The Prime Minister has called an urgent meeting following Ministry of Public Health recommendations to elevate COVID-19 prevention measures including travel restrictions and the use of buffer zones for 14 days.
Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr. Kiattiphum Wongrajit, today led a media conference outlining suggestions to be put to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) after a spike in infections and fatalities involving COVID-19 in and around Bangkok, that has since been tracked spreading outwards into the provinces.
In response to an increased demand for testing, the ministry is to employ Rapid Antigen Tests, which should solve bottlenecking problems due to RT-PCR tests. Rapid tests are to be approved for use in hospitals before general availability.
Home isolation is to be maintained for patients with mild symptoms but the ministry may extend the tactic so that Community Isolation becomes a remedy to crowding at hospitals.
At the same time, vaccination efforts are to be stepped up for the elderly and chronically ill, the aim being to achieve 80 percent coverage in the coming 1-2 weeks.
The ministry indicated it will recommend travel restrictions and a call for people to stay at home as much as possible with allowances to be put in place for the purchase of food and other necessities.
All at-risk locations will be asked to shutter, which would include any places where people can gather or locations that are not essential to daily life. Supermarkets and other daily locales will remain open.
The recommendations will be for high risk provinces and will be proposed for a 14-day period starting from when the CCSA makes its announcement. They are expected to resemble the restrictions imposed in April of last year, to quell the spread of the disease.
