BANGKOK, March 4 (TNA) – The Public Health Ministry warns that new COVID-19 caseloads can reach 50,000-100,000 on April 19 unless people strictly protect themselves from infection.
Dr Sophon Iamsirithaworn, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control under the Public Health Ministry, said new COVID-19 cases in Thailand were rising like in other countries including South Korea and Vietnam, each of which logged about 100,000 new cases a day, because of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
He said that if people failed to protect themselves well, new caseloads in the country could reach 50,000-100,000 on April 19.
With the peak, the numbers of critically ill patients and those depending on ventilators would increase in two following weeks or in approximately early May. New cases would then gradually drop in late May and early June, Dr Sophon said.
He urged elderly people to quickly receive their booster vaccine shot, saying statistics showed that many elderly people died of COVID-19 during the Songkran Festival last year when young relatives visited them. Vaccination would help reduce the fatalities, Dr Sophon said. (TNA)
