Thailand News - Corona - By Ola J. - Palmtree

PATTAYA: A four-month-old elephant died late Thursday night due to lack of nutrients after being saved from severe injuries caused by a snare and bullets last month.

Phadet Siridamrong, a veterinarian at Nongnooch Garden, wrote on his Facebook page that the baby elephant, known as Phang Fasai, died at 9.45pm on Thursday after an hour-long attempt to save her life.

He said after the severe injuries, the baby elephant had responded well to treatment and gradually recovered.

However, she did not get nutrients from elephant milk. Staff at Nongnooch Garden where she received treatment tried to keep her alive until next month when two elephants at the garden would give birth and there would be enough milk for Phang Fasai.

The lack of nutrients weakened the immunity of the baby elephant and she started developing diseases in the gastrointestinal tract and digestion system. She finally died of gastrointestinal failure, Mr Phadet said.

On Nov 28, the baby elephant was rescued from a snare in a forest in Kaeng Hang Maew district of Chanthaburi.

Her left front leg was badly injured and veterinarians had to later amputate it. Besides, she sustained about 10 bullet wounds to the right front leg.

The Thai General Insurance Association has predicted that more insurance companies may collapse next year, due to the surging number of claims for compensation for COVID-19 infections, if the Omicron variant spreads across the country.

The association's president, Anon Wangvasu, said yesterday (Wednesday) that insurance companies as a whole have sustained losses, amounting to 37 billion baht, from compensation claims by people infected with coronavirus, or an average of 3,000 claims a day up to November this year, and the losses are predicted to increase to 40 billion baht by the year end.

He said that compensation claims may surge to 180 billion baht next year, if the Omicron variant spreads quickly and infects several tens of thousands of people each day, in which case several more insurance companies will be unable to shoulder the burden of the claims and will, ultimately, be forced into bankruptcy.

The only way to save them is for the Insurance Commission to rescind the Registrar's Order and allow insurance firms to scrap the "Find, Pay, End" policies, which enable the insured to claim compensation from the firms when it is proved that they were infected with COVID-19.

The Office of the Insurance Commission has, so far, revoked the licenses of two non-life insurance companies, "The One" and "Asia Insurance", which defaulted on compensation claims.

Anon claimed that as many as two million insured people will be affected if one more insurance firm collapses.