CP supplies food, masks to people affected by new wave of Covid-19 infections
Dec 31. 2020
By THE NATION
In a bid to tackle the new wave of infections, Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) and Charoen Pokphand Foods (CP Foods) have joined forces to provide food and masks to people under quarantine, as well as to vulnerable groups especially those living in high-risk areas in Samut Sakhon.
The companies delivered 200,000 masks and food to migrant workers and vulnerable people in different parts of the country on Thursday. This included 30,000 masks directly distributed among workers and at risk people in Rayong and Samut Sakhon.
CP Foods is also collaborating with the Labour Protection Network (LPN) to distribute 30,800 packed meals and 10,000 eggs among migrants, especially those from Myanmar, who are being quarantined in the Mahachai area of Samut Sakhon.
The “CPF Food from Heart against Covid-19” project aims to ensure migrant workers in quarantine have enough food supplies during lockdown.
CP Foods CEO Prasit Boondoungprasert had said recently that the company aims to reach out to people without discrimination, and ensure they are safe and well fed.
“We are using our expertise as a leading food producer to deliver highly nutritious food to both Thais and migrants. During this time of crisis, we believe social responsibility and collaboration with all parties are of the utmost importance. We have to help each other through this pandemic,” Prasit said.
Meanwhile, Sompong Srakaew, director and founder of LPN, said there are some 4,000 people living in the vicinity of the Mahachai shrimp market, including migrant workers who mostly hail from Myanmar. These people are suffering badly from the lockdown as they cannot work or leave the quarantine area. Therefore, getting food supplies from CP Foods has been a god-send.
“This reflects the friendship and goodwill of Thai people toward the migrant communities. They can be confident that Thai people will not leave them behind during hard times,” he said
Since the outbreak began in early 2020, CP Group has launched several relief activities to help different groups of people ranging from frontline medical staff to vulnerable groups and returnees.
The export of farm, fishery and livestock products to 18 countries that Thailand has free-trade agreement (FTA)s with inched up 1 per cent year on year in the first 11 months of 2020 to US$13.52 billion, Department of Trade Negotiations director-general Auramon Supthaweethum said.
In November alone, the export of farm goods to these countries grew 12 per cent month on month to $1.23 billion. Though exports to all countries increased, shipments to China surged 18 per cent, Japan 9 per cent, Asean region 11 per cent, South Korea 5 per cent, India 16 per cent, Peru 223 per cent and Chile 344 per cent.
Auramon said the export of Thai farm, fishery and livestock products has grown continuously this year despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
She called on exporters to reap the benefit of FTAs by carrying out stringent quality control to ensure the products are safe from the virus or contamination.
She added that six countries that Thailand has an FTA with, namely Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brunei and Cambodia, have cancelled import tariff for Thai rice.
Meanwhile, 15 FTA countries comprising nine Asean nations, China, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru and Hong Kong have lifted import tariff for Thai cassava, while 16 countries (Asean plus Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Peru) have removed tariff for all rubber products from Thailand.
Leaders in Washington region pledge to increase speed of coronavirus vaccine rollout
InternationalDec 31. 2020Annapolis designated areas in the city as “recovery zones” for local retail, restaurant and hotel businesses to reopen and recover after shutting down due to the coronavirus. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jonathan Newton Photo by: Jonathan Newton — The Washington Post
By The Washington Post · Meagan Flynn, Rachel Chason, Rebecca Tan
Vaccine rollout has moved slowly in the Washington region and nationwide as the year comes to a close, though officials stressed Wednesday that they were moving to pick up the pace.
Virginia has distributed more than 285,000 doses of the vaccine to hospitals and long-term care facilities across the state, but as of Wednesday, only 54,295 people had received the shot.
Maryland has administered 36,669 doses of vaccine to health-care workers, first responders and those in long-term care facilities, but that represents less than 15% of the roughly 273,875 vaccine doses Maryland has been allotted.
The pace is similar across the nation: Although Operation Warp Speed, the federal vaccine rollout initiative, expected 20 million people to be inoculated by the end of the year, just 2.1 million people had been vaccinated as of Monday, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures. Federal officials said Wednesday that 14 million doses have been distributed to states.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday sought to blame states for the lagging rollout, telling them to “get moving!” in a Twitter message. His critics said the administration’s lack of planning was the problem.
