Factory faces closure:

The Pathum Thani Covid-19 Control Centre has found a factory in the province concealing information about Covid-19 infected workers.

Dr Rangsan Butcha, director of Prachathipat Hospital in Thanyaburi district, made the disclosure yesterday after a meeting of the provincial Covid19 committee.

He did not give the name of the factory. He said the centre would propose state agencies have the factory temporarily closed.

The owner was uncooperative and concealed information about its migrant workers, he said.

He said the provincial centre ran active search cases in this factory last week and found 26 of 60 migrant workers tested positive for the coronavirus.

Speaking on the overall situation in Pathum Thani, Dr Rangsan said the province anticipated Covid-19 would be brought under control within one month from now.

In another development, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will hand out 12,000 baht in financial help to officials and staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang approved a 1.02 billion baht budget for providing financial handouts to employees, according to an official at the BMA.

BMA officials and employees are each entitled to receive a 12,000 baht handout.

Last year, BMA did not pay any awards or bonus to staff, which was against the normal practice.

Usually, the BMA earmarks about 1 billion baht annually for bonuses and special financial help.

The BMA last year made less revenue from tax than normal and decided to postpone further tax collections to ease the economic burden on city residents who have also been hit by the pandemic. City Hall also focused its budget spending last year on fighting Covid rather than helping staff.

This source said the handout followed a recommendation from the State Audit Office that required the BMA to follow other local administrations in providing help. The source said BMA’s committee appraising and awarding personnel also followed Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s policy that ordered government agencies to reserve a budget for additional payments to public officials that may be affected by the pandemic.