The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) is tightening measures to protect factories against the Omicron variant, hoping to avoid a repeat of last year's nightmare when several thousand workers were infected by the Delta variant.
Public health officials believe Omicron is more contagious than Delta, but not as virulent if patients are vaccinated.
Stricter preventive measures among factory operators were announced yesterday by FTI chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree, the same day the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration decided to put 69 of 77 provinces nationwide under strict control, labelling them "orange zones".
Mr Supant said factories are recommended to strengthen all measures, both for disease protection and outbreak control, that have been in use since 2019 to protect workers and continue daily operations.
These measures include "bubble and seal", which is used by factories with more than 200 workers to restrict travel among employees, as well as factory quarantine.
Factory owners are urged to turn their plants into quarantine facilities after confirmation of infected workers, he said.
Factories need to keep other workers who have had close contact with infected colleagues under quarantine, said Mr Supant.
To prevent the spread of Omicron, workers are required to have Covid-19 antigen testing every 14 days.
"Factory operators need to strengthen measures to prevent the spread of Omicron. We are concerned the new variant will severely affect industrial operations," he said.
Last year Covid-19 crippled the manufacturing sector, infecting up to 13 factories a day, with the food and electronics industries at the top of the caseload table, according to an Industry Ministry report.
The numbers were based on a survey of 749 factories in 62 provinces between April 1 and Aug 17. The ministry found new infections in roughly 800 workers a day, making up 4% of total daily infections in Thailand during that period.
Mr Supant insisted factories must keep their guard up to protect their production capacity, which remains at an unsatisfactory level.
"The industrial sector is facing a supply constraint. Manufacturers cannot make enough products to meet the global demand," he said.
"Product prices in upstream and downstream industries rose because of the increase of raw material prices."
