More than 1.3 million people have fallen ill in the state since the beginning of the year as a result of air pollution, according to the Ministry of Public Health, with nearly 200,000 being hospitalized this week. Kriangkrai Namthaisong, a doctor at the ministry, urged children and pregnant women to stay indoors on Wednesday.

He said that anyone going out should wear a high quality N95 anti-pollution mask. During another pollution peak in late January and early February, city officials urged people to work from home.

A spokesman for Bangkok governor Chadchart Sitipunt, who was elected last year on a promise to improve the city’s environment, said he would not hesitate to issue another similar order if the situation worsened. Ekvarunyo Amrapala told AFP the city-run nursery had installed air purifiers for the safety of young children as well as special “no dust rooms” to monitor vehicle emissions.

Unsafe levels of the most dangerous PM2.5 particles were recorded in 50 districts of Bangkok on Wednesday, the Ministry of Public Health said. So small that they can enter the bloodstream, while on Thursday they remained well above the guidelines of the World Health Organization. According to the government’s pollution control department, PM 2.5 levels have been above the safe limit in most parts of Bangkok for the past three days. The situation was even worse in the northern city of Chiang Mai, an agricultural area where farmers burn crop stubble at this time of year.

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