The Ministry of Public Health said there are no new mutations of the coronavirus circulating in Thailand, with the Delta variant still dominating other strains. Health officials once again confirmed that vaccines available today are effective against all current strains because they can prevent severe symptoms and deaths.
The Department of Medical Sciences (DMS) has provided the latest update on COVID-19 variants currently circulating in Thailand, with the Delta variant still causing the highest number of infections at the rate of 97.5%, followed by the Alpha variant at 2%, and the Beta variant at 0.3%.
DMS Director-General