THE Thammasat field hospital today (Aug. 31) issued a warning to brace for the fifth coronavirus wave which will likely emerge after control measures are eased from tomorrow amid steady decline in the number of cases with today’s tally being 14,666, TV Channel 7 said. However, the easing of control would bring people in closer contact with each other and cause the spread of infection by those who are asymptomatic. Moreover the number of people who have been vaccinated is not high with 7.36 million having received two Covid jabs so far. To go by what occurred in other countries, a fifth wave is inevitable and the whole medical system including personnel management have to be well prepared with drugs and medical supplies arranged, the field hospital said. Thai Newsroom

Warning of 5th Covid wave as daily count drops below 14,000 cases

August 31, 2021 TNR Staff

THE Thammasat field hospital today (Aug. 31) issued a warning to brace for the fifth coronavirus wave which will likely emerge after control measures are eased from tomorrow amid steady decline in the number of cases with today's tally being 14,666, TV Channel 7 said.

In a post published at its web page, the field hospital said that the fourth wave is clearly on a downtrend and relaxation of control measures from tomorrow is unavoidable for economic and social reasons.

The Public Health Ministry said early this morning that aside from the 14,666 new Covid cases there were 190 deaths. This takes the cumulative confirmed total since April to 1,175,866 with 994,346 people having recovered from then on.

However, the easing of control would bring people in closer contact with each other and cause the spread of infection by those who are asymptomatic.

Moreover the number of people who have been vaccinated is not high with 7.36 million having received two Covid jabs so far.

To go by what occurred in other countries, a fifth wave is inevitable and the whole medical system including personnel management have to be well prepared with drugs and medical supplies arranged, the field hospital said.

It also pointed out that in other countries when a new wave kicks in the number of patients is four to five times higher.

"It depends on when #Wave 5 will come, which is clearly unpredictable. Soonest would be October and the latest by yearend. The whole system has to be well-prepared including Thammasat itself," the post said.

Consistent with the rest of the country this field hospital does not now get many new patients with 13 being admitted on the day this post was written while 20 were discharged, leaving altogether 291 under the team's care. 

The medical team here is hopeful that by the end of September it would be able to reduce the number of hospital beds to 100 to 200 while still continuing to admit patients.