Omicron Variant Now Causing COVID Infections in All Provinces of Thailand

[webfact]

 

By Natthaphon Sangpolsit

    

BANGKOK (NNT) - The Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is now being detected in all provinces of Thailand, with health authorities expecting almost every new coronavirus infection to stem from the new strain by the end of this month.

 

Dr Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences, said 86.8% of 3,711 samples analyzed from January 11 to 17 are of the Omicron variant, while only 13.2% are the Delta variant.

 

If specimens are limited to the 1,437 samples collected from international travelers during the period, 96.9% were Omicron and just 3.1% were Delta. Of the 2,274 samples collected from domestic transmission cases, Omicron made up 80.4% of samples while Delta was 19.6%.

 

Dr Supakit said random analyses of people repeatedly infected with COVID revealed that immunity against previous variants was ineffective in protecting against Omicron. However, he said it is now clear that the symptoms of the Omicron variant are less severe than those of Delta, adding that almost all new infections in Thailand will be from Omicron by the end of this month.

 

According to the director-general, the number of severe COVID cases and deaths will continue to fall if new infections can be limited to no more than 10,000 per day. He also said that as long as no new variants or severe mutations of the coronavirus come into play, the Omicron strain may help end the pandemic, as predicted by many experts.

 

Dr Kiattiphum Wongrajit, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Public Health, said cooperation from all parties in implementing disease control measures kept this month’s wave of outbreaks from reaching the peaks forecast in some simulations.

 

However, he said the rising number of infections in Greater Bangkok is drawing concern, adding that the capital has more relaxed restrictions than other provinces and is also the one with the highest rate of population movement. He further noted that he would like as many senior citizens to get vaccinated as possible despite Omicron symptoms being generally less severe, as members of high-risk groups may develop severe symptoms regardless.

 

The permanent secretary also said the Ministry of Public Health will follow up on daily developments concerning the extension of drinking hours to 11 PM. Outbreak clusters or violations of relaxed alcohol regulations will result in venues being shut down.

 

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-- © Copyright NNT 2022-01-24

 

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[Petey11]

Should be no problem keeping it below 10K cases a day with the limited testing they do.

[arithai12]

5 minutes ago, Petey11 said:

Should be no problem keeping it below 10K cases a day with the limited testing they do.

It doesn't matter much if they test few or many, what matters is the fraction of infections.

If the number of tests is more or less constant, then the infections not rising is good.

 

In fact, I would argue that even the fraction of infections doesn't matter, what should matter is how many need serious medical care.

 

[bristolgeoff]

The test and go is in trouble now day 1 and 5 maybe another cancelled thing if the gov  make it hard for tourist and the country again

[RichardColeman]

6 minutes ago, bristolgeoff said:

The test and go is in trouble now day 1 and 5 maybe another cancelled thing if the gov  make it hard for tourist and the country again

really don't think they'd live it down yoyo'ing twice on T&G.

[TorquayFan]

The DG says - ". . . the number of severe COVID cases and deaths will continue to fall if new infections can be limited to no more than 10,000 per day." Such unrealistic comments are very worrying.

 

100,000 a day would be tight for a target ! It's Omicron - there's lots of data available to see how it works. 10,000 a day. Ha ha !

 

 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by TorquayFan

[tomyami]

let it rip the sooner its through life can resume take about 3 weeks my country open at 6am 22/01  inc night clubs. masks for another couple of weeks some people still nevious but hosp & deaths stopped so it ended CMO said "no medical reason for any more restrictions"

 

Next week the headless chickens will do some flips and flops sure, i think mid feb they will cop on.

I plan end of feb with maybe 72 hour test and fully vaxed will do the trick or might be normal

Edited January 23, 2022 by tomyami

[bkk6060]

It is better to have none then to have some.  But, if we must have some it is better to have few then to have many.

[Scott]

I am not sure you want to see it 'rip through', although it probably will.  Where I live in the US, it has hit us massively.  Even the gated community where I live that is probably well over 90% vaccinated has seen a major impact.  It's mostly retired people who are fairly careful, but we've had huge numbers catch Omicron.   

 

On the block where I live we have at least 7 cases (maybe 15 homes).   There is one couple who aren't vaccinated and are not faring very well but not in the hospital.  Of the others all are breakthrough cases -- although it's strange because one person in the home may have it but not others.  

 

The symptoms are milder, although as one neighbor I talked to said, he would not class having it as 'mild'.  Most of the people have been quite ill for 5 days.   

 

In the town though, the big problem is that stores do not have enough employees.  Some places have reduced store hours drastically.   A few stores, including a pharmacy chain, will be closing one day a week and move staff around.  

 

So letting it rip might not be the best way to deal with it.

[Dialemco]

It looks  lije there is far more Omicron infections in Thailand than reported  as it is so infectous nearly everyone will be infected from local transmissions thus restrictions on incoming foreigners no longer necessary if they have negative  PCR within 72 hours before entering Thailand. 

