New COVID-19 infections and deaths are expected to drop and the pandemic situation in Thailand brought under control in the next two weeks, if the latest semi-lockdown measures, now imposed in 29 provinces, and extended, are 5% more effective in curbing the continued spread of the disease, said Public Health Permanent Secretary Dr. Kiatiphum Wongrajit today (Monday).
If the effectiveness of lockdown restrictions is increased by 5%, to 25%, in conjunction with increased vaccinations of high-risk groups, such as the elderly, Dr. Kiatiphum said that he believes the number of daily new infections and deaths will drop substantially.
He asked for full cooperation from all sectors of society to make the latest semi-lockdown restrictions successful in achieving the 25% effectiveness target, especially by staying at home and going out only when absolutely necessary.
He gave statistics on the sickness and death rates in Thailand and other countries as follows:
- Sickness rates (per million): About 100,000 in the US, over 80,000 in Britain, about 34,000 in Malaysia, about 22,000 in India, 12,000 in Indonesia and over 9,000 in Thailand.
- Death rates (per million): About 1,900 in the US and Britain, 346 in Indonesia, 305 in India, 280 in Malaysia and 74 in Thailand.
Regarding hospital beds, Dr. Kiatiphum said that all state and private hospitals, as well as field hospitals, are fully occupied, despite increasing the number of beds in all hospitals across the country.
He noted that the home and community isolation programs have been introduced to cope with the overcrowding problem in hospitals.
The Thai government imposed semi-lockdown measures in 13 provinces including Bangkok from July 20th to today (August 2nd). Yesterday, it was announced that the measures have been extended for two more weeks, and possibly till the end of the month.
