Special train No.971 to Ubon Ratchathani departed from Rangsit railway station on Tuesday morning taking 137 Covid-19 patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms to their homes in the lower Northeast.
Under a cabinet resolution on July 20, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Health were instructed to arrange transport to return Covid-19 patients to their home provinces. The ministries were told to cooperate with the National Health Security Office and National Institute of Emergency Medicine.
At 9.50am, the special train departed from Rangsit railway station in Pathum Thani, where the 137 patients boarded.
The train was scheduled to drop patients off at Nakhon Ratchasima station at 1.29pm, Buri Ram station at 3.05pm, Lam Chi station in Surin at 3.38pm, Nong Waeng station in Si Sa Ket at 5.17pm and Warin Chamrap station in Ubon Ratchathani at 6pm.
The patients were to be picked up at the stations by local health officials and taken to designated hospitals.
A special 14-carriage train was scheduled to leave Bangkok on Monday with 1,489 Covid-19 patients on the same route. It was cancelled after officials found out on Sunday that most of thel people who had booked places on the train had already returned home in ambulances, rescue vehicles or chartered buses.
Another train was arranged to take the remainder home on Tuesday.