BANGKOK, Aug 4 – Nine people died and six are missing in landslides, drowning and other storm- and flood-related incidents in Thailand’s North and Northeast, as the number of flood-hit provinces rose to 17, according to Public Health Ministry’s deputy permanent secretary Dr Narong Sahamethapat.
The northern province of Mae Hong Son recorded the highest number of deaths with three people, two of them boys, dying in landslides triggered by incessant downpours in Sop Moei district. Chiang Mai has registered two more deaths, while Sukhothai, Sakon Nakhon, Phrae and Udon Thani provinces have one death each.
There are 7,000 patients with water-borne diseases such as athlete’s foot and colds, Dr Narong said, adding that 79,000 sets of medicine have been distributed to them. Flooding also affected 10 local hospitals and one disease-control centre in Chiang Mai’s Bosang district, the senior health ministry official said, adding that they remain open for services.
Seventeen provinces–12 in the North and five in the Northeast–are affected by flooding: Phare, Sukhothai, Chiang Mai, Lampoon, Lampang, Uttradit, Phitsanulok, Phetchabun, Nan, Phayao, Mae Hong Son, Udon Thani, Sakon Nakhon, Bung Kan, Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom and Phichit.
Dr Narong also said people in the four northern provinces of Uttradit, Nan, Phrae and Phitsanulok have been warned to stay away from areas at risk of being hit by landslides.
