BANGKOK (AP) – When Thailand’s Transport Minister was recently diagnosed with COVID-19, it was Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha who had a headache.
Prayuth was not particularly praised for his leadership last year against coronavirus, but for much of 2020 Thailand fought the disease, with low infection rates and mortality envied by more developed countries.
Now, an outbreak in the nightlife areas of the capital Bangkok has fueled new infections, suggesting the country may have been embroiled in a false sense of security before mass vaccinations began.
On Thursday, 1,543 new cases were confirmed, reaching a total of 37,453, with 97 deaths. While this is much better than most other countries, Thailand’s cases during the first three months of this year were three times what the country had throughout the past year and its daily figures are rising rapidly. .
The new outbreak has spread among Thais, young people, the well-to-do and mobile, and some of the newly infected had the most contagious variant first identified in the UK.
The government says Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob caught the virus from an aide who sponsored some of the infectious nightclubs, including a club described by Thai media as a glorified strip joint that blatantly ignored the precautions of social distancing. This has added to widespread skepticism about the government’s handling of the latest crisis.
Recently, Thailand began to relax strict border controls that, over the past year, have kept out most travelers, especially major tourists, whose spending bears millions of jobs. Restrictions include mandatory testing and 14-day quarantine for almost all arrivals.
Officials had been reluctant to impose general restrictions such as curfews, bans on alcohol and the closure of bars, parks and shopping malls that were the norm this time last year, when the holiday was canceled. Songkran New Year.
This week, the holidays went on, and up to a million Thais went out to visit family or crowd the beaches, even as some hospitals stopped testing COVID-19 due to the rush of thousands of people worried about being exposed or in need of testing had no virus. Some hospitals claimed they had run out of supply tests, but the government said the real reason was an unintended consequence of well-intentioned regulation: infected patients should be admitted immediately, but they believed they should not. they had enough beds to accommodate them.
Officials pivoted to allow referrals and thousands of beds have been filled in established field hospitals to house those with confirmed infections, following the government’s protocol of isolating all known patients. Online photos show exhausted medical staff with protective gear, sleeping on desks and chairs.
One of the worst cases in the epidemiology division of the Department of Disease Control calculated that without security measures, the country could see a maximum of 28,678 cases a day.
“The situation is still worrying; there will be more measures, “Dr. Opas Karnkavinpong, director general of the department, warned on Tuesday.
General Natthapon Nakpanich, head of operations at the COVID-19 Situation Management Center, drafted this Wednesday, saying the government was considering establishing closures in several areas after the holidays. They include Bangkok and its surrounding provinces, Prachuab Khiri Khan to the south, where the tourist city of Hua Hin is located, the northern city of Chiang Mai, and parts of the East Coast, where another popular holiday destination is located. , Pattaya.
On Tuesday, the government raised its eyebrows by posting photos of soldiers smoking forest areas along the border, although experts say the biggest risk of viruses is the airport.
The latest crisis has highlighted an Achilles heel in Thailand’s strategy, which has not gotten enough doses this year to inoculate 70% of the population deemed necessary to achieve herd immunity.
To date, less than 1% of the 69 million Thais have been vaccinated, a lower proportion than in many of their Southeast Asian neighbors.
Thailand’s early success in containing the virus was remarkable given the millions of international travelers, especially from China, who usually host it each year. The first case outside of China was a Chinese traveler who detected fever at Bangkok airport.
It is unclear why Thailand and several other Southeast Asian nations managed to limit the pandemic for much of last year. Thailand’s extensive and experienced public health system played an important role, and the Prayuth government generally postponed the advice of medical experts.
But the nation has paid a heavy price for its aggressive effort to control outbreaks: the economy contracted by 6.1% in 2020 and the resurgence of cases makes the recovery of tourism unlikely soon. Last year household debt rose 42% as incomes fell or stagnated, to 87% of the country’s GDP.
And Thailand’s lucky streak faded late last year, when a cluster of viruses was found among migrant workers who worked in seafood factories and markets and lived in crowded dormitories. Severe restrictions and a massive testing campaign near the epicenter of the outbreak seemed to contain it after several weeks.
“We don’t want to close the whole country, because we know what the problems are, so can you all close?” Prayuth said at the time. “It depends on everyone, if you don’t want to get infected, you’ll only stay home for 14 or 15 days.”
That explosion drew attention to the government’s vaccination plans just as the United States and European countries began doubling their inoculations.
In early January, Prayuth said Thailand was trying to secure 63 million doses, which at two doses per person would cover less than half its population. Local production of the AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to begin in June.
Complaints arose that well-connected companies could unfairly benefit from government contracts to produce and supply vaccines, allegations denied by the government and the companies involved. Prayuth’s political opponents piled up, complaining about mismanagement, lack of transparency and lack of diversification beyond the Chinese AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines.
Vaccine registration for the general public is scheduled to begin in early May, and inoculations will begin later this month. So far, the inoculations have gone mainly to medical workers, areas considered high-risk, and communities that can open before so-called bubbles where vaccinated foreign tourists can be allowed to remain without quarantine.
On Wednesday, 1,681 people received the first shot and 388 the second. So far, only 73,949 people have been completely vaccinated.