The coronavirus bug reared its ugly head on humanity without as much as a warning to the billions of common people inhabiting this planet. Probably only a handful of people knew of the threat and initially tried to suppress it by claiming that it was just a simple virus that will be gone within weeks.
Little could the rest of the human race imagine that this pandemic would become the worst scourge to have struck humanity this century.
As the epidemic turned into a pandemic, health workers the world over scrambled to acquire medical equipment, from the simple thermometer to medical protective suits, to face masks to the sophisticated ventilators. Unfortunately there weren’t enough to go around.
As advanced and sophisticated in thinking and planning human beings are, we totally messed up in this instance.
Even countries with a lot of money couldn’t buy any medical equipment. No one had expected the coronavirus to grow out of proportions so rapidly and no one was ready to deal with.
In Thailand, except for the big hospitals, the small clinics and government health centers found themselves in an even worse situation. How were they to check the temperatures of their patients and people in their communities, to make sure that they were not infected with the deadly virus?
One such health centre is the Ban Nong Ta Oun Health Promoting Hospital on Siam Country Club Road in Pattaya. The medical staff were still using the outdated thermometers and worse still, could not accommodate the hundreds of people a day who came to check whether they had coronavirus or not. They were desperate to acquire the modern non-contact thermometer as soon as possible. But funds were not forthcoming.
On hearing of their need for non-contact thermometers, President Maneeya Engelking of the Rotary Club Dolphin International Pattaya together with her club members donated two non-contact thermometers worth 5000 baht for use in their work to try to control the spread of the coronavirus amongst the people of the community.
Mrs. Suchanan Kantee, Director of Ban Nong Ta Oun Health Promoting Hospital said that in her area of responsibility, there are currently no patients confirmed with COVID-19. But they are taking every precaution to prevent it.
She thanked the Rotarians for their generosity and promised to use the new medical equipment for the benefit of the people in the community.
