News

18 May 2020 : AIS continues the mission of "AIS 5G to combat COVID-19 for Thais" by bringing technology and digital solutions to empower the public health sector to lead the country moving past the crisis. Recently, AIS partnered with the Ministry of Public Health to arm the digital weapon for VHV, the Gray-Shirt Warriors, to entirely control and prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 from the foundation to the national level. The new development of features for the Aorsormor Online application supports VHV in real-time to monitor and screen risk groups. Moreover, AIS is also providing "SIM HERO", which is special for VHV members to support work without interruption, including providing COVID-19 insurance for free and helping to prevent the second wave of the epidemic.

From the current situation, the detection of the infected person is at a continually declining rate, which is resulting from government measures, public cooperation in Social Distancing, including the services of medical and public health personnel plus VHV from nationwide that have dedicated physical and mental strength to critical heal, restore, and prevent the spread of this virus epidemic. Yet the government lockdown ease measures that allowed businesses to re-open, which may be the cause of the second wave of the epidemic. Consequently, this is a significant difficulty for all sectors to work together to stop and prevent this from happening.

Mr. Somchai Lertsutiwong, Chief Executive Officer of AIS, said, "Following the day that AIS announced the vision of bringing the power of 5G intelligent network to support the work of doctors, nurses, and enhance public health to proactively work and control the spread of COVID-19 since last March. We are currently delivering over 177 million baht of support to doctors and nurses who are at the front line in coping with this crisis continuously. We have also expanded the network to establish the 5G signal in more than 161 hospitals that have been tested for COVID-19 nationwide and set up a special center for AIS Robotic Labs to develop Robot for Care, the medical assistant robot to look after patients with COVID-19 to help maintain the distance between the doctor and the patient with delivering of 23 units to 22 hospitals, which can help ease the work of the medical team, doctors and nurses."

"Indeed, today, the situation of COVID-19 in Thailand has already passed the critical point. As the number of new cases is continuously declining, the government started to lockdown the country's ease of moving forward. On the other hand, this may raise the risk of increasing the number of people infected in the second wave. Accordingly, close monitoring and testing in communities across the country from the Village Health Volunteer Group (VHV), which has a shadow name of "Gray Jacket Warriors" with over 1,050,000 people, therefore, is the ultimate value to prevent the second wave of the epidemic. "

Mr. Somchai continued that "Over the past 4 years, we have brought knowledge, expertise, and digital technology to enhance Thai public health by focusing on fundamental healthcare nationwide and working closely with Village Health Volunteer or (VHV), which is a significant linchpin in the Thai public health system because this is a volunteer spirit that is familiar to the people in the community and working network of health service units including sub-district health promoting hospitals, which are accountable for providing medical knowledge, recovery, and promoting physical and mental conditions as well as disease prevention with innovative digital applications, Aorsormor Online, the online social network that proactive committed to community health and work among health services and VHV. Currently, over 41,000 VHVs have downloaded and used this app.

Most lately, to ease the burden and enhance the capacity of the digital VHV members under the COVID-19 situation, AIS has executed digital technology solutions to support the work of VHV, the Gray-Shirt Warriors, as follows:

1. Developing new features "screen and monitor COVID-19" on the Aorsormor Online application.

   Support the Department of Health Services operational guidelines that organize the activity of "VHV Knocks on doors against COVID-19" by developing the screen and monitor features of COVID-19 on the Aorsormor Online application as a tool for VHV to screen and monitor the risk groups of COVID-19 people in the community with the digital report format that VHV can record comfortably, conveniently, and fast to track the results in real-time via mobile. This makes public health officers at Tambon Health Promoting Hospital, including district health officers and provincial public health officers, able to monitor specific information for people traveling from other areas, household members who may be at risk, including a 14-day monitoring group in each household in systematic and on time.

   Also, ready to launch a feature to report screening for mental health risk patients to help monitor those at risk of mental health difficulties from the COVID-19 situation immediately, and gives proper advice for VHV to provide knowledge, whether it be introductory practice, as well as be a proactive tool for detecting high-risk people to enter the treatment system on time. Still, This feature will be released soon.

2. Provide "SIM Hero" for VHV members to use the Aorsormor Online app without interruption with unlimited internet, and at special call rates.

   Support "SIM Hero" to VHV nationwide, and provide free plus unlimited internet for Aorsormor Online applications at 1 Mbps with unlimited internet at 128 kbps, call rates just 0.2 baht per second for all networks 24 hours a day up to 1 year.

3. Give free insurance to the Gray Shirt Warriors to increase the peace of mind for medical working

   Give free insurance coverage for VHV between 16 - 85 years of age nationwide for free! With a coverage period of 30 days, death protection in all cases for 50,000 baht, and supporting daily compensation for 400 baht/day with a maximum of 15 days. If admitted to the hospital as an inpatient due to being infected with the COVID-19 virus. (See terms and conditions at www.ais.co.th/aorsormor)

   VHVs who are using AIS network service or VHVs receiving SIM Hero can get a link to register coverage by dialing *268*, followed by a 13 digit ID card number, then press # and press the call sign. VHV registered members will receive an SMS confirming coverage for a 30 days insurance period (according to the designated conditions) from the insurance company within 5 working days.

Mr. Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister, said, "After mid-March 2020, the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand has increased, which has the public health personnel as an essential job in the war against the COVID-19. Besides doctors, nurses, and associated medical personnel, a group of people who work as a critical role in supporting the proactive work of the Ministry of Public Health is the VHV group. VHVs work with the spirit of volunteerism by thoroughly reaching out to the communities in their own areas to look after and deliver care to the community members.

To this day, Thailand has proven itself to be the top country that can control the spread of the COVID-19 effectively, one of this results is because of the hard work of the VHV team across the country and working proactively in detecting and screening risk groups and infected people in the community immediately. It gave us the ability to follow up with patients for appropriate treatment. Until now, we can say that Thailand has now passed the critical period of the epidemic.

However, this is a turning point, and we have to work hard to keep an eye on the outbreak of the COVID-19, which can repeatedly occur. Therefore, VHVs will still be the necessary team in testing and screening at-risk people in the community, including people who are traveling from other areas and holding a history of infection, and bring that person into the monitoring process and observe the symptoms as soon as possible. Nevertheless, in order to do that on time, it is necessary to use digital technology to help support it.

We are satisfied that AIS has utilized its knowledge and expertise to create significant technology innovations via the Aorsormor Online application, and also developed screening and monitoring features to be compatible with the situation for VHV can use as a tool for risk monitoring and screening the risk groups of the COVID-19 people in the community. Besides, AIS is ready to support the communication system "SIM HERO" with a package to empower VHV members to use the internet on the Aorsormor Online app for free and unlimited, plus provide insurance coverage for VHV members, which covers deaths in all cases, including daily compensation for hospital stays due to the COVID-19 infection. All of this will help create peace of mind and motivating for VHV members to work with excellent responsibilities.

Thank you for all the VHV volunteers' hearts for their dedicated work and community. And thanks to the private sector for working their capacity to engage in this COVID safeguard mission. I strongly believe that the Aorsormor Online app, with the new monitoring feature of the COVID-19, will be alike armed with the digital weapon for our Gray-Shirt Warriors to work efficiently, which is a meaningful power to lead the country through this crisis properly."