BANGKOK, March 30 (TNA) — The government has assured that surgical masks will go first to medical personnel who play important roles in controlling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Dr Sukhum Kanchanapimai, permanent secretary for health, said the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration, met and acknowledged good cooperation from people to help control COVID-19 and also asked people to observe social-distancing by staying 1-2 meters away from one another. He said that the number of COVID-19 cases in Thailand was better than those in other countries including the soaring figure in the United States.
Dr Sukhum also said the Public Health Ministry was distributing through Thailand Post 19.59 million surgical masks to hospitals nationwide.
He said medical personnel needed about 17,000 N95 masks a day. The Public Health Ministry and the Government Pharmaceutical Organization had about 226,000 pieces and the ministry was ordering about 700,000 more including 400,000 from China and 300,000 from 3M Co.
In addition, the ministry will import 240,000 pills of favipiravir from Japan and 100,000 more pills from China. The ministry was distributing about 23,910 pills from its stock to the patients who urgently needed the drug at hospitals nationwide, Dr Sukhum said.
Meanwhile, Boonyarit Kalayanamit, permanent secretary for commerce, said that 11 local factories were producing 36 million surgical masks a month and the amount could meet demand from medical personnel. (TNA)
