A hat-trick no one wants
After two years of living dangerously with Covid, Thais are waking up from a relatively sombre New Year celebration in the hope that 2022 will be a better year. People have no choice but to retain hope as they have now run out of most other supplies. Businesses cannot weather another series of lockdowns akin to those of the past two years. Freelancers, often reliant on seasonal work generated by the ebb and flow of tourist arrivals, such as the artists who specialise in portraiture at entertainment venues, traditional masseuses and workers in the restaurant supply chain are now on their last legs.
The Prayut Chan-o-cha government can ill-afford to churn out a similar series of policy about-faces as it muddles its way out of the maelstrom. More sweeping lockdown measures just won’t wash. The medicine must now become palliative and measures to control Covid in 2022 need to be specific, efficient and swift or our frail economy’s ill health may become terminal.
Gen Supoj Malaniyom, head of operations at the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, yesterday made all the right noises when he insisted that measures would be less oppressive from now on.
Doubt nevertheless remains, largely due to a lack of confidence in authorities’ capacity to conduct the swift Covid tracing and testing necessary to make a more targeted approach feasible.
Broadly speaking, over these past two years, the nation’s initially vaunted success and subsequent efforts to implement Covid-related healthcare have boiled down to two key resources — imported vaccines and the frontline healthcare workers and volunteers who are the real unsung heroes. On the flip side of the coin, state Covid-tracing systems such as the Mor Chana app are still barely usable two years on from their launch.
In terms of testing, over eight million ATK tests were carried out on members of the public several months ago with no formal data released since to justify the efficacy of a scheme beset by accusations of bidding irregularities among what can only be assumed to be its failure to halt the tide of the third wave that swept through the nation.
In 2022, vaccination must become convenient, simple and cheap or free for all. The government must spell out that it will provide state medical welfare for those receiving vaccines from private hospitals and work harder to monitor the side effects of mixed doses.
During the past two years, there has been an utter failure to end human trafficking and the influx of illegal migrant labourers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia to Thailand. Apart from worsening Thailand’s dismal record on human trafficking, that has made it far harder to contain the spread of Covid because of the difficulties in tracing and testing a group determined to remain under the radar.
Above all, authorities must make sure all specific Covid measures such as social distancing and public hygiene protocols in public spaces, entertainment venues and restaurants are respected.
Thais might be cooperative when it comes to wearing a mask but they are weak on obeying social distancing. During the New Year celebrations, scenes of people crowded in bars and restaurants could well return to haunt us. Laws to penalise businesses that violate Covid rules must be upheld.
There is now significant pressure on the Prayut administration to deliver after two years with which to shape public policy. However, there will be little sympathy if 2022 turns out to be a Covid annus horribilis hat-trick.