People in Thai North, Northeast hard-hit by cold snap

MAE HONG SON, THAILAND, December 23 (TNA) - Hundreds of thousands of people living in the Thai North and Northeast have been hard-hit by the ongoing cold snap, as temperatures have kept falling over the past week. In Mae Hong Son Province in the Upper Thai North, where all seven districts have been declared cold stricken areas, Governor Surapol Panasampol and chief of provincial disaster prevention and mitigation office Permwittaya Kantasong have urgently distributed blankets to local cold stricken victims, after temperatures have plunged to around 12-13 degrees Celsius in plain areas and 4-5 degrees Celsius on highlands, affecting more than 100,000 people especially those living along the border and on highlands. In Chiang Rai Province, where all 18 districts have already been declared cold stricken zones, chief of Chiang Saen District Weerasak Sirisit, along with officials from the province's disaster prevention and mitigation office, have also hurriedly distributed winter necessities to affected victims, prioritising those in risk groups namely children, the elderly and the disabled, as some 57,000 locals have been affected by falling temperatures to lower than 10 degrees Celsius for over a week, while 280,000 locals have no winter clothes. In Lampang Province, where all districts have also been declared cold ridden areas, local authorities have handed out more than 10,000 blankets to part of about 120,000 cold affected victims. In Maha Sarakham Province in the Thai Northeast, where all 13 districts have been declared cold stricken areas, chief of provincial disaster prevention and mitigation office Sittiphon Sa-ngiam has predicted that the cold spell should last through the New Year, causing around over 177,800 locals in dire need of winter necessities Meanwhile, Rangsan Rawangsamrong, chief of livestock office in the northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima Province, told journalists on Monday that his office has kept a close watch against any outbreak of winter diseases in local livestocks, including bird flu, Newcastle disease and fowl cholera, acknowledging, however, that his office has well prepared vaccines needed for the animals if there is any spreading of the animal diseases in the winter. Rangsan advised local livestock farmers to inform provincial livestock units in their areas immediately if they find any animal ill or dead suspiciously.(TNA)