May 21, 2021 Thai Enquirer Summary Covid-19 News • the Public Health
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
May 21, 2021 Thai Enquirer Summary Covid-19 News The Public Health Ministry has come under fire from the opposition Pheu Thai Party following reports that a 5 milli meter vial of the AstraZeneca vaccine has now been extended to 12 doses. The party claimed that health officials have been instructed by Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to offer 12 doses, instead of 10 as per the dosage requirement stipulated on each bottle of the vaccine. A 5-ml vial of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine contains 10 doses, according to the label. Pheu Thai Party deputy spokesman Chanin Rungthanakiet has come out to reveal Anutin’s order to health officials in each province and provincial governor to extend the capacity of doses in a 5-ml vial to 12 doses before AstraZeneca vaccines produced in Thailand will be ready for delivery to the government by June. Chanin said he believed that Anutin wants to help the government to cut costs and boost distribution of AstraZeneca vaccines among Thai people. In response, Dr Opas Karnkawingpong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control under the Public Health Ministry, has come out to say that a vial of AstraZeneca vaccine is allowed 12 doses because the AstraZeneca manufacturer has offered an excess of 20-30 per cent in a vial. That means instead of 5.5 ml in 1 vial, the manufacturer offered a bonus of 6.5 ml in 1 vial. Therefore, 1 vial of Astrazeneca vaccine has up to 12 doses. Chanin called for the manufacturer of AstraZeneca vaccines to come out to explain possible ramifications from Anutin’s order. The government has opened the 6th field hospital in Bangkok following a spike in infections in the capital. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) opened Ratchapipat 2 field hospital, the 1st field hospital inside Wat Si Sudaram Worawihan in Bangkok Noi. This comes as the number of cases continue to remain high in Thailand. Today’s numbers are . Death - 32 . New Infections - 3,481 (2,530 in community + 951 in prison) . Recovery - 2,868 . Total recovered patients - 52,078 . The BMA yesterday discovered a new cluster of infections detected at a large construction camp in the Bang Phlat district. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said it is extremely concerned about infections at construction worker camps in the city. There are around 409 construction sites across 50 district of Bangkok, house around 62,169 construction workers (26,134 Thais and 36,035 migrant workers). So far, the BMA has enforced the “bubble and seal” measure where workers are not allowed to leave their dormitories and construction sites to camps with infected workers. There are an estimated 1.3 million legal migrant workers in Bangkok and its adjacent provinces, including 580,000 in Bangkok, 230,000 in Samut Sakhon, 160,000 in Samut Prakan, 130,000 in Pathum Thani, 99,000 in Nonthaburi and 93,000 in Nakhon Pathom. Chiang Rai authorities yesterday imposing travel restrictions on all arrivals from 4 “dark- red zone” provinces – Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Samut Prakan, effective today. Under the order, issued by Chiang Rai Governor Prajon Pratsakul, all arrivals from these four provinces will have to show their Covid-free certificate, to prove that they have been cleared of the disease with a RT PCR or Antigen Rapid Test not more than 72 hours before their arrival in Chiang Rai province, and to show the proof that they have received 2 doses of Covid-19 vaccine. Travellers who do not have either of the 2 certificates will be subjected to 14 days in local quarantine, or less if they stay in the province for less than the mandatory isolation period. More vaccines on the way but most are from SinoVac Another 3 million doses of Chinese made SinoVac is on the way by the end of this month Apart from this AstraZeneca is set to provide 4.3 million more doses (1.7 million doses will be delivered in advance next week) Many fresh markets around Bangkok remain shut as they are now among the areas spreading the virus. Among the 10 fresh markets shut are . Yingcharoen market (until May 24), Din Daeng (May 21), Bangkapi (May 22), Klong Toei (June 4), SaamYan (May 20), Nongchok (May 31). The price of promoting Prayut govt. Araya ‘Champoo’ an influential movie star in Thailand who has been under immense criticism for her role in promoting the use of ‘SinoVac’ as a jab to help fight Covid-19 has been seeing her followers on Instagram decline over the past 3-days. Although the drop in number has been a drop in the bucket, but in the past 3-days she has