In their weekly meeting, members of the Cabinet approved the additional compensation and hazard pay package for volunteers who assisted the government in its COVID response as proposed by the Ministry of Public Health.
This new package is worth B1.05bn and will be funded using the government’s central budget, reports state news agency NNT.
Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul revealed that the compensation will be provided to about 1,040,000 village health volunteers. It will also cover 10,600 health volunteers in Bangkok at a monthly rate of B500, with volunteers eligible for two months worth of compensation from April to May.
This latest package was approved in addition to a previous one worth B3.15bn, which covered health volunteers from October 2021 to March 2022 at the same monthly rate.
Minister Anutin on this occasion praised the volunteers for their frontline work in helping the residents of local communities.
He also said they were key to improving the pandemic situation in Thailand, contributing to a public health system that has been praised as one of the best in the world for COVID-19 management.