[Bkk Brian]

1 hour ago, Petey11 said:

Should be no problem keeping it below 10K cases a day with the limited testing they do.

After all they don't want people being put off their new Test Test a Go Go

[sirineou]

3 minutes ago, Dialemco said:

It looks  lije there is far more Omicron infections in Thailand than reported  as it is so infectous nearly everyone will be infected from local transmissions thus restrictions on incoming foreigners no longer necessary if they have negative  PCR within 72 hours before entering Thailand. 

If you report it you have to quarantine , and most Thais don't want to ,or cant afford to quarantine.

If I was infected, No way I would report it unless I was seriously ill , I am sure you would not either, 

No one really knows what the infection rate in Thailand is, but you can bet it is at least 10x the reported rate.

All the travel restrictions do nothing to keep it out. 

[ukrules]

38 minutes ago, TorquayFan said:

100,000 a day would be tight for a target ! It's Omicron - there's lots of data available to see how it works. 10,000 a day. Ha ha !

100k a day - you're having a laugh, they could probably detect 100k to 300k cases per day and that would still be a fraction of what's really out there undetected and not noticed.

 

[jacko45k]

15 minutes ago, Dialemco said:

It looks  lije there is far more Omicron infections in Thailand than reported  as it is so infectous nearly everyone will be infected from local transmissions thus restrictions on incoming foreigners no longer necessary if they have negative  PCR within 72 hours before entering Thailand. 

Local transmissions that actually started of course from foreign sources.... in the case of Omicron people flying in under whatever manifestation of the Test and Go or Sandbox or quarantine.....

But now it is here and established, yes, likely makes little difference.....

[Karma80]

13 minutes ago, sirineou said:

All the travel restrictions do nothing to keep it out. 

Agreed. But they do meet the public expectation of the government.

This Asia and not the west, and in part it's that mindset that sees higher vaccination uptake without a big stick, compliance with mask wearing voluntarily,

Like it or not, the pandemic is not over. We all hope that omicron will blow itself out, but nobody really knows yet and things could suddenly twist. Thailand is trying to walk a tightrope in the wind to find a compromise path forward.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Karma80

[riverhigh]

I am so bored with the situation. Why bother trying to control a virus that is uncontrollable. In my opinion governemnts around the world should let Omicron do it's thing and let us get on with our lives. Many of the people who land up in hospital have only themselves to blame for making bad life choices. Overeating, too much sugar in their diets (diabetes), drinking excessive alcohol, drugs, etc, Their poblem not mine.  There is a small minority that have been dealt some bad cards in life but that should not mean the vast majority of healthy people being locked up. As to elderly group, which I belong to, I do not feel they have the right to deny the young people their youth. Elderly people have to accept that they are nearing the end of their life lease and stop making demands on healthy young people.

Edited January 23, 2022 by riverhigh

[guyzatool]

In Pattaya in Jan. Did T&G (govt paid) day 5. Didn’t even receive result. Now they want tourists to pay for SHA day 5 and another test. Ridiculous 

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, arithai12 said:

In fact, I would argue that even the fraction of infections doesn't matter, what should matter is how many need serious medical care.

Totally agreed, it seems we can live with Omicron without too much concern, unless underlying symptoms or age is a concern.

[tomyami]

it takes 3-4 wks it started about a week ago so it will 100,000 x everyday for the next 3 weeks the test capacity is 0.24 per million which was always insuffcient, the low vax rate on vurnerable and sino vax might increase fatalities/hosp admins.

daily case figures will remain static, there would be no economy if everybody + is isolating for 10 days even these rules had to change in the first world to 5 days.

No govt got this totally right, but Thailands mismanagment was to be expected.

Omicrom takes up to 72h to have symptoms or be asymptomic delta took 5/6 days hence the faster spread

Edited January 24, 2022 by tomyami

[wensiensheng]

1 hour ago, TorquayFan said:

The DG says - ". . . the number of severe COVID cases and deaths will continue to fall if new infections can be limited to no more than 10,000 per day." Such unrealistic comments are very worrying.

 

100,000 a day would be tight for a target ! It's Omicron - there's lots of data available to see how it works. 10,000 a day. Ha ha !

 

 

 

 

The article seems to say that over a 7 day period they collected about 3,600 samples.

It’s not a huge collection effort is it? With limited testing and mild symptoms, they will never know even a ballpark figure for omicron infections. Then again, with few hospitalizations, why do they need to know?
 I have had a very heavy cold for the last two weeks, tested regularly by atk and always negative for Covid. But I felt pretty lousy on several days. no one cared that I had a cold, nor were there any stats on how many people in Thailand had a cold during the period I was infected.

[Virt]

Any data that shows the % of omicron mutations BA.1 and BA.2 in Thailand.

