People in Thailand urged to continue wearing masks, despite fall in new COVID-19 cases - Thai Visa

People in Thailand urged to continue wearing masks, despite fall in new COVID-19 cases

 

PIcture: Daily News

 

Dr Opas Kankawinwong - a key figure and spokesman in Thailand's fight against Covid-19 - has warned Thais not to lower their guard and put their faith too much in vaccine ending the pandemic. 

 

He urged people not to gether in large groups and to continue wearing masks.

 

He noted at the weekend that there were between 300,000  to 400,000 daily cases worldwide which was still not good. In addition Malaysia had 2,000 to 3,000 new cases a day and infections in Japan and South Korea were still in the hundreds. 

 

In Thailand he said that there was now a tendency for people to "return to normal" when things were anything but normal. 

 

Prior to the second wave of the pandemic last year they used the term "new normal" - now it appears the newer normal is still not good and should not become the newer normal.

 

If this is confusing the bottom line from Dr Opas was that phone calls about dangerous gatherings and less mask wearing were on the rise.

 

Yes, he conceded things are looking up in Thailand but it's still not normal. The vaccine brings hope but mask wearing should still be the way to go.

 

He urged people to report gatherings where people were not wearing masks to the authorities so that warnings could be issued. 

 

On the plus side he said that measures to stop the spread of the virus in Samut Sakhon - the epicenter of the second wave - were bearing fruit and he hinted at further relaxation of restrictions there. 

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Meanwhile Dr Yong Phuworawan of the Chula virology department cautioned that the vaccine rollout would take a year to see the greatest effects.

 

He urged people to get vaccinated when they could and said vaccines were safe.

 

Regarding Sinovac from China he said it was right that the Thai PM Prayut Chan-ocha should not take it as clinical studies were still limited regarding efficacy for the over 60s.

 

This didn't mean that it wouldn't be effective, just that more studies were needed.

 

PM Prayut was due to be jabbed with the AstraZenaca vaccine yesterday, Sunday, but this was delayed after a technical issue. 

 

Source: Daily News