One year on from pandemic start - encouraging signs but Thais warned to keep up vigilance

[webfact]

One year on from pandemic start - encouraging signs but Thais warned to keep up vigilance

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Dr Jakrarat Pithayawonganon speaking from the department of Public Health said yesterday it was now a year to the day since the first case of coronavirus  became apparent in Thailand. 

 

It was an older lady from Wuhan. 

 

He said there were 157 new cases reported yesterday of which 90 were domestic transmission and 25 from abroad and the rest came about from proactive screening. 

 

Though this was down on previous days now was no time for relaxing. It was just the first day and numbers must be monitored continually to establish the real trend. 

 

And much of the data that informs graphs will come from the amount of testing that is being done. If after a lot of testing is done and the numbers are low then that could be viewed as real progress. 

 

He said that there were cases in 60 provinces but that 20 provinces were now in the "green zone" meaning they had not seen any cases for 7 days. 

 

This is a good sign, he said.

 

Ten provinces with 50+ infections remained in the Red Zone. 

 

Samut Sakhon could see a rise in numbers after a decline. This is due to the amount of testing of workers being done there. 

 

Infections in Bangkok were slightly down. 

 

In Nong Khai in the far north east of Thailand there had been no infections since the 7th. 

 

In Trang in the south someone was infected and the person had been to many places - their timeline was being assessed.

 

Some 12,000 market traders - male and female - had been tested in Bangkok and this had resulted in discovering 14 infections. 

 

A further 18,000 tests on market traders were being made this week. This group fell into a high risk bracket. 

 

Overall the message to Thais was that the flattening of the curve at this stage could not be trusted with any certainty and that watchfulness and continued vigilance was needed.

 

Infections within families remained a concern.

 

People who have been tested should self-isolate at home while waiting for their results. 

 

Source: Daily News

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2021-01-14

 

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[Peter Denis]

20 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thais warned to keep up vigilance

 

Some 12,000 market traders - male and female - had been tested in Bangkok and this had resulted in discovering 14 infections.

Red Alert!

[Petey11]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Samut Sakhon could see a rise in numbers after a decline. This is due to the amount of testing of workers being done there

Sums it up, less testing, lower numbers. Why not up the proactive testing in all provinces?

[Peter Denis]

3 hours ago, Petey11 said:

Sums it up, less testing, lower numbers. Why not up the proactive testing in all provinces?

I presume that with 'proactive testing' you mean testing of people that do not show any symptoms.

Imo that would ONLY be useful when on top of the number of 'cases' (positive tests):

- also the the number of tests conducted is reported > without such context a rise or fall in the numbers of positives is meaningless;

- follow-up is conducted on those that tested positive to determine if they developed symptoms > this to distinguish between 'real' infected/infectuous people and those that had the misfortune of getting a 'false positive' (PCR test inaccuracy/error or having been infected earlier without developing any symptoms or even knowing they 'had it').

[Natai Beach]

The early indications are that Thailand will beat this covid yet again. 
 

Nothing could make me happier as someone who chooses to live in this wonderful country. 
 

I know everyone on this forum will be feeling the same and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Thais and especially the Health Minister Khun Anutin and his team for their hard work over the last year keeping all of us at high risk overweight and old farangs alive and safe. 
 

Thankyou