Picture: Thai Rath
Thailand's DPM and health minister Anutin Charnvirakul - who spent much of the pandemic under intense pressure - was all smiles in Geneva yesterday as the kingdom received glowing praise from the World Health Organization and its director general Dr Tedrom Ghebreyesus, notes ASEAN NOW.
Thai Rath reported that Anutin and the WHO have agreed that Thailand should be declared a BIOHUB.
They pictured Anutin and Dr Tedros shaking hands in a picture lifted from Facebook.
Anutin was in Switzerland attending the 75th congress of the World Health Assembly.
Anutin said that Thailand's Covid response had employed "soft power using Thainess - smile first, wai first and that will make a hard task appear much easier".
This showed how far the country had come from the early days of the pandemic when Anutin got embroiled in a spat with a non-mask wearing foreigner, had his own mask wearing issues and presided over delays in the procurement of imported and locally produced vaccine, notes ASEAN NOW.
All that was in the past as Anutin said that Thailand had been lauded for its Covid-19 response after a WHO team was sent to the country to discover how they did it.
Thailand was praised for preventing disease, its vaccination program, medical treatment for infected people and strong health care system.
So much so that the country is now the first to be named in a joint collaboration with the WHO making the country a BIOHUB for collecting existing pathogens, study and research and development of drugs and vaccines.
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Thailand is the first country in the world to enter such an agreement because "we are the most ready", according to the minister.
Meanwhile this was confirmed by Dr Tedros on Twitter who thanked Anutin for his efforts in ensuring that 70% of the population was vaccinated.
This was a key aim since vaccines became available during the pandemic.
In addition Dr Tedros said that Thailand was committed to vaccine equality and welcomed the country's cooperation in sharing knowledge about its universal health insurance scheme (the so called Gold Card).
ASEAN NOW further notes that there was much consternation among Thai watchers that the country would not treat everyone equally.
This proved unfounded as foreigners in the kingdom lined up alongside Thais for their jabs.
Most even getting their vax for free.