“When you don’t make a plan and dismiss states’ need for coordination and strategy, this is what you get: a fouled-up vaccine distribution that’s going so slow it would take years,” Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., wrote on Twitter.
Health officials in the Washington region addressed questions about the pace of vaccinations Wednesday as they braced for a possible uptick in coronavirus infections after holiday gatherings, even as a mid-December spike in cases has subsided slightly.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said in a Wednesday interview on “CBS This Morning” that the state delivered initial batches of vaccines to every hospital, local health department and nursing home but that “they’re having a little bit of a time getting ramped up.”
He, too, cited a lack of financial support and planning from the federal government. Hogan said that while the state delivered shipments of the vaccines directly to hospitals and nursing homes, the staff at those facilities are developing their own distribution plans.
“It’s a massive undertaking, and they have to organize it in such a way that they can make sure to get the second dose in the couple-week period that is required,” Hogan said, referring to the vaccines’ two-dose regimen. “So it’s not just sticking needles in arms. There’s a lot of moving parts. And I think nobody is quite performing at the top capacity, and we’ve all got to work together to ramp it up.”
Planning has been complicated, in part, by the fact that federal estimates for vaccine allocation provided to states have not been set in stone, said Christy Gray, director of the Virginia Department of Health’s Division of Immunization.
“The actual amount of vaccine received in Virginia is a moving target and is dependent on when and how quickly vaccination doses are manufactured,” Gray said.
The state is expecting to receive an additional shipment of vaccine by Friday to bring its total allocation to 370,000 doses since the rollout began in mid-December. That’s lower than the 480,000 the state was planning to receive, which Gray said was because of a calculation error by Operation Warp Speed. Hogan also said Wednesday that Maryland received fewer vaccine doses than expected.
Erin Beard, a spokeswoman for the Virginia health department, said Operation Warp Speed included some vaccines in its initial estimate that weren’t immediately available for distribution.
Still, she said that despite some kinks to iron out, “54,295 vaccinations in two weeks is no small feat.”
“It is expected to be slower in the beginning, but it will get much quicker as we progress,” Beard said in an email. “The main challenges include delays in reporting data and dealing with new systems and operations, which are to be expected in the beginning of any operation at this scale.”
Residents of long-term care facilities in Virginia began receiving the vaccine Monday, with Walgreens and CVS assisting in the administration. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, on Wednesday visited Westport Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Richmond, where nearly 300 residents and staff members were vaccinated.
Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky said the governor is “proud of our progress but certainly knows we have a long way to go.” She added: “He understands this is a complex logistical challenge and he’s looking forward to the [pace] picking up.”
Virginia reported 4,048 new infections and 64 deaths Wednesday – topping Tuesday’s death toll to become the second-highest daily total of the pandemic – with hospitalizations up slightly since last week. Hospitalizations are down slightly in Maryland, which reported 2,628 new infections and 45 deaths Wednesday, while its seven-day average has fallen to 38 cases per 100,000 residents, compared with the Dec. 12 peak of 47 cases.
The District reported 223 new cases and five deaths Wednesday. The city does not have a publicly accessible vaccine dashboard but had administered at least 11,000 doses as of Tuesday, according to The Washington Post’s tracker. It is expected to receive 44,000 doses by next week.
A District Health Department spokeswoman said officials were not available Wednesday to answer questions about vaccine distribution but would have updates Monday.
In Maryland, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman, a Democrat, on Wednesday cited stabilizing hospitalizations and case rates as his reason for allowing indoor dining at 25% capacity, reversing a Dec. 10 order that suspended such dining. Restaurants had sued over the order but remained open while a judge considered the case.
Pittman said he was pleased that metrics had slightly improved, crediting residents for responsible social behavior.
“We still expect a challenging surge in covid hospitalizations and a post-holiday case rate increase, but the improved forecast allows us to maintain our current level of restrictions,” he said.
Pittman’s new order requires restaurants to collect information from diners for contact tracing. He described closing indoor dining as “a last resort” but said he would not rule out the possibility of bringing back a ban if metrics show it is necessary.
The restaurants that had sued Pittman agreed to drop their case Wednesday.
Indoor dining is not allowed in Montgomery or Prince George’s counties, or in the city of Baltimore. Judges in those jurisdictions have upheld bans following challenges from the Restaurant Association of Maryland.
