Picture: Thai Rath
Assistant minister to the Ministry of Public Health Sathit Pitutecha spoke at the 2022 general meeting of the Private Health Association, reported Thai Rath.
He gave a seven point watchlist of how Thailand will move from treating Covid-19 as a pandemic to treating it as endemic.
Pandemic means an infectious disease that has spread across a wide area or worldwide. Endemic means it is found among a specific people or in a specific area.
Sathit said that Thailand had handled the pandemic well and the private sector had played their part particularly in providing hospital beds and treatment.
He noted that cases of the virus, people in hospital and deaths were all showing downward trends.
Picture: Thai Rath
Things were less clear regarding mutations with the WHO themselves unclear but July this year was the target for declaring the disease endemic in Thailand.
For this to happen and be sustained the following needs to happen:
1. Digital platforms and data collection needs to be developed into a single national strategy. 7 billion baht will be spent on this to ensure it is top notch and safe.
2. Preparations to deal with possible subsequent outbreaks and develop interdisciplinary personnel for both common diseases, chronic non-communicable diseases, long Covid and MIS-C.
3. Attention must be given to vulnerable people and access to treatment.
4.Develop and raise the level of self-reliance in regard to vaccines, medicines and medical supplies.
5. Handle Covid-19 waste correctly. In the past permission has been gained to just burn it, this needs to be reassessed.
6. Develop data integration strategies to better inform decision making.
7. Find, record and publish good examples including important lessons learned from the pandemic.
Sathit closed by saying that now was the time to get the economy back on track, people back into work and raise tax collection..
As far as mask wearing goes, removing the mandate to wear them depends on where and in what situation, he said. The key is to move on, learn to live with Covid with understanding and get the economy moving.