The governor of Chiang Mai presided over a ceremonial signing of an MOU between the Provincial Administrative Organisation and the Public Health Office to set up mobile Covid testing across the province.
The president of the PAO told CityNews that the number of people travelling from outlying districts to the city or to larger urban centres to get Covid tests is in fact helping to spread the virus further. Chiang Mai University is offering expertise to design a testing system using two vehicles, costing one million baht each along with a four million baht mobile lab which will traverse the province conducting tests.
The PAO is also in the process of asking the ministry of interior for a 370 million baht loan to directly purchase vaccinations for the people of Chiang Mai. To date, the province has only secured 100,000 doses of Moderna from the Thai Red Cross, which will be delivered in October.
At this time Chiang Mai can conduct 10,000 tests per day, but the issue is that it is mainly provided in the city, added a member of the public health office.
Currently lab results, which take around 6-7 hours, don’t get announced until 24 hours later, said the official. With a new mobile lab and clinic, notices can be made within 6-7 hours and clusters contained.