Montgomery County held its first vaccination clinic Wednesday for health-care workers and first responders. More than 1,300 people who live or work in the county made appointments to receive doses of the Moderna vaccine, health department spokeswoman Mary Anderson said. She emphasized that the county’s vaccination team is focused on those in the highest-priority groups and urged others to be patient.
Susan Dodge, 65, was among the first to be vaccinated at the White Oak Community Recreation Center. A midwife, she lives in Anne Arundel County and conducts home births in Montgomery, Prince George’s and elsewhere. After a year of worrying about whether she might expose her clients – or their babies – to the virus, getting vaccinated was an overwhelming experience, she said.
“This virus has taken over our lives for nearly a year,” Dodge said as tears welled in her eyes after receiving the shot. “This is a drip of hope.”
The clinic was set up with 15 stations staffed by members of the county’s vaccination team, which includes public health employees, school health nurses and EMTs. As people filed in, many expressed relief.
A volunteer paramedic said his wife would finally have peace of mind when he headed out to answer calls. A hospital worker snapped a selfie for her family.
Isa Brebbia, 22, said some people at the fire department where he works as a paramedic are doubtful of the vaccine. “There’s a lot of skepticism going around,” he said, but he decided it was better to get it, especially because both his parents are doctors.
“For all of our sake,” he said, “this seemed like the safer thing to do.”
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The Washington Post’s Patricia Sullivan contributed to this report.
Thailand to get 2m doses of vaccine from Feb: Anutin
NationalDec 31. 2020Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul
By The Nation
The first batch of 2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Thailand from February, said Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Thursday.
The first group of Thais to be vaccinated will be community public health volunteers, as they are in the front line of the virus battle, said Anutin. He has instructed the Food and Drug Administration to prepare regulations for the vaccine’s approval.
Anutin did not identify the manufacturer of Thailand’s first batch but said the ministry had negotiated a purchase price of US$17 per dose. Next week it will ask the Cabinet to approve a Bt1.17 billion budget for procurement of the 2 million doses.
The ministry is negotiating with AstraZeneca for an additional 26 million doses on top of the purchase agreement in November for the first batch of 26 million doses.
Thailand is currently struggling with a fresh outbreak of the virus.
Pro-democracy activist Piyarat “Toto” Chongthep, founder of the We Volunteer (Wevo) network of protest guards, was reportedly among a group arrested at Bangkok’s Sanam Luang at around noon on Thursday as they tried to sell over 5 tonnes of fresh prawn.
“The group expected to sell prawns worth over Bt800,000 at Sanam Luang to passers-by during the New Year countdown in a bid to help seafood farmers hit by the Covid-19 crisis in Samut Sakhon, one of Thailand’s largest seafood producing provinces,” said a source.
According to witnesses, police confronted Wevo members at 11am and said they were violating the ban on unauthorised public gatherings at Sanam Luang, where selling of products is also prohibited. Police also said that under the current emergency decree, holding a public gathering is punishable by to two years in jail or a Bt40,000 fine.
Police arrested Piyarat and members of his group and took them to Border Patrol Police Region 1 Headquarters in Pathum Thani province for questioning.
Twelve members of Wevo were arrested, according to a Facebook post by rights lawyer and pro-democracy activist Arnon Nampha. One is only 16 years old and is expected to be sent to the Central Juvenile and Family Court, he added.
On December 26, Piyarat and Wevo group sold a tonne of prawns in front of Government House, supervised by police officers there.
The Social Security Office will compensate employees who are forced to stop working due to the fresh Covid-19 outbreak at 50 per cent of their daily wages for a maximum 90 days.
The compensation is available to employees under the social security scheme who cannot work, either because they have to self-quarantine or because their employer has to suspend operations due to a government order, said SSO secretary-general Thossaphol Kritwongwiman.
“The Cabinet approved the office’s proposal on December 22 and the new labour regulations were announced in the Royal Gazette on Wednesday [December 30],” he added.
The newly announced regulations also reduce monthly contributions to the Social Security Fund made by employers and employees from 5 per cent to 3 per cent for January to March, to help alleviate their financial burden during the outbreak. “Meanwhile, insurers under Section 39 will contribute Bt278 monthly instead of Bt432 during said period,” said Thossaphol.
Section 39 covers workers who have quit but continue to contribute to the fund.
