UNICEF provides oxygen concentrators to support Thailand’s fight against COVID-19

The following is a press release. Their thoughts and opinions are their own.

BANGKOK, 23 September 2021 – UNICEF continues its emergency support to Thailand’s COVID-19 response by providing 550 life-saving oxygen concentrators to help treat patients with respiratory diseases.

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the country, oxygen concentrators will help COVID-19 patients breathe when they cannot do so on their own. To increase patients’ access to the life-saving gas during this critical time and in the long term, oxygen concentrators worth 17 million baht (US$520,000) are being delivered to hospitals and field hospitals in severely affected areas.

“Responding to this COVID-19 surge requires providing life-saving supplies and equipment, including oxygen support. We all must continue ramping up our collective and immediate efforts to help treat patients and support the most vulnerable,” said Kyungsun Kim, UNICEF Representative for Thailand. “Together with our donors and partners, UNICEF is doing everything we can to deliver support to frontline workers to help save lives and minimize the COVID-19 impact on children and families.”

UNICEF’s emergency support to the COVID-19 response in Thailand so far also includes:

• Reaching more than 275,000 disadvantaged children and adults with 607,000 hygiene supplies, including soap, hand sanitizer, alcohol spray, disinfectant, and child and adult-size face masks.

• Reaching 8,360 vulnerable children including children without parental care, urban poor children, and migrant children, with Magic Box and Bag sets of books, toys, learning materials, and parental guides to help keep young children learning while at home.

• Supporting the establishment of a response system in communities, including community isolation and community childcare centers, as well as mobilizing and training volunteers to track new cases and provide COVID-19 testing, care, and mental health support as well as facilitate referrals to health and child protection services in Klongtoey, urban poor communities, migrant communities and at construction sites.

• Developing guidelines to support the authorities in minimizing family separation when implementing COVID-19 quarantine and isolation measures to ensure that children are not separated from parents or caregivers.

• Supporting the establishment of Centre for Children #COVID-19, which provides appropriate and timely services for children affected by COVID-19, including promoting kinship and foster care for children without parental care.

• Organizing training for frontline workers on providing psychosocial support to children to help them cope with grief and loss.

• Supporting training of 8,000 community members, leaders and migrant workers in affected communities and at construction sites on COVID-19 prevention and self-care tips.

• Distributing COVID-19 information booklets in Thai, Khmer, and Myanmar languages to 180,000 children and adults in urban poor and migrant communities.