Thailand confirms five new coronavirus cases

The Public Health Ministry confirmed five new Covid-19 coronavirus cases this morning in its daily press briefing. The new cases take the total number of infections in the country to 75 since January. 34 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital.

Meanwhile, worried citizens continue to have difficulty buying face masks and hand sanitiser due to short supply and poor distribution. Ministry of Energy spokesman Watchara Kannika clarified today that the ministry has only 1 million litres of alcohol left per day after use for fuel-making and not 100 million litres as claimed by a lawmaker.

Watchara says the claim made yesterday by Weerakorn Khamprakob, an MP of Phalang Pracharat Party, that the ministry has over 100 million litres of alcohol in stock that can be used to make alcohol-based hand gels is not true.

“Although the Covid-19 situation has caused shortage of hand sanitiser gels in the market, we cannot use all alcohol in stock as it is earmarked for making fuel. Most of the alcohol we have [is] already mixed with gasoline and therefore cannot be used to make hand gels or disinfectants. The ministry has around 1 million litres of alcohol left per day [after] fuel making.”

Energy Minister Sonthirat Sonthijirawong on Monday met with the Excise Department to discuss plans to obtain more alcohol from 26 Thai manufacturers to make more hand sanitiser.

“This amount of alcohol will be added to the 1 million litres per day we have left from fuel making, and we hope to start the manufacturing process very soon,”

SOURCES: Reuters | The Nation