FORMER Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said during a Clubhouse chat last evening (Jan. 18), where he uses the alias Tony Woodsome, that he has contracted Covid-19 for the second time despite receiving four jabs and also gave some advice to the government on handling the pandemic, Sanook.com said today.
At one point of the episode entitled “Pork expensive, things costly, but labour cheap,” which was joined by Mr. Plodprasop Surasawadee and Asst. Prof. Dr. Chaowarit Chaosaengrat, an economist and heir of a pig farming business in Ratchaburi province, Thaksin said he has caught the Omicron variant which has spread across the world and is the end of the line of this pandemic.
“During the first time, I almost died, I was in the ICU for nine days. That I survived is a blessing. Not long ago Omicron came in and I got hit again even though I have received four jabs, two Sinopham and two Pfizer – I am really up to date,” he said.
The former premier related that with Omicron he first felt throat irritation then the following night when he was going to bed he felt that he had fever so took two Tylenol tablets. The next day there was no fever but throat irritation continued so he took some sore throat pills. The following day he had a fever so he underwent a PCR test which came out positive with a PCR CovidNudge test confirming it was Omicron.
“With Omicron I was relieved because it was like a mild cold, Omicron doesn’t get into the lungs, only down the throat.”
Thaksin emphasised that Omicron was like common flu and asked people to understand and fully protect themselves but not panic.
In his opinion Omicron is the beginning of the end of Covid pandemic and this variant will be with us forever but strong medicine is not needed, treat it according to the symptoms. He also pointed out that he has had the infection, been treated and has now recovered.
The virus stays with us for seven to 10 days, but the symptoms linger on for no more than seven days, he said, adding that with him after five days infection was still found but after 10 days it had gone. It is like a flu and so should be treated according to the symptoms.
Thaksin told the government not to panic because the Thai economy relies heavily on tourism. If the authorities continue playing tug-of-war as it is currently doing in the end tourism will collapse completely, more so than pigs.
The authorities must show confidence to tourists and prepare at the starting point with this including vaccines, medicine and measures to maintain social distance.
Meanwhile the Public Health Ministry said this morning that there were 7,122 coronavirus cases and 12 deaths over the past 24 hours taking cumulative confirmed totals since Jan. 1 to 121,498 and since the start of the pandemic 2,344,933.
The 12 fatalities raised the death toll to 21,968.
Of today’s batch of patients 6,950 were domestic while 172 came from abroad.
Another 7,460 patients were cured taking total recoveries to since Jan. 1 to 72,869 while 81,602 are still undergoing treatment.
From Feb. 28, 2021 to Jan. 18, 2022 altogether 110,310,481 doses of vaccines have been administered nationwide.
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Top: Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Top photo: EPA-EFE and published by The Straits Times; and Home Page photo: Reuters and published by BBC
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