Thai health authorities insist latest Covid-19 wave is controllable

The Thai Department of Disease Control under the Ministry of Public Health insists that the latest Covid-19 wave in Thailand will be “small and controllable”, and should be called a “mini wave” not a new wave.

The Rural Doctor Society Facebook page shared an urgent and secret document about a new wave of Covid to the public on Monday. The document was launched by the MOPH to urge medical workers and hospitals all over the country to prepare for an upcoming strain in Thailand.

A doctor from the Internal Medicine Department of Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Nitiphat Chierakul, also claimed that the coronavirus situation in Thailand is becoming more serious. Nitiphat said cases reached 50,000 last week, doctors worked harder, and available hospital beds ran out. He urged the government to reveal the truth to the public.

But yesterday, the Director-General of the DDC, Opas Kankawinpong, informed media that the upcoming strain isn’t serious and shouldn’t be counted as a new wave. The director said Omicron sub-variants BA.4, and BA.5, transmitted pretty quickly but didn’t cause severe symptoms.

Press grilled the DDC director general to determine the definition of the upcoming wave.

“We would call it a mini wave,” Opas said.

Opas reported Thailand has relaxed pandemic prevention measures and would focus on the numbers of severe Covid patients and deaths. He says that the Thai public health system can still handle the situation for now.

Opas answered questions about the lack of hospital beds saying that most of Covid patients in the hospitals now only had mild symptoms. He revealed that most of those patients in hospital now had asked to stay in hospital so they could claim their Covid-19 insurance. Some insurance companies only pay compensation to patients admitted to a hospital. Opas added hospital beds were available, and the emergency wards were ready.

No one knows the number of Covid cases because not every patient has taken an RT-PCR test. The majority of patients with mild symptoms have tested themselves with ATK tests. Counting the cases isn’t necessary, Opas said. He added that the number of patients with severe symptoms at a hospital would measure the situation more precisely.

Opas said he would announce more updates after the next meeting of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.

SOURCE: Khaosod