The Ministry of Public Health is modifying its Covid-19 vaccination strategy to handle the sudden increase in infections amplified by Songkran festivities.
The Department of Disease Control (DDC) announced the change on Sunday in response to a surge in new Covid-19 cases last week. DDC director-general Dr Tares Krassanairawiwong said a total of 435 new inpatient Covid-19 cases were recorded, or about 62 cases per day, from last Sunday until Sunday, a 2.5-fold increase compared to the infection rate of the previous week.
Of the new infections, Dr Tares said 30 patients had lung infections and 19 needed a respirator which accounted for a 58% and 36% increase respectively from the previous week. "Unfortunately, two of these patients died and they had received a Covid-19 vaccine booster more than three months before they were infected," he said.
"All at-risk groups are advised to seek a new booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible, particularly the elderly and people living with a chronic disease."
Under these circumstances, he said the ministry will tweak its Covid-19 strategy to keep up with the rising number of new Covid-19 infections. It will start offering booster shots as it would seasonal flu shots, starting next month.
As for concerns over the presence of the XBB.1.16 subvariant of Omicron, which has now been detected in 22 countries including Thailand, Dr Tares said although the new subvariant of the virus appears to heighten the virus's ability to spread more easily, there still wasn't enough evidence to say the new subvariant is also more virulent. As of last Thursday, six XBB.1.16 cases were detected in Thailand among about 3,000 such cases detected worldwide, he said.