[BKKBike09]

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

Local transmissions that actually started of course from foreign sources.... in the case of Omicron people flying in under whatever manifestation of the Test and Go or Sandbox or quarantine.....

But now it is here and established, yes, likely makes little difference.....

Of course, the rigorous actions taken against vaxxed and testd foreign visitors arriving by air are somewhat offset by the thousands of illegal workers crossing land borders every month, untested, untraced, and off to work in crowded conditions in factories and sleep in crowded worker dormitories.

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, BKKBike09 said:

Of course, the rigorous actions taken against vaxxed and testd foreign visitors arriving by air are somewhat offset by the thousands of illegal workers crossing land borders every month, untested, untraced, and off to work in crowded conditions in factories and sleep in crowded worker dormitories.

Omicron was not present in the neighboring countries  at that time.... not long out of South Africa.... first case in Thailand flew in from Spain. 

I have not seen any data on factory workers being massively infected with omicron, but of course recall that scenario with Delta earlier last year. 

[Virt]

26 minutes ago, tomyami said:

it takes 3-4 wks it started about a week ago so it will 100,000 x everyday for the next 3 weeks the test capacity is 0.24 per million which was always insuffcient, the low vax rate on vurnerable and sino vax might increase fatalities/hosp admins.

daily case figures will remain static, there would be no economy if everybody + is isolating for 10 days even these rules had to change in the first world to 5 days.

No govt got this totally right, but Thailands mismanagment was to be expected.

Omicrom takes up to 72h to have symptoms or be asymptomic delta took 5/6 days hence the faster spread

It has been in Denmark for 7 weeks and there are no signs of it's decreasing.

More than 40.000 cases per day in a 5.8 mill population, which shows what kinds of numbers you will get when you test a lot.

Some days we tested more than 325.000 PCR tests.

More than 5% of the entire population tested per day.

 

I would like to see the numbers in Thailand if they were to test 5% of the entire population in a single day.

 

If we look at France that has almost same population as Thailand, they have more than 300.000 positives per day.

 

I don't think Thailand have such high numbers, but i wouldn't be surprised if they hit 200.000 per day if they tested 5% of the population.

[MrJ2U]

3 hours ago, Petey11 said:

Should be no problem keeping it below 10K cases a day with the limited testing they do.

Very easy considering they do less than 5,000 "official" tests a day and test kits are sold out in many places.

 

  Many people saying how "Mild" it is.

 

The problem is that the Thailand hosptals can't handle more cases.  There inundated.  Nurses and doctors are worn out.

 

 

[dinsdale]

Given the extremely infectious nature of Omicron there seems to be a disconnect between this article and the reported cases numbers. 

[stephenterry]

8 minutes ago, Virt said:

It has been in Denmark for 7 weeks and there are no signs of it's decreasing.

More than 40.000 cases per day in a 5.8 mill population, which shows what kinds of numbers you will get when you test a lot.

Some days we tested more than 325.000 PCR tests.

More than 5% of the entire population tested per day.

 

I would like to see the numbers in Thailand if they were to test 5% of the entire population in a single day.

 

If we look at France that has almost same population as Thailand, they have more than 300.000 positives per day.

 

I don't think Thailand have such high numbers, but i wouldn't be surprised if they hit 200.000 per day if they tested 5% of the population.

Yes indeed. It will be a sharp awakening for both the government and the population. While the Omicron variant, now an A & B version, is said to have less effects than Delta, for vulnerable people it can still be serious if not treated quickly.

 

A 50 year old fit and healthy friend of mine in the UK, while he followed all the Vaxxes and took extra care, still caught the infection. He said he suffered extreme tiredness for several days that needed bed rest most of the time. Whatever long effects that may arise, he doesn't know.

 

While not life threatening for him right now, be very wary that's it's not necessarily an easy ride back to full health.  

 

  

 

 

[AlQaholic]

With almost 70% of the Thai population fully vaccinated, stop the worry and just keep on vaccing!

[wealthychef]

 

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

According to the director-general, the number of severe COVID cases and deaths will continue to fall if new infections can be limited to no more than 10,000 per day. He also said that as long as no new variants or severe mutations of the coronavirus come into play, the Omicron strain may help end the pandemic, as predicted by many experts.

Yay!  Finallly I think we are seeing the end of this.  

[kennw]

2 hours ago, sirineou said:

If you report it you have to quarantine , and most Thais don't want to ,or cant afford to quarantine.

If I was infected, No way I would report it unless I was seriously ill , I am sure you would not either, 

No one really knows what the infection rate in Thailand is, but you can bet it is at least 10x the reported rate.

All the travel restrictions do nothing to keep it out. 

Infection rate comparison: Australian state of NSW new cases average day 26,000, population 8 million. Thailand new cases average day 9,800, population 69.8 million. All down to the testing rate.