Phuket panel approves cancelling all Covid screenings from May 1 

PHUKET’S Communicable Disease Committee yesterday (Apr. 26) approved the cancelling of all Covid screenings at all entry channels in keeping with the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) executive committee’s latest resolution, Thansettakij newspaper said.

Phuket Governor Narong Woonsiew said the committee had analysed data on Covid situation from the Phuket Provincial Public Health Office and found that there was a clear downtrend with the island only logging 98 cases on Monday April 24.

This led to the decision to cancel all forms of Covid screenings, for vaccination and Covid tests, from May 1.

Dr. Kusak Kukiatkul, Phuket’s public health doctor, said the island is ready to cope with any possible upswing that should occur after screenings were scrapped at all entry channels.

Currently there are around 20 Covid patients on the island and hospital bed occupancy rate is 24-25 percent.

Meanwhile CCSA said this morning that there were 14,887 Covid cases and 125 deaths over the past 24 hours with this taking the cumulative confirmed total since the start of the pandemic to 4,209,571.

Another 18,919 patients were cured taking total recoveries since the start of the pandemic to 4,018,460 with 162,967 patients still undergoing treatment of whom 1,822 are in severe condition with 850 requiring oxygen.

Of today’s 125 fatalities 74 were male and 51 female with their age ranging from 1 to 100 years. A majority of 96 percent were either over 60 years of age or suffering from chronic diseases, with 102 or 82 percent being in the former group and 18 or 14 percent the latter.

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