Phuket gets ready to shift into ‘endemic’ stage

Phuket Governor Narong announced in a meeting yesterday that the island province is getting ready to shift into an ‘endemic’ stage for its Covid-19 situation. At the meeting, held at Phuket Provincial Hall, it was noted that Phuket recorded an average of 162 cases a day. 87.7% of those were local infections. Only 2-3% of people confirmed infected required hospital treatment.

Narong said this morning, however, that the official provincial order on the exact provisions has yet to be issued. All entertainment venues must be required to remain closed for now, as mandated by the CCSA. If entertainment venues have converted to ‘restaurants’, however, then they are allowed to stay open until midnight. The governor added that people were asked to continue working from home as appropriate.

Phuket made it a goal to declare Covid-19 an endemic in February, wanting to become the first province to do so. According to a Bangkok Post report, deputy governor Pichet Panapong says achieving endemic status would allow officials to focus on economic recovery. Local officials would also like to get rid of the daily reporting of new infections, instead only reporting Covid cases involving moderate to severe illness.

According to Thailand’s National Communicable Disease Committee, a province can declare Covid-19 endemic if the infection rate doesn’t surpass 10,000 new cases a day, the fatality rate doesn’t surpass 0.1%, and over 80% of high-risk people have had at least 2 vaccine doses.

SOURCE: The Phuket News