Staff at public hospitals told to be on guard against Omicron subvariants
The Medical Services Department has warned staff at public hospitals to protect themselves if a patient with a new Omicron subvariant is admitted.
The department issued the warning on Tuesday and circulated the warning to all of its public hospitals.
Medical Services director-general Somsak Akksilp said the warning was issued because more patients were coming to hospitals run by the department for treatment and the new BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants were detected among the patients.
Since the department runs public hospitals in Bangkok and suburban provinces, it has to ensure that hospital personnel protect themselves against the virus so that the services would not be disrupted, the letter said.
The staff were warned to strictly comply with Covid-19 universal prevention measures and always wear protective face masks during work and always clean their hands with alcohol-based sanitisers.
The staff must also ensure that outpatients always wear protective face masks inside the hospitals, the letter said.
Hospital managements have also been told to survey whether their personnel had received a Covid-19 vaccine dose more than four months ago. In such cases, the staff should be convinced to get another dose of vaccine on a voluntary basis, the letter added.
The staff were also told to check whether patients and their relatives had been vaccinated properly and provide advice accordingly.