Omicron infections in Thailand up to 729

Dr Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the Medical Sciences Department, has reported an update on the quickly growing number of Omicron infections in Thailand. The latest data shows 488 cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 brought in from abroad as well as 251 troublesome locally transmitted infections of the highly transmissible variant.

The doctor also noted that most of the community infections were also linked to overseas arrivals. The Omicron variant is now liked to cases in 33 of Thailand’s provinces.

The 739 total identified Omicron variant infections are only fully confirmed cases, ones that have gone through the whole genome sequencing testing. The totals have climbed over 200 infections in just the last 3 days since Sunday, and there may be more cases that have not yet been identified.

A Thai woman who had been working as a housekeeper in Switzerland recently returned to Thailand and her home province of Lampang before being diagnosed with the Omicron variant, the first in Lampang. She had been vaccinated with 2 doses of Pfizer in July and August and had tested negative before boarding her flight out of Switzerland on December 23.

She is said to have worn a mask throughout the flight, only removing it briefly when she ate meals. She landed on December 24 at 6 am at Suvarnabhumi Airport before moving to an alternative quarantine hotel where she took a PCR test. The test came back negative, but subsequently tested positive, and further investigation uncovered it was the Omicron variant.

While Omicron is increasing in Thailand, the overall daily Covid-19 statistics have maintained a general downward trend with less daily infections, more people recovering and being released from medical care, and low death numbers.

Today’s numbers (Thursday) indicate 3,037 new infections and 25 Covid-related deaths. 33,399 patients are still in state care and another 3,115 people have been discharged from hospitals.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World