Day: September 11, 2021

A team of health volunteers from Sangkhla district, in Thailand’s western province of Kanchanaburi, spent six days and five nights of camping in the jungle to reach a remote forest, close to the Thai-Myanmar border, to inoculate 164 members of an ethnic Karen community.

Although the distance from Sangkhla district to the Ban Jakae village, in Laiwo sub-district, is just 80km, the gruelling journey, through the rugged terrain of the tropical rain forest, took six days.

The convoy of three pickup trucks had to struggle along muddy roads and through the raging current of a creek. On various occasions a winch was used to pull the vehicles out of the thick mud.

With no accommodation available in the jungle, the team of a retired volunteer doctor, Dr. Panya Sunthornthiti, a few nurses and local officials, had to sleep in tents.

Despite the natural obstacles, Dr. Panya told Thai PBS that the team had to reach the village to inoculate the villagers, who had signed up for inoculation with Sinopharm vaccine, purchased by the Tambon Administration Organization of Laiwo sub-district from the Chulabhorn Royal Academy.

He said that the vaccination of 164, out of over 2,500 in the jungle village, would help to build herd immunity to protect the rest of the villagers from COVID-19 infections, for which treatment would be almost impossible, due to the rugged terrain, and the only means of rapid transport being by helicopter.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

Thailand recorded 15,191 new COVID-19 cases, 18,721 new recoveries and 253 more deaths today (Saturday), according to the COVID-19 Information Centre.

Cumulative infections, since April 1st this year, are 1,339,281 and 1,188,686 patients have recovered from the disease. 137,859 people are still being treated in general and field hospitals.

Between February 28th and last Thursday, 38,873,359 doses of vaccines have been administered across the country. Of these, 26,631,261 people have received their first vaccine jab, 11,630,996 have received two jabs and 611,102 have received three.

Dr. Panuwat Pankate, deputy director-general of the Health Service Support Department, said that public health volunteers have been tasked with advising members of the public on how to use the rapid antigen test kits (ATKs) and what to do after they know the test results, especially those considered as high risk.

For the high-risk group, if testing negative, they still need to be isolated for observation for 14 days, during which they will have to conduct a second test with an ATK five days after the first.

If they test positive in the second test, health officials will arrange for them to enter home or community isolation or to be sent to a hospital, depending on their condition.

Meanwhile, Dr. Tharet Krasanairavivong, director-general of the Health Service Support Department, praised public health volunteers of having played a key role in the prevention of the spread of the virus, in monitoring and helping those in quarantine, in convincing people to get vaccinated and in educating people on how to protect themselves against getting infected.

He said that, through the door-to-door approach and the “Mor Prom” application, public health volunteers have managed to convince about 4.8 million people to register to receive vaccines, adding that many them also serve as riders to deliver food to those in home isolation.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service