The Covid-19 pandemic is nearing its end but people should still seek vaccination against the disease, especially elderly people, a Department of Disease Control senior official said on Friday.
Dr Sophon Iamsirithaworn, deputy director-general, said the declining number of infections, severely ill patients and related deaths over past months showed that Covid-19 had reached the final stage of the pandemic process.
The number of inpatients with lung inflammation had dropped to 480 over the past 24 hours, from 650 two weeks ago, the number of patients dependent on ventilators fell from 331 to 263, and daily fatalities were now single digit, he said.
Of the nine fatalities over the past 24 hours, five were elderly and unvaccinated and the four others did not get a booster shot.
Therefore, the Public Health Ministry would actively campaign for the vaccination of senior citizens, Dr Sophon said.
About 1.95 million elderly people were still unvaccinated, he said.
From Saturday, the Public Health Ministry would treat Covid-19 as a communicable disease under surveillance, instead of a dangerous communicable disease, Dr Sophon said.
