Lift emergency decree, urges business research centre director
The government should lift the emergency decree and use the Contagious Disease Act instead as the present situation has caused at least Bt1.2 trillion to Bt1.3 trillion in damages, said Anusorn Tamajai, the director of the Economic and Business Research Centre for Reform at Rangsit University’s Institute of Economics.
“The shutdown has decreased the number of Thailand’s new Covid-19 patients, with high economic impact,” he said. “However, to prolong this measure would not be worthy, compared to people’s economic hardships and social tensions, as shown by research conducted by Kip Viscusi and Clayton Masterman."
Moreover, he said, the Public Health Ministry’s budget should increase by Bt250 billion to Bt300 billion in order to improve the quality of around 30 provincial hospitals.
“The bed proportion should be increased to 6.4 per 1,000 citizens, and quarantine places must be established across the nation,” he advised. “This public health infrastructure could assist Thailand as it deals with emerging diseases in the future.”
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