Klong Toey community leaders have refuted an allegation by a Palang Pracharat MP, claiming double standards in the distribution of queue tickets for COVID-19 screening and vaccination to residents in the crowded communities.
Mr. Sompit Pa-obpetch, president of the Klong Toey communities, and seven other community leaders, held an impromptu news conference yesterday (Thursday) at one of the apartments in the area, to explain the distribution of queue tickets.
Dismissing the allegation of unfair practice, he said that the distribution is based on the number of households in each community, the severity of infections and on the nature of the work of the residents.
For instance, he said those who work as taxi drivers or motorcycle taxi drivers, who are at higher risk of close contact with passengers who may be infected, were given the queue tickets before others.
That one community may receive fewer tickets than another isbecause the Klong Toey district office has assessed the COVID-19 situation in each community, which may differ, and decided on the number of queue tickets to be distributed accordingly, said Sompit, adding that this procedure is normal and should be understandable.
The Klong Toey slum, which houses about 80,000 registered residents and an unknown number of unregistered people, has become Bangkok’s hot spot of COVID-19 spread and the focus of government’s efforts to contain the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, president of the Duang Prateep Foundation, has appealed for public donations of food, drinking water, disinfectant gel, rubber gloves and other necessities for daily life for residents of the slum, many of whom have been placed in home quarantine.
