Skytrain rapped for ‘weak’ distancing

The Department of Disease Control (DDC) yesterday urged the BTS Skytrain operator to do better by improving its “weak” social-distancing measures to avoid causing a second wave of Covid19 in the capital.

Anupong Suchariyakul, a department specialist, told the media at a press conference that the Ministry of Public Health was unhappy and shocked at news reports of two overcrowded BTS stations — National Stadium and Siam — yesterday morning.

Dr Anupong said the case was an example of “weak social-distancing management”.

“Actually, we have discussed the issue with the mass-transit operators, including the BTS Skytrain operator before. But we assume that what happened yesterday might have been beyond their control. However, we remain hopeful that the operator will perform better,” Dr Anupong said.

He said the BTS operator should clearly mark where people should stand or sit at stations with the proper distancing.

The staff should perform better in managing queues and services to avoid heavy foot traffic during rush hours, he added.

The Bangkok Mass Transit System Plc explained the overcrowding yesterday was the result of a technical error, which caused a passenger build up and overcrowded stations.

In another development, Opart Karnkawinpong, head of the Department of Medical Sciences, yesterday told the media that Covid-19 testing of 40 residents of Yala province would be conducted for a third time by the Public Health Ministry in Bangkok.

He was referring to the 40 residents who initially tested positive for Covid19 on Sunday. The provincial health authority then found the results may have been false positives and sent the samples for re-testing in a state laboratory in Songkhla province on Monday. Results then came back negative for Covid-19.

The laboratory testing is expected to be done today and the ministry will announce the results soon, he said.

Dr Opart insisted there was nothing wrong with the lab at Yala Hospital but the ministry needed to find the cause of the error to prevent it happening again.

The Yala lab’s performance complies with department standards, he said.