The company expects passengers to travel throughout the day on short routes not longer than 300 kilometres, Sanyalak said. Currently, the Transport Company operates 15 northern bus routes, 19 northeastern bus routes, 15 southern bus routes and nine bus routes to Laos. He said passengers can book tickets in advance on its website www.transport.co.th, e-ticket application of the company and from counter services. He added that the Transport Company had not yet raised the fare for its buses even though the Central Land Transport Committee had allow a fare hike of five satang (0.05 baht) per kilometre distance. Sanyalak said the current fares would be in use until September 30 to help people bear the cost and the company would also provide 5 per cent discount to passengers who register for Transport Company membership cards.

The selected innovators will receive partnership building opportunities, mentorship, increased visibility, access to networks, and grants to scale their solutions. Urgent sustainable solutions are needed to combat the ever-growing global plastic waste pollution crisis. Between 2017-2019, an estimated 2 million tonnes of plastic waste leakage per year came from Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. This accounts for 17% of annual global marine plastic waste leakage. Plastic waste that is not polluting waterways is either burnt or dumped - posing a significant threat to environmental and biodiversity health.

Deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had praised the government's efforts in combating human trafficking issues. Gen Prayut hopes Thailand one day will climb to Tier 1, which indicates human trafficking has been eradicated. The report indicates 17 more public officials were found to be involved in human trafficking rings than the year before. The ministry has provided aid for 414 human trafficking victims, 148 of whom were rescued from forced labour. She said the ministry would establish a labour union for migrant workers to prevent human trafficking and improve standards in their workplaces.

Thares said the latest survey revealed that only 11 hospitels and six hotel isolation centres remain open, compared to 76 hospitels and 31 hotel isolation centres available when the outbreak had reached its peak in Thailand last year. These 17 establishments that are still open have a combined capacity of only 4,720 beds. “Currently most of the infected patients are having mild or no symptoms and can be treated under the OPSI system or via home isolation, therefore the need for these hospitels and hotel isolation is growing smaller,” he added. Thares added that besides OPSI, patients also have the option to receive Covid-19 treatment via the National Health Security Office (NHSO)’s telemedicine system. Currently three applications have been commissioned by the NHSO to treat Covid patients.

The country’s total caseload from Covid-19 stands at 4,463,557 – 4,399,358 of whom have recovered, 34,056 are still in hospitals and 30,143 have died. Separately, another 16,589 people were given their first Covid-19 shot in the last 24 hours, 41,546 their second shot and 73,760 a booster, bringing the total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered nationwide to 138,103,194. According to Worldometer, confirmed cases globally had risen to 534.85 million on Saturday, 505.63 million of whom have recovered, 22.9 million are active cases (36,693 in severe condition) and 6.32 million have died (up by 1,161). Thailand ranks 24th in the global list of most cases, which is topped by the US with 86.45 million, followed by India with 43.17 million, Brazil with 31.14 million, France with 29.6 million and Germany with 26.51 million.

Vietnam needs $8bn-$14bn power investment a year through 2030Power-generating windmill turbines are pictured at a wind park in Bac Lieu province, Vietnam, on July 8, 2017. Of the amount, 75% would be spent on new power plants, with priority given to renewable sources, and 25% on grid expansion, the deputy minister said in a statement. He said the country will seek to raise funds from private investors for the new power projects, without elaborating. Vietnam, a regional manufacturing hub, needs to increase its installed power generation capacity by around 10% a year to support its fast-growing economy and population. "Vietnam will not add new coal-fired power plants to its master power development plan, and will only continue coal projects that are under construction until 2030," An said.

The first ESG activity, “Taiwan Excellence Wonder Miles – Art Therapy for Children with Autism”was held on July 22, Many participants,including runners, autistic children with their families, and Taiwaese officials, joined the activity. The second ESG activity, “Taiwan Excellence Wonder Miles - Plastic Caps Transform to Wealth”, was held on August 5. The activity attracted many participants, including runners, Taiwan Excellence fans, and Taiwanese officials. Overall, “Taiwan Excellence Wonder Miles” not only successfully increased people’s health awareness, but also gave back to society and the environment by holding these two activities with the Thai Autistic Foundation and Precious Plastic Bangkok of the Green World Foundation. This is in line with the principles Taiwan Excellence values: supporting society and communities, to help each other achieve sustainable well-being.

