Move over Clark Kent, there’s a new Superhero in town in need of your dressing room. The Digital Economy and Society Ministry is converting TOT phone booths into Covid-19 testing kiosks to help lower the infection risk faced by healthcare workers due to the shortage of personal protective equipment.
At a cost of less than 1,000 baht to repurpose, selected booths will be cleaned and have holes fitted allowing healthcare workers to put their arm through and collect samples from patients and has a positive pressure fan and filtration system to prevent particulate from entering.
Expect to see our new heroes assisting the public soon as TOT’s vice president Morakot Thienmontree believes the first batch of 50 “Covid boxes”, are expected to be fully converted by the end of the month and deployed at selected hospitals.
While phone booth usage over the last few decades has been in decline, we can’t help but recall the words of former TOT Director in Phuket Mr Chanwis Bunjongkarn when he said “The TOT, as a public company, does not operate the phone booths for profit. We keep them to serve the public need and to provide certain groups of people with easily accessible services.”
It seems TOT’s vision has never been more true than now during this time of need.