Beware of virus transmission from family members: health officials

“They may need to sit on different sofas while watching TV together.”

An alarming number of Covid-19 coronavirus cases transmitted between family members in the last week has prompted the Thai government to warn that social distancing is important even, perhaps especially, in the home. Many in Thailand are now adapting to living in close quarters for large chunks of the day as provinces ‘lockdown’ across the country.

Taweesilp Visanuyothin, frontman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, says that of the 495 new infections reported between April 4 and 10, 144, or 29%, are people who were in close contact with other confirmed cases and “up to 56% in this group contracted the virus from family members, especially spouses.”

The second-highest number of transmissions, 23%, occurred in workplaces, followed by 18% at social gatherings and 3% from other sources. Dr Taweesilp stressed the need to strictly follow social distancing, to slow down the spread of the disease because of the country’s limited medical resources.

Krabi officials say they will provide Covid-19 patients who report to the hospital and are open about their symptoms 500 baht daily until they recover. Dozens of hospital personnel have been infected or quarantined because some patients failed to divulge symptoms or that they were in a high-risk group for infection.

The chief of the respiratory medicine department at Siriraj Hospital also posted on his Facebook page yesterday that authorities are planning to boost the number of coronavirus-specific ICU beds around the capital from 80 to 200 by May, while hospitals located upcountry, which currently have only 40 such beds, will also expand their capacity to 200.

According to the CCSA, new Covid-19 cases fell yesterday for the third consecutive day to 45, bringing up the total number of infections to 2,528, 1,135 of whom have been discharged.

Of the new cases, nine were among people in state quarantine: 8 Thai returnees from Indonesia and 1 from the US.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

• Stay at home • Apply rigorous social distancing, about 2 metres, at all times • Wash your hands regularly and be vigilant about personal hygiene • Stock up now on vital medications • Keep abreast of all your local news and restrictions • Always wear a facemark when in public places.