Thailand Ministry of Health reports 13,816 new COVID-19 cases and an additional 120 deaths since yesterday. The ministry also announced an additional 21,072 patients recovered from the COVID-19 virus.
The country is planning to declare the disease endemic however threats of a fresh wave may hamper its progress. Dean of Mahidol University’s Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Prasit Watanapa said in his message on Monday.
Many want to see an end to the pandemic as it has hampered many movements and progress. It has shut down borders and countries struggled economically as they try to cope with the changes. During the Siriraj Hospital Facebook session, he said the virus is still spreading and could still lead to an outbreak. The best defense the country could have is to fully vaccinate everyone to reduce severe symptoms and deaths.
“This is a critical point,” he said pertaining to the relaxation of measures. “Several countries are still battling infections.”
“[Steps] to stimulate the economy and bring in money could bring back COVID-19,” he said. “So we must mitigate the risks by focusing on prevention and treatment.” He also noted that “it is best to vaccinate people and give boosters [for protection].”
He mentioned that more than 2 million Thais are not vaccinated and 10% have received one dose. The reasons for the low death rate are that Omicron has less severe symptoms and that a lot of people are already vaccinated. Omicron is notably more transmissible but less deadly than the Delta variant.
Declaring the disease endemic does not mean COVID-19 is no longer life-threatening. It could be compared to dengue and malaria which is not a pandemic but hundreds of thousands of deaths a year can be attributed to it. Malaria alone claims about 400,000 lives a year.