Floods remain in several areas in Thai South, cold spell hits Thai North, Northeast

THAILAND, December 23 (TNA) - Dozens of areas in the Thai South, especially those in the southern border region, have remained inundated, while those in the Thai North and Northeast have been hit by a cold spell with the rising number of respiratory patients treated at local hospitals. Updated reports said on Tuesday that 36 districts in four provinces in the Thai deep South, including Yala, Narathiwat, Pattani and Songkhla, have been declared flood-hit disaster zones by local authorities. According to the reports, even suburban zones in Hat Yai, Thailand's southern business hub in Songkhla Province, have been affected by the current inundations. In Phattalung Province, six districts have also been declared flood-hit disaster zones, where about 10,000 households have been affected. For the cold-stricken North, Dr. Surasingh Visarutrat, Provincial Deputy Public Health Chief in Chiang Mai, told reporters, meanwhile, he has been reported by local hospitals in all 25 districts that the number of patients suffering from respiratory illnesses have increased by 5-6 times over the past weeks, most of them are young children and the elderly. Dr. Surasingh stated that he has, thus, instructed all the local hospitals to be fully-prepared for the rising patients in all aspects, namely medicines and medical personnel. Besides, local public health volunteer networks have been ordered to provide knowledge to people in their respective areas on how to take proper care of themselves to protect themselves and to reduce impacts from the ongoing chilly weather. The Northern Meteorological Centre has forecast that temperatures in the Thai North should further drop by 2-3 degrees Celsius, to 10-16 degrees Celsius with fog in the morning,from December 22-25, before rising slightly from December 26-27. In the Thai Northeast, six out of 12 districts in Nakhon Phanom Province have been declared cold-hit disaster zones, where a 93-year-old man has died from the chilly weather, as temperatures in the province have fallen to a lowest level, at 13-14 degrees Celsius. (TNA)