My friend recently caught Covid-19 during a business trip to Singapore. He arrived back in Thailand last week under the test and go scheme and tested negative on his first PCR test and was technically allowed to leave the hotel and wander around the city. |
However, he received word that a close contact of his in Singapore had just tested positive with the Omicron variant so he decided to not return home and stay further at the quarantine hotel.
He began taking daily ATK tests which all turned out negative so he allowed himself to go shopping and wander around parts of the city.
By the fourth day after his return, he began having a sore throat and when he got his PCR test on the fifth day, he found out that he too had Covid.
So now why am I telling you this? The first reason is that the government's test and go plan is not foolproof but will likely catch Covid in its 1+5 day scheme.
Second, Omicron is so highly transmissible. According to my friend, the person he was in contact with that likely spread the virus to him was never in close proximity. They had met in a open environment and with masks the whole time.
Third, the reason that the virus keeps spreading is that there is a lack of any sort of responsibility as people continue to drop their guard against the pandemic because they think that it's over.
My friend is one of these people. When he learned that he was in contact with someone who tested positive, he should not have been careless enough to wander around outside risking service staff and the general public even if his ATK had come out negative.
The responsible thing he should have done would be to self isolate pending the result of the next PCR test.
Unless we keep our guard up against this disease, this pandemic is never going to end and we will be stuck in this quagmire forever milder variant or not.
Finally, the last point that should be made is that the vaccines work. My friend was one of those people that were skeptical of the MRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna. As he has a lot of friends that are Thai doctors, he heard horror stories about how it was gene therapy and that the technology was too new to be trusted.
As a result, he ended up getting two Sinovac and one AstraZeneca booster. Even these two "lesser" vaccines have helped him fight the disease as he has only mild symptoms with slight coughing the most worrying ailment.
Our other friend, who was also on the trip to Singapore, did not have any reservations about the MRNA vaccines and got two Pfizer and one Moderna shot has no symptoms at all and is in self-isolation at home.
As reported yesterday in Thai Enquirer, the overwhelming number of people who are dying from this disease at this point are people who are unvaccinated.
At this point in the pandemic two things are now key, take personal responsibility for your actions to better help your community and get yourself and your loved ones jabbed.