Khachit Chatchawanit, Permanent Secretary of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, told local media that 33,048 out of the 37,466 high school seniors in Bangkok who had registered for a vaccine have received their shots as of October 17. Meanwhile, 29,252 junior high school students who have registered will be vaccinated by October 20.
School staff who have yet to be vaccinated will receive a combined formula of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, he noted.
On-site teaching in Bangkok will resume under universal prevention guidelines, with classrooms and schedules being re-arranged to reduce contact. The measure also limits classes to 25 students per room. Students and staff must wear face masks, be vaccinated, and get tested with antigen test kits on the first day of school.
District offices, public health service centres and other agencies will randomly test at least 10 - 20% of students and education personnel with antigen test kits two times each week. In addition, students and education personnel must record daily timelines. Outdoor activities must adhere to the public health guidelines set by authorities.
Thailand began a vaccination drive targeting children aged 12 - 17 on October 4 with the aim of inoculating 5.04 million students nationwide in preparation for the reopening of educational institutions in November. Its Food and Drug Administration recently approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12 and over.
Thailand has to date recorded 1,793,812 infections of COVID-19, including 18,336 deaths. Most of the new cases and fatalities have been recorded since April 1, when the third wave of the pandemic began.
In Cambodia, Governor of Siem Reap city in Siem Reap province Noun Putheara told Khmer Times that the administration will boost the construction of the 38-road project to be finished before the end of this year as planned.
During the lockdowns, many road projects were left abandoned due to the shortage of workers. The famous Pub Street was literally a ghost town with abandoned buildings and shuttered shops.
Putheara pledged to push the project forward and keep track to make sure that 100 percent of the roadworks are completed, adding that some sectors rely on the roads so it is now a priority in order to welcome local and foreign tourists back.
During the Pchum Ben holiday from October 5 to 7, the Angkor heritage site in Siem Reap welcomed over 35,000 visitors, according to the Authority for the Protection of the Site and Management of the Region of Angkor.
