The Phuket News

COVID-19 wards start to close

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SEVERAL HOSPITALS have begun closing their COVID-19 wards as the number of virus-linked admissions has fallen, according to the Department of Medical Services.

That is because most COVID-19 patients are now receiving care at home for mild

symptoms, said Dr Somsak Akksilp, director-general of the department, on Monday (May 2).

“With this decreased workload in handling COVID-19 patients, it’s time for hospitals to return healthcare resources to other department­s that need them more,” he said.

Dr Naronglit Masayaanon, deputy dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Mahidol University, meanwhile, said Ramathibod­i Hospital is resuming its normal operation timetable after many were delayed while priority was given to COVID-19 patients.

Lerdsin Hospital, too, is scaling back and will stop admitting COVID-19 cases to its field unit which currently only has 30-40 of its 200 beds filled, said Dr Somsak.

He noted that the field hospital was set up to treat up to 200 patients.

“New COVID-19 patients who come to this field hospital are therefore transferre­d to a hospital where they actually have the right to free healthcare services,” he said.

“[Lerdsin Hospital] now expects to, in about a week or two, resume its normal operations as before [the COVID-19 pandemic began],”

Moreover, he said the close monitoring of coronaviru­s strains will continue after recent detections of new subvariant­s abroad.

“Guidelines on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in the event the disease becomes recognised as endemic are currently being drafted,” he said.

 ?? Photo: Bangkok Post ??
Photo: Bangkok Post

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