Government meeting to address rising Covid-19, action to take

With Covid-19 growing and record numbers being reported, the government is on edge and considering stricter measures to try to contain the spiralling pandemic. Yesterday saw 2 morbid benchmarks surpassed as daily infection numbers crept past 10,000 for the first time and daily Covid-19 deaths were over 100 for the first time. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration will be assessing options and tighter restrictions seem imminent now after a meeting of top level officials yesterday.

At the meeting yesterday attended by all the relevant state agencies and various health and medical experts, the CCSA considered Covid-19 measures like closing all businesses, cancelling all public transportation, restrictions on movement, and more. Despite the inconveniences and pain caused, all were in agreement that extreme restrictions were necessary. Closing businesses except those that dealt with food, medicine, communication and public utilities is likely. The idea of sealed routes being created for workers to continue safely was floated but not acted upon.

Another important action point discussed at the meeting was the need for clear steps to be taken to ramp up active Covid-19 case finding, treatments for those found infected, and support for those whose incomes are severely affected by the tight restrictions. No specific financial relief measures were discussed, but the acknowledgement that government assistance is imperative is a step in the right direction.

For finding active cases, the engagement of a Covid-19 comprehensive response team was discussed at the meeting perhaps to work with the over 200 teams deployed to go door to door offering Covid-19 tests. Plans were made for home and community isolation programs and attendees looked into ways to avoid duplicating work between medical facilities and how best to manage hospitals to care for as many Covid-19 infections as possible.

Promises were also made at the meeting to accelerate the Covid-19 vaccination rollout, especially for the elderly and those with designated at-risk illnesses. Elderly people have shown hesitation to get vaccinated, while people have been pretending to be older to get a vaccine. The chairman of Thammasat University Hospital’s executive board lambasted the government in a Facebook post for their failure to get more vaccines for Thailand by limited exports as countries like India did during their Covid-19 surge, saying that without vaccines, fatalities will grow worse.

Yesterday 10,082 new Covid-19 cases were uncovered, with 9,955 of them in the public sphere (127 were prisoners in jail) and only 42 of the case imported from elsewhere. 2,470 were discovered in mass testing while hospitals found 7,443 of them. The majority of cases were in dark red zones.

Similarly, Thailand saw a record-breaking 141 deaths yesterday, with Bangkok making up half the total with 71 fatalities and its 5 surrounding provinces accounting for 37 more. Numbers for today are equally bad with deaths falling to 101, and infections climbing to 11,397. The Department of Disease Control said without strict containment action, these numbers are likely to rise steadily for the next few months.

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SOURCE: Bangkok Post