As Covid-19 outbreaks worsen in Laos, some provinces will be designated as Level Three.

According to the National Taskforce for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, some provinces facing community spread are on the verge of attaining Level Three Alert status.

The SARS-CoV-2 or new coronavirus strain causes Covid-19, an infectious respiratory disease. Because it is highly contagious, the World Health Organization classified the global outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

The first instances were reported in Laos in April 2020, however the spread was contained for the most of the year, with the country announcing a brief win against the virus in June 2020.

However, in March of this year, the country was hit by the second wave of Covid-19, when a huge outbreak in Thailand resulted in the return to Laos of hundreds of thousands of individuals who had been working as migrant laborers in Thailand.

Returning migrant workers brought with them new strains of the coronavirus, notably the highly transmissible Delta Variant, which has already spread to practically every province in Laos.

The intensity of an outbreak in any one province is measured using a system of Alert Levels or Stages of Transmission, according to the Lao Ministry of Health.

Levels of Transmission

Level Zero: No clear sign of imported or community transmitted cases of Covid-19 within the past 28 days.

Level One: An outbreak of Covid-19 caused by imported cases or cases connected to imported cases with no clear sign of any community transmitted cases.

Level Two: An outbreak of Covid-19 in any one location or population with no clear evidence of the outbreak being widespread.

Level Three: Community transmission of Covid-19 is not restricted to any one location or population and there is an indication that the transmission will be widespread and continuous.

In today's release by the National Taskforce for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, Dr. Latsamy Vongkhamsao stated that several provinces in Laos have already reached Level Two, with a few provinces on the verge of reaching Level Three.

She did not specify which provinces are on the verge of reaching level three, although the number of community transmission cases in Khammouane, Champsack, and Savannakhet has been high in recent weeks.

Today, 24 community instances of Covid-19 were reported in Vientiane Capital, putting the nation's capital at risk of a broad epidemic if the virus is not contained.