Omicron prompts new national COVID-19 alert
T he Public Health Ministry has decided to raise the nation’s COVID-19 alert level following a rapid increase in Omicron variant infections, warning that new cases may surge to 30,000 a day early next year unless strict precautions are followed.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Kiattiphum Wongrajit, said at a media briefing that the ministry decided to raise the nation’s COVID-19 alert to Level 3 after seeing new cases of the Omicron variant soar from 104 on Dec 22 to 514 on Monday (Dec 27).
In light of the new threat from the Omicron variant, the ministry has come up with three possible scenarios, Dr Kiattiphum said.
In the best-case scenario, the country would see about 10,000 new infections, with fatalities hovering between 60-70 a day as early as late January, Dr Kiattiphum said.
He said that in the second scenario, authorities will register 15,000-16,000 new cases per day.
In the worst-case scenario, in which no added precautions against the fast-spreading variant are taken, or if the public refuses to comply with disease control measures, new infections could hit 30,000 daily, with 170-180 deaths per day.
Graphics presented at the briefing showed the daily tally of new Omicron infections peaking in late January or early February in the best and second-best scenarios.
Dr Kiattiphum said that in the best-case scenario the outbreak would be brought under control in one or two months, while in the secondbest scenario the situation will take a little longer to stabilise.
In the worst outlook, new infections would peak in early March before the numbers decline. It would take three to four months for health authorities to control the situation in this scenario, Dr Kiattiphum said.
According to the permanent secretary, the ministry is not expecting to see the fatality rate of the new variant to be as high as the Delta variant.
However, he said, the virus is likely to spread faster, before stressing the need for at-risk groups of people to get
vaccinated quickly to prevent the worst effects of the virus.
Out of the 514 Omicron cases detected in Thailand as of Monday, about 90% of the patients exhibited mild or no symptoms at all, Dr Kiattiphum added.
He also assured the public
that there are enough beds and
medicine to deal with a new surge of infections.
Currently, there are about 170,000 vacant hospital beds for patients and about 15 million favipiravir pills, which will last at least two months.
Dr Kiattiphum said the strict observance of disease control measures and the progress of the national vaccination campaign will ultimately determine the success of the fight against the Omicron variant.