Thailand’s Ministry of Interior has instructed all units under its supervision to consider allowing their staff to work from home until January 14th, as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, infections of which are expected to spike after the long New Year holidays.

Interior permanent secretary Sutthipong Julacharoen said Friday that the work from home measure will be applied by all units as the unit heads think fit, including the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and provincial administrations, in a way which will not affect public services.

If necessary, physical presence activities, such as meetings, seminars and training courses, which require many people to gather together, should be cancelled, suspended or postponed or virtual activities should be arranged instead, he said.

If such activities cannot be avoided, he said that the event organisers must strictly comply with the COVID-19 free setting measure, introduced by the Ministry of Public Health.

Sutthipong insisted that the Interior Ministry attaches great importance to the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among its staff, but also among members of the public, by means of publicity campaigns.

The work from home measure is in line with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s call, in his New Year message, for the public and private sectors to consider working from home, as a short term measure after their return from the long holidays and bearing in mind the threat posed by the fast spreading Omicron variant.