The move, which aims to make Covid-19 treatment and medicine more easily and widely available, will include four antiviral drugs approved by Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), namely Favipiravir, Remdesivir, Molnupiravir and Paxlovid. “From September 1, people will still not be allowed to buy Covid-19 antiviral drugs themselves,” said Public Health deputy permanent secretary Dr Thongchai Kirattihatthayakorn on Tuesday. Medical Services Department director-general Dr Somsak Akkasilp said antiviral drugs are approved by the FDA for use in emergency situations, and long-term side effects have yet to be thoroughly studied. “People should therefore be careful and use these drugs only under doctor’s orders, especially among ‘rebound’ patients who had recovered from Covid-19 and then got reinfected despite having taken antiviral drugs,” he added. Clicknic CEO Neil Nilwichian insisted that patients would be diagnosed by 40 to 50 doctors via the app to prevent the antiviral drug from being misused or wrongly prescribed.

Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) chairman Sanan Angubolkul said the agency agreed with moves to boost the minimum wage because rising inflation has triggered a surge in the cost of living. However, TCC vice chairman Visit Limlurcha said the impact of rising production costs in each business sector is different. Also, he said, the increase in the minimum wage may subsequently increase the price of goods and services, thus resulting in an impact on consumers. Visit said the minimum wage increase will boost production costs by 5 to 20 per cent, depending on the number of workers a business has. For instance, he said, industries that are automated may only face a 5 per cent increase in production costs.

The board has targeted domestic production of 320,000 tonnes of white shrimp this year, rising to 400,000 tonnes next year. This year, Thailand has produced 138,733 tonnes of shrimp up to the end of July – 129,100 tonnes of Pacific white shrimp and 9,632 tonnes of black tiger prawns, Chalermchai said. He said his association members would focus on processing shrimps for export so their imports would not affect domestic shrimp prices. Thailand now has about 30,000 shrimp farms covering 600,000 rai of land, according to the Federation of Thai Aquaculture. However, it confirms that production has dropped to 250,000-350,000 tonnes per year due to persistent outbreaks of early mortality syndrome (EMS).

“It was right to free the medicine [from the control of the Public Health Ministry]. This move will definitely end the situation of inadequate medicine,” the group said in the post. “But what is still confusing is whether hospitals under the Public Health Ministry will be able to buy Covid medicine on their own. It said full liberalisation would end inadequate drug supplies caused by the GPO’s monopoly and troublesome logistics management. He said his family members had got Covid and they had to buy the drug online as doctors would not administer the drug.

Sri Lanka syndrome: Is Bangladesh out of danger? Sri Lanka in particular remains mired in a crisis driven by a mix of high indebtedness, soaring inflation and poor economic management. Sri Lanka may not be alone. If the pain becomes too much for the long-suffering public to bear, they may take to the streets and turn Pakistan into the next Sri Lanka. Like Sri Lanka, the Maldives is heavily reliant on tourism, which suffered a big blow from the pandemic.

GRIPPED WITH CONCERNSThe Federation of Thai SMEs is worried about a higher policy rate and is calling for authorities to prepare measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) deal with the impact. The rising inflation rate, on a year-to-date basis, has increased the expenses of the household sector by 3.6%. The governor said an interest rate increase would not affect existing retail borrowers significantly because around 60% of total retail loans are charged at a fixed rate. Meanwhile, the rising inflation rate, on a year-to-date basis, has increased the expenses of the household sector by 3.6%. Banks may not react immediately to the interest rate increases in order to support borrowers amid the gradual economic recovery, Payong Srivanich, chairman of the Thai Bankers' Association (TBA), said last week at the JSCCIB panel meeting.

Gaza death toll rises as Israel, Palestinian militants trade fireSmoke billows from the site of a reported Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday. (Photo: AFP)The death toll from violence in Gaza had risen to 24 on Sunday, including six children, as Israel pressed on with its bombardment of Palestinian militants who have retaliated with barrages of rockets. But Israel said it had "irrefutable" evidence that a stray rocket from Islamic Jihad militants had been responsible for the death of multiple children in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Saturday. - Jerusalem -Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas, but often acts independently. A flare-up with Islamic Jihad came in 2019, following Israel's killing of Baha Abu al-Ata, Jabari's predecessor.

Firefighters and rescue officials from Sutthisan Fire Station rushed to the scene and managed to have the flames under control in 10 minutes. By 1pm the fire had been completely extinguished. No casualties were reported. Police said the cause of the fire will be investigated.