THE PUBLIC Health Ministry this afternoon (Dec. 27) warned that while there are currently 514 Omicron cases in the country with 90 percent asymptomatic if the public does not cooperate in preventing the spread of this infection the daily tally could soar to 30,000 cases and 170-180 fatalities, Siam Rath newspaper said.
The ministry’s permanent secretary Dr. Kiattipoom Wongrachit, head of the Disease Control Department Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong and head of the Medical Services Department Dr. Somsak Ankasil said at a press briefing that the 514 Omicron cases were logged from Nov. 26-Dec. 18 onwards and they are spread across 14 provinces.
Most of them are foreign arrivals who came in via Test & Go, Sandbox and quarantine entry systems with those infected found at this point.
They then moved to different areas and while the majority remained under observation, a minority of around 20 percent slipped away and had close contacts with others such as their relatives.
It has been found that over 90 percent are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, with these being at minor level for 10 percent but very severe for 3-4 percent.
It was also found that most of the infection is in the windpipe rather than the lungs. Preliminary data from 41 cases under treatment showed that 54 percent had cough, 37 percent sore throat, 29 percent fever, 15 percent muscle ache, 12 percent runny nose, 10 percent headache, 5 percent dyspnea and 2 percent loss of sense of smell.
Everyone must cooperate fully to control the spread of this variant because if this is not done the daily tally could jump to 30,000 cases and 170-180 fatalities.
If it is moderately controlled there will be 15,000-16,000 cases and around 100 deaths daily.
If people cooperate well in preventing this infection from spreading the daily count would be from 10,000 to maximum 15,000 cases and less than 60 fatalities.
However they believe that the situation will improve in one to two months’ time.
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Top: A representative image of Omicron variant. Photo: Lsuhsc.edu
Top: Senior Public Health Ministry officials at today’s press briefing. Photo: Siam Rath
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