Has Thailand reached the top of the Covid curve? Since the pandemic started there have been a total of 3,353,969 infections and 24,246 coronavirus related deaths in Thailand. ASEAN NOW

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by Michael Bridge

According to statistics published by the World Health Origination, Thailand now ranks thirty-four on the World table with 166,520 cases reported up to Monday March 20th.

Southeast Asia's most affected country is Vietnam which recorded 1.913,928 cases in the same period.

The average number of new infections reported in Thailand reached a peak of 27,071 cases on March 18th.

Since then by March 22nd it had dropped to 21,382 cases.

Since the pandemic started there have been a total of 3,353,969 infections and 24,246 coronavirus related deaths in Thailand.

The actual number of cases is likely to be much higher than the number of confirmed cases – this is due to limited testing in Thailand. 

Why is it useful to look at weekly changes in confirmed cases?

For all global data sources on the pandemic, daily data does not necessarily refer to the number of new confirmed cases on that day – but to the cases reported on that day.

Since reporting can vary significantly from day to day – irrespectively of any actual variation of cases – it is helpful to look at a longer time span that is less affected by the daily variation in reporting. 

According to https://ourworldindata.org/, this provides a clearer picture of where the pandemic is accelerating, staying the same, or reducing.

To enable comparisons across countries it is expressed per million people of the population.

 

 

91.2% have been vaccinated

Thailand has so far administered 127,061,065 doses of Covid vaccines. This means if every person needs two doses, then 91.2% of the country's population have been covered.

Dr. Anan Jongkaewwattana, a virologist and researcher at the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Thailand, has said the country is at a "crossroads" over what to do next.

"We are experiencing rising in omicron cases -- a very rapid one. The question should be how long we can expect it to slow down … it can be days or weeks or even months.," 

"In my opinion, we are at the crossroads at the moment. The number of cases are rising but, to many doctors, the majority of them are still considered mild when compared to the delta wave," he added.

Data show that the omicron variant is highly transmissible, has an incubation period of about five days and causes less severe symptoms than earlier variants.

Thailand now must focus on a plan to live with the virus, according to Pravit Rojanaphruk of Thai news site Khaosod English.

"The government can ill afford to impose another semi-lockdown as it has spent a lot of money over the past two years to remedy and contain COVID-19.

It is hesitant because further restrictions would adversely affect the latest Test & Go scheme for arrivals from abroad and further harm the tourism and related industries.

"Increasing vaccination is the way ahead as the government has enough vaccines now for a booster shot. Children will be a particular target group in the weeks ahead, but some parents are still reluctant. It's time to focus on normalising coexistence with COVID-19."

Let's keep fingers crossed that we are over the worst and soon we can return to a normal Land of the Smiles.