Renowned Thai doctor says 70% of new Covid cases are Delta variant

One of Thailand’s top virologists is in the news again this week. This time, Dr Yong Poovorawan is making the news for his assertion that 70% of all new Covid cases in Thailand are of the Delta variant.

Earlier this week, Dr Yong Poovorawan faced allegations of mishandling Thailand’s Covid situation. A petition was even started calling for his removal.

Yesterday, Dr Yong posted on Facebook to say that the Delta variant was first detected among construction workers and is the 4th variant to appear on the scene. He went on to re-cap the spread of the Alpha variant from the Thonglor area of Bangkok, and how another wave came from Samut Sakhon through Burmese migrant workers. The doctor warns in his post that people who are infected with the Delta variant often don’t realise where they got it due to the variant’s easy transmissibility.

He says the infections will only go up and recommends everyone is diligent in their Covid precautions.

For example, he suggests if it is not necessary to go outside, don’t.

In other Covid news, Government spokesperson Anucha Nakasai told Thai media today that the ministry of public Health has extended a contract that allows the Challenger conference hall to remain as a field hospital until the end of October.

Anucha says that 2,000 more hospital beds have been added, which brings the total number of beds at the hospital to 4,000.

He went on to say that more field hospitals are coming and some will be staffed by recent graduates from medical colleges.

SOURCE: Thai PBS