Police told to work from home after 42 test positive

The Royal Thai Police (RTP) yesterday asked about half its staff at its head office to begin working from home and other units to adopt the same measure wherever possible.

The work-from-home order, plus other measures, was ordered by national police chief Suwat Jangyodsuk after at least 42 police officers were confirmed to have contracted Covid19, said RTP spokesman Pol Maj Gen Yingyos Thepjamnong.

Units around the country had also been instructed to apply the work-fromhome policy wherever possible, while still ensuring efficiency, he said.

The Police General Hospital was yesterday flooded with a large number of police officers concerned they might have contracted the virus and keen to get tested, a hospital source said.

Pol Maj Gen Yingyos insisted the RTP had been strictly following the government’s Covid-19 containment measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

He was responding to a remark by Sira Jenjaka, a Palang Pracharath Party MP and chairman of the House committee on legal affairs, justice and human rights, who vowed to invite all parties concerned to an inquiry over the latest Covid-19 outbreak triggered by night entertainment venues in the Thong Lor area of Bangkok.

The Metropolitan Police Bureau had been consistently advising all business operators to fully comply with the government’s Covid-19 control measures, he said, adding that the MPB had to also maintain 24/7 security patrols around the city to deter people from flouting disease-control measures.