lost more than 33,000 of her 10.5 million followers. Below if the chart stipulating the increase/decrease in her followers during May 2021. The number of people who have registered for the vaccine has been on the rise Bangkok has 830,396 people registered so far Strange but True! Mae Chaem district of Chiang Mai province has launched a raffle campaign offering its vaccinated residents the chance to win a live cow per week for the rest of the year in a bid to boost the local Covid-19 vaccination drive. A lucky vaccinated villager in the Mae Chaem district will be randomly chosen every week to win a young cow worth around 10,000 baht from June. The campaign runs for 24-weeks. Political News Today the ‘Emergency Decree’ that has been in place for more than a year on the pretext of ‘controlling’ the spread of Covid-19, is set to be proposed to be extended. The degree is set to expire on May 31st and the decision is set to extended by another 1-month or at most 2-months (until July 31st). Tomorrow marks the 7th anniversary of the May 22, 2014 coup against the government of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The coup of May 22, 2014 was supposed to be a short lived coup but the then army chief – Prayut Chan-o-cha continues to remain in power until today. His key people – Prawit Wongsuwon, the man who borrowed million dollar watches from his dead friends, yesterday said that the government is not bored as it has been in power only for 2-years (elections of 2019). To mark the anniversary of the coup a new hashtag is happening and small gatherings are happening all around the United States and other parts of the world by people of Thai origin. The opposition has threatened to reject a draft budget bill for the 2022 fiscal year of 3.1 trillion baht and boycott a draft executive decree authorising the government to borrow an additional 700 billion baht in fears of the government side’s attempt to seek political gains. Wisarn Techatheerawat, the Pheu Thai MP for Chiang Rai, said the opposition parties have come to an agreement that they would not accept in principle the budget bill for the next fiscal year scheduled for its 1st reading in the House of Representatives from May 31–June 2, citing that the proposed spending plan is irrelevant to the country’s crisis. Wisarn also disapprove of the cabinet’s approval for an executive decree to allow the government to seek an additional 700 billion baht loan in a secretive manner. He said the 1st batch of loan worth 1.9 trillion baht did not help the country reel back from the crisis while he suspected that some budgets have been used to help the coalition parties boost their voter bases. He feared that the government will appropriate 700 billion baht loans for political gain. Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Chaiwut Thanakhamanusorn is pushing to amend laws to thwart fake news and illicit content. The DES Minister is said to set up a new committee to follow up on related laws to tackle fake news. The Minister hinted at the possibility of combining the emergency decree with the computer crime law to block all illicit webpages and content on social platforms. He said Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha instructed all government agencies during a cabinet meeting to monitor improper and illicit content has spread through social media platforms and report back to him every 3 months. Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha told Japanese media yesterday during his speech, at Nikkei’s Future of Asia conference held in Tokyo and online that the local epidemic in Thailand is under control despite the worrisome numbers. He said the situation has shown a good sign since the infection rate is not increasing but stabilizing. He has called on global leaders to allow Covid-19 vaccines to flow freely — rather than using them as political or diplomatic tools — and to cooperate on measures to restore travel as he put it: “Given the government’s economic measures and inoculation plans, we believe that economic activities can resume, and Thailand can fully open the country,” Gen Prayut said. One day after Bhumjai Thai Party MP and spokesman Paradorn Prissananantakul criticised Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha for his move to cancel walk-in vaccination services, Paradorn has come out to say he did not take aim at Gen Prayut but said his Facebook comment is to attack the “Mor Prom” (Doctor Ready) Line Application that has some sort of dysfunction. Paradorn then said he chose to criticise the system on his Facebook, instead of direct communications with the coalition government to avoid creating an impression that a conflict is rife in the coalition.