The SSO said that during the first Covid-19 lockdown, 1.26 million people applied for similar compensation totalling over Bt3 billion.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) released an updated version of the colour-coded map of Thailand on Thursday, marking out the level of Covid-19 risk in each province.
Each province has been marked in either red, orange, yellow or green depending on the level of risk and strength of measures taken.
Of the 51 provinces marked, five are in red signifying more than 50 confirmed cases. They are Samut Sakhon, Rayong, Chonburi, Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom and Nonthaburi.
Seven provinces have been marked out in orange, meaning between 11 and 50 confirmed cases, and they include Samut Prakan, Phetchaburi, Samut Songkhram, Tak, Pathum Thani, Chachoengsao and Saraburi.
Provinces where 10 or fewer cases were confirmed have been marked out in yellow. They are Suphanburi, Ratchaburi, Krabi, Chaiyaphum, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chai Nat, Phichit, Ayutthaya, Khon Kaen, Phuket, Chanthaburi, Kamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Sawan, Prachinburi, Songkhla, Satun, Uttaradit, Chiang Mai, Trang, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Narathiwat, Lampang, Phetchabun, Lopburi, Loei, Sukhothai, Surat Thani, Surin, Ang Thong, Udon Thani, Ubon Ratchathani, Ranong, Amnat Charoen, Trat, Mahasarakham, Nong Khai and Kanchanaburi.
Other provinces were marked in green as there were no reported cases in this latest wave of infections.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on Thursday announced 194 confirmed cases, 181 of which were contracted locally.
Of the local cases, 172 were Thai nationals and the remaining nine migrant workers living in the country.
Of the 172 Thai patients, 77 are in Rayong, 20 in Samut Sakhon, 19 in Bangkok, 12 in Nonthaburi, seven in Samut Prakan, five each in Tak and Chanthaburi, three in Trat, two in Ratchaburi, 16 in Chonburi and one each in Mahasarakham, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nong Khai, Pathum Thani, Kanchanaburi and Chachoengsao.
Of the nine migrants, eight are in Samut Sakhon and one in Nonthaburi.
Among the 55 provinces with Covid-19 cases in the new wave, the highest number of patients are in Samut Sakhon (1,634), followed by Rayong (202), Chonburi (144), Bangkok (125), and 58 each in Nakhon Pathom and Nonthaburi.
Meanwhile, the remaining 13 cases in state quarantine facilities included four Thais and nine foreigners. Of the Thais, two have returned from Turkey, one from Russia and one from the United Arab Emirates. The nine foreigners comprised one each from Hong Kong, Canada, Britain, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and Kuwait, as well as an Italian national from the UAE.
The total number of confirmed cases in Thailand has risen to 6,884 – 4,862 of which were contracted domestically, comprising 1,392 migrant workers, and 2,015 returnees. So far, 4,240 have recovered and been discharged, while 61 people have died.
According to Worldometer, as of 10am on Thursday, the total number of confirmed cases globally had risen to 83.06 million (up by 719,174), 58.86 million have recovered, 24.20 million are active cases (106,616 in severe condition) and 1.81 million have died (up by 14,478).
Thailand ranks 139 in the global list of most cases, while the US tops the ranking with 20.21 million, followed by India 10.26 million, Brazil 7.61 million, Russia 3.13 million and France 2.6 million.
NationalDec 31. 2020Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha
By The Nation
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed the Public Health Ministry to negotiate deals for Covid-19 vaccines with other pharmaceutical firms, government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said on Thursday.
He said the PM’s aim is for at least 50 per cent of the population inoculated against the virus next year.
On November 27, the ministry and AstraZeneca signed an agreement for the purchase of 26 million doses, which should be delivered in the first half of 2021.
Thailand has recently been hit with a new wave of infections.
Sa Kaeo authorities announced that people who arrive from the high-risk provinces of Bangkok, Chon Buri, Rayong and Samut Sakhon will need to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine.
The local government order required people from any of the four provinces to report to public health officials on arrival and quarantine themselves for 14 days.
This order stays in effect until January 5, the authorities added.
They also announced that officials have the power to suspend services or operations of any venue/place in Sa Kaeo if their operations are not in line with Public Health Ministry requirements.
Annapolis designated areas in the city as “recovery zones” for local retail, restaurant and hotel businesses to reopen and recover after shutting down due to the coronavirus. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jonathan Newton Photo by: Jonathan Newton — The Washington Post
Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha
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