra Nakhon area are being renovated as part of a project to turn the capital’s Rattanakosin Island into a tourist destination.

The renovation of the 1,500-metre-long Klong Banglamphu is 40 per cent finished and should be completed by July, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) said.

The BMA has also been calling on canal-side communities to avoid building structures and placing things too close to the banks and to stop throwing garbage into the city’s waterways.

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Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40010941

Pork stalls in Bang Kapi market stand empty after the price of pork rose to 230 baht per kilo.

Rising pork prices have forced restaurants to up the price of their pork-based dishes.

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If pork too expensive, go for chicken, advises Thai broiler association chief

Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40010940

Last week, an international news agency reported that a scientist in Cyprus had found a new Covid-19 variant, which carried identifiers of both Delta and Omicron.

The scientist then reported it to the international initiative GISAID and named it “Deltacron”. However, neither GSAID nor the World Health Organisation (WHO) have identified Deltacron as a new variant yet.

Dr Chalermchai Boonyaleepun, vice chairman of the Public Health Commission, said on Monday that people should not panic over this new variant because it may not exist.

A virologist in the UK said based on reports, it is possible that the 24 samples were contaminated and urged people to wait for official confirmation.

To help people understand the basic facts of Covid-19 variants, Dr Chalermchai lists four points:

• The novel coronavirus (Covid-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can mutate easily.
• GSAID is a global science initiative that collects data of all new variants before it verifies and reports them to the public.
• There are more than 1,000 main variants and sub-variants. However, not all have been reported to the public because they do not meet the top three dimensions of public health, mainly ability to spread, ability to develop severe symptoms and ability to resist the vaccine.
• If a new variant is important and will affect humanity, WHO will name it using a Greek alphabet. So far, WHO has used up most of the alphabets before the 15th alphabet, Omicron, and the next variant will be called “Pi”.

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Hence, Chalermchai said, people should not believe everything because the so-called Deltacron variant has not been verified yet. If it is indeed a new variant then it needs to be evaluated based on the three dimensions of public health and should be named “Pi”.

Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40010939

A new strain of Covid-19 was last week detected in Cyprus and named Deltacron because it was reportedly a mixture of the Omicron and Delta variants.

Suphakit Sirilak, director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences, on Monday, however, cast doubts on the existence of this new variant.

He said a researcher from Cyprus had sent data from 24 samples to the GISAID initiative showing that Deltacron had mutations from both Delta and Omicron variants. But, he said, if it was indeed a new variant then both the Cypriot researchers and GISAID should have come to the same conclusion. Instead, he said, GISAID has classified these 24 samples as the Delta variant.

Hence, it is likely that the samples were contaminated by the Omicron variant or all 24 patients were infected by both Delta and Omicron, which was unlikely, he said.

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All Thai hospitals urged to accept infected children as Omicron wave rises

Omicron surges above 70% of all new cases in Thailand

Don’t panic over new ‘Deltacron’ variant: PM

Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40010937

Travellers from Africa can register for a Thailand Pass at https://tp.consular.go.th/ to enter the Kingdom under Sandbox and Alternative Quarantine (AQ) schemes from Tuesday onwards.

The quarantine period under the AQ scheme for fully vaccinated travellers has been reduced to seven days and 10 days for unvaccinated travellers, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanee Sangrat said on Monday.

“However, travellers under the AQ scheme must register again if they want to enter Thailand under other schemes,” he said.

Published : January 11, 2022

By : THE NATION