Govt gets ready for clusters as BA.4, BA.5 become main Covid strains
The Public Health Ministry has been instructed to have medication, equipment and personnel ready in case Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 spark a new outbreak.
Government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said the prime minister has ordered the ministry to get ready to tackle large clusters of infection.
He also quoted Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha as asking people to strictly follow universal preventive measures, especially since the daily Covid-19 load has risen over the past few days.
Thailand logged 1,995 new infections on Monday over 24 hours and 2,328 cases were reported on Sunday.
The spokesman said Prayut also wants the Public Health Ministry to campaign and make it easier for people to get their booster shots as soon as possible.
Medical Services Department director-general Supakit Sirilak said on Monday that BA.4 and BA.5 will soon become dominant sub-variants of the Covid-19 virus in Thailand.
He said these two new sub-variants were responsible for more than half of all new cases last week, and some 1,000 cases have been confirmed so far.
In a Facebook post, Teera said the BA.5 sub-variant spread very fast and was resistant to immunity developed by previous infections and vaccines. It was also resistant to several antibody drugs.
He said he has studied a few infection patterns and learned that family members tend to catch the virus from children, who pick it up at school.
Working people also catch the virus in the office by dining together and then spreading it to family members at home. Moreover, the doctor said, people have started partying again and taking the virus home with them.
He said infections are being accelerated because people are lowering their guard, adding that the government should not have allowed people to remove their face masks in public places.