Officials say Thailand’s Covid-19 cases to peak in September

Thai officials announced Friday that the number of Covid-19 cases in the country is expected to start rising next week. The CCSA said that in September, the number is expected to hit a peak. The CCSA added, however, that if people follow the Public Health Ministry’s suggestions to avoid crowded spaces and public gatherings, daily infections will start dropping from November.

To keep the situation under control, the CCSA says that hospital admissions must not exceed 4,000. It says that less than 25% of hospital beds must be occupied by patients in serious condition, and the daily death count must be kept at fewer than 40. The CCSA has urged the Public Health Ministry to evaluate hospital admissions. It also encourages people to keep wearing masks in crowded places or poorly ventilated areas.

Last week, a doctor at Siriraj Hospital claimed that the Covid situation in Thailand is becoming more serious. He said cases had reached 50,000 the week before. The doctor, Nitiphat Chierakul, said that doctors had had to work harder, and available hospital beds had run out.

Nitiphat isn’t the only Thai doctor sounding the alarm on the rise in Covid-19 cases. The Deputy Minister of Health Dr Sathit Pitutecha claims that the actual number of current infections is more like 20,000 – 30,000 per day, not the approx. 2,000 or so cases that are being reported daily over the past two weeks – a discrepancy of some 90%.

He says the numbers do not reflect the total data available above to the Public Health Ministry and that they are only reporting a section of the available data. He says the daily total should integrate “all patients who have registered for medicine and supportive funding from the National Health Security Office.”

Last week, the Thai Department of Disease Control insisted that the latest Covid-19 wave in will be “small and controllable.” 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.

SOURCE: Nation Thailand