Seven ways to move from pandemic to endemic - Thai MoPH official indicates Covid future from July

[webfact]

Picture: Thai Rath

 

Assistant minister to the Ministry of Public Health Sathit Pitutecha spoke at the 2022 general meeting of the Private Health Association, reported Thai Rath.

 

He gave a seven point watchlist of how Thailand will move from treating Covid-19 as a pandemic to treating it as endemic.

 

Pandemic means an infectious disease that has spread across a wide area or worldwide. Endemic means it is found among a specific people or in a specific area.

 

Sathit said that Thailand had handled the pandemic well and the private sector had played their part particularly in providing hospital beds and treatment.

 

He noted that cases of the virus, people in hospital and deaths were all showing downward trends.

 

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Picture: Thai Rath

 

Things were less clear regarding mutations with the WHO themselves unclear but July this year was the target for declaring the disease endemic in Thailand.

 

For this to happen and be sustained the following needs to happen:

 

1. Digital platforms and data collection needs to be developed into a single national strategy. 7 billion baht will be spent on this to ensure it is top notch and safe.

 

2. Preparations to deal with possible subsequent outbreaks and develop interdisciplinary personnel for both common diseases, chronic non-communicable diseases, long Covid and MIS-C.

 

3. Attention must be given to vulnerable people and access to treatment.

 

4.Develop and raise the level of self-reliance in regard to vaccines, medicines and medical supplies.

 

5. Handle Covid-19 waste correctly. In the past permission has been gained to just burn it, this needs to be reassessed.

 

6. Develop data integration strategies to better inform decision making.

 

7. Find, record and publish good examples including important lessons learned from the pandemic.

 

Sathit closed by saying that now was the time to get the economy back on track, people back into work and raise tax collection..

 

As far as mask wearing goes, removing the mandate to wear them depends on where and in what situation, he said. The key is to move on, learn to live with Covid with understanding and get the economy moving. 

 

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[RandiRona]

Hahaha....I can bet that most have no clue what these 7 points of transformation are. It will happen when supreme leader will say it is endemic.

[internationalism]

over 2 years into pandemic and looks like still there was not proper data collection. Doing it now, when there is no serious situation, will be wasting another 7bln (that on top of funding before many other digital systems, with half-operational or non-operational applications). 

As to those "seven" in the title - they are rather steps, points, but not 7 different ways of transformation

[simon43]

Yawn, many of us have already 'moved on'.  Apart from wearing a mask inside malls, restaurants etc, there is nothing to remind me of Covid, (except the destroyed tourist economy).

[smedly]

what a complete pile of tosh

 

the world has moved on what is wrong with Thailand - behind the curve as usual

 

Omicron finnished this pandemic - simple

 

I guess the power mingers still need to maintain power and control and keep the emergency fugets flowing into greedy ##s

[daveAustin]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The key is to move on, learn to live with Covid with understanding and get the economy moving. 

Well do it then! Forget your boring complicated 7 point ad nauseam yada yada tat. Just move on and stop with controlling the masses!

[tukadadoll]

2 hours ago, smedly said:

what a complete pile of tosh

 

the world has moved on what is wrong with Thailand - behind the curve as usual

 

Omicron finnished this pandemic - simple

 

I guess the power mingers still need to maintain power and control and keep the emergency fugets flowing into greedy ##s

He is mingers a satiric misspelling like fugets or just a misspelling

 

[Card]

Thailand will move with the rest of the world in order to compete for tourists and their export economy. No ifs or buts.

[IamNoone88]

Having worn my mask diligently everywhere in Thailand for the past 2++ years and used the alcohol spray on my hands, avoiding crowds etc, I still got Covid in Thailand. One month in the UK, central London, underground, crowds, cold weather, high infection rates - no mask - no covid .... I am beginning to doubt the effectiveness of the policy but am just mainly fed-up with the bloody thing,

[StayinThailand2much]

8. Don't test or keep tests at a minimum. This way you can proclaim that the pandemic is over, as there are only 'very few new cases'.

[StayinThailand2much]

18 minutes ago, IamNoone88 said:

Having worn my mask diligently everywhere in Thailand for the past 2++ years and used the alcohol spray on my hands, avoiding crowds etc, I still got Covid in Thailand (...)

Look at the official statistics of Covid cases in Thailand... 7,000 odd daily new cases? - At least half of the tennants in my apartment building have Long Covid, caughing all the time... 

Edited May 7, 2022 by StayinThailand2much

[simola]

Just been to USA from UK. Observed lft from home the day before travel to USA. Show proof of vaccine at airport. That’s it. No masks in UK airport. No mask on the airplane. No mask in USA airport and no restrictions or mask requirements outside the airport. Life back to normal. Had a fantastic time. The masses won’t come to Thailand when they can have a normal holiday elsewhere. Why would you go from a country with no restrictions to somewhere that you must be tracked by an app and wear a mask (unless you want to of course). 

