One-third of respondents want an end to antigen testing for Covid: survey

On Thursday, the DDC revealed the results of a survey of 3,194 people aged between 13 to 70 years taken from May 25 to June 6, including what restrictions they wanted to be removed when Thailand declares Covid-19 an endemic.

Of the 3,175 respondents (they could choose more than one answer):

1. 33.4 per cent - wanted antigen tests to end for participating in activities
2. 30.8 per cent - end to temperature screening
3. 26.2 per cent - wearing of masks
4. 24.8 per cent - limiting the number of participants in activities
5. 22.5 per cent - asking for vaccination history before participating in activities
6. 17.1 per cent - keeping social distance
7. 15.8 per cent - all measures
8. 10.5 per cent - being vaccinated before entering Thailand

In the survey, 64 per cent of respondents were female while 31 per cent were male. Nearly one-third — 30.3 per cent — were in the age group 50 to 59 years old while 29 per cent were 40 to 49 years old.

Of those wanting removal of vaccination history, 2 per cent were unvaccinated, 1 per cent had received one dose of vaccine, and 23 per cent were fully vaccinated;

741 people said that they had not received the booster dose; 68.6 per cent were worried about side-effects, 22.7 per cent thought that Thailand would soon enter the endemic phase, 13 per cent believed that the Omicron variant is not severe, while 8.8 per cent thought vaccines were ineffective.

Meanwhile, 47 per cent had received the third dose, 26 per cent had received the fourth dose, and 1 per cent had received more than four doses of vaccines.

Some 28 per cent of respondents had been infected while 72 per cent had never been infected.

Of the 892 people who had been infected, 67.7 per cent were treated by home isolation, 11.4 were treated at hospitals, 9.5 per cent were treated at hospitels, 7.6 per cent did not get any treatment, and 3.7 per cent were treated by community isolation.