Covid-19 testing increased, CCSA blames household spread

After a month of the worst Covid-19 outbreak ever in Thailand stemming from the nightlife and entertainment venue scene in Bangkok and around Thailand, authorities have set their sight on another treacherous virus spreader: your household. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration worries that while the number of infections being spread in the community and gathering places seems to be waning, infected people have now brought Covid-19 home with them and are spreading the virus in their household, in Bangkok and throughout the country.

New infections had spent a week falling steadily, though critical cases and deaths are increasing, but yesterday and today saw a jump in new cases again. The fluctuation and instability of statistics concern the CCSA. Over the weekend so far, 20 more patients went on ventilators and 12 had their condition moved to critical. But of the 67,044 recorded cases of Covid-19 through yesterday, a disproportionate majority of them were spread from family members within the household.

The Department of Disease Control met with the CCSA yesterday and set a new strategy to rein in outbreaks. With 44% of new infections occurring in Bangkok and its surrounding provinces, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is concentrating on the greater Bangkok area to reduce Covid-19 spread. The goal is to reduce daily infections in Bangkok to under 400 per day, an average of 8 cases for each of the 50 districts.

They will also set out to administer more active case-finding tests, with a plan to test 8,200 people this week: 1,800 tomorrow, 1,400 Tuesday, 2,000 Wednesday, 1,600 Thursday, and 1,400 Friday. In April 30,000 tests were conducted by City Hall in Bangkok while the Labour Ministry tested 45,000 workers registered for social security in provinces such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Pathum Thani and Nontha Buri in the second half of last month.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post