[vandeventer]

Covid is coming down in numbers everywhere but long covid remains a big problem. Many people tell me it's like coughing up rubber bands and many have memory loss that's not getting better, this is months after having covid Maybe this is what they should be looking at.

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

He gave a seven point watchlist of how Thailand will move from treating Covid-19 as a pandemic to treating it as endemic

Test everyone and come out with the real figures?

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Sathit said that Thailand had handled the pandemic well and the private sector had played their part particularly in providing hospital beds and treatment.

One knee-jerk after another.

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

He noted that cases of the virus, people in hospital and deaths were all showing downward trends.

Complete and utter rubbish.

When Delta was at it's peak of 20,000-25,000, around me we knew/heard of a few that had been infected.

Omicron now around me is everywhere, it would be easier to name those that haven had/got it.

Yet government health figures say it's down to around 10,000....

I'll say it again Utter rubbish.

 

[Millcx]

5 hours ago, smedly said:

what a complete pile of tosh

 

the world has moved on what is wrong with Thailand - behind the curve as usual

 

Omicron finnished this pandemic - simple

 

I guess the power mingers still need to maintain power and control and keep the emergency fugets flowing into greedy ##s

Money is what’s wrong

[Jimbo53]

2 hours ago, simola said:

Just been to USA from UK. Observed lft from home the day before travel to USA. Show proof of vaccine at airport. That’s it. No masks in UK airport. No mask on the airplane. No mask in USA airport and no restrictions or mask requirements outside the airport. Life back to normal. Had a fantastic time. The masses won’t come to Thailand when they can have a normal holiday elsewhere. Why would you go from a country with no restrictions to somewhere that you must be tracked by an app and wear a mask (unless you want to of course). 

Believe it or not,there are some oddity's that do! even although there is freedom almost everywhere else!

[LukKrueng]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

treating Covid-19 as a pandemic to treating it as endemic.

How about just treating those who need medical treatment and let the rest of the people live normal lives?

[HappyExpat57]

I didn't know they could count that high.

[peter zwart]

Lets make it simple. Just go for point nr 3. If we did that the last 2 years many people would still have a job.

[sambum]

"7. Find, record and publish good examples including important lessons learned from the pandemic."

 

Are you listening Prayut, Anutin & Co? "Let's start at the beginning  - a very good place to start" (Julie Andrews -  Sound of Music) To start off with, the hot winds of Songkran DON"T blow it away, and the Chinese vaccine wasn't the be all and end all, now was it?

 

I won't carry on any further - I might get carried away (physically!)

 

[brucegoniners]

Anyone who thinks covid is either over or ending is not paying attention. Cases worldwide are up. New variants are popping up on a regular basis. And the world as a whole doesn't have enough people who are vaccinated or have natural immunity. Plus new variants get right through vaccinations and there have been repeat cases.

 

Covid is here, it will be here and it's not going away.

[chilli42]

Wow, I am so bored with people going on and on about Covid.  Please give it a rest.

[malibukid]

7 hours ago, smedly said:

what a complete pile of tosh

 

the world has moved on what is wrong with Thailand - behind the curve as usual

 

Omicron finnished this pandemic - simple

 

I guess the power mingers still need to maintain power and control and keep the emergency fugets flowing into greedy ##s

they bet on the wrong horse in the beginning  and certain people got rich, so too bad about everyone else.  they should have gone with that dirty falang vaccine.

Edited May 7, 2022 by malibukid

[JensenZ]

 Just treat covid as we have colds and flues all of our lives? That's not a bad idea.

 

You might think it's over, but I see people wearing face masks while walking or running in a deserted park early in the morning or late at night.

[zzaa09]

11 hours ago, simon43 said:

Yawn, many of us have already 'moved on'.  Apart from wearing a mask inside malls, restaurants etc, there is nothing to remind me of Covid, (except the destroyed tourist economy).

Yep, sure have. 

You'll find that most of the provinces have moved on in this manner. Only practicing such protocols where they're expected to - going through the motions. 

 

I believe it is time for us to get ourselves and move on. It's no longer a vital threat.........

[Phredd]

5 Waste, just ship it to the USA, don't They?

 

[cardinalblue]

I know we are in trouble if their public policy is to burn this waste….burn in thailand means just that burning it….it doesn’t mean proper incineration with no air emissions…

 

bad policy - this particular waste  stream doesn’t need burning…like infectious waste, steam sterilization would be fine…

 

 

[Pattaya Spotter]

Quite a bit of commonsense from the minister...so happy to be living in Thailand in Covid Year 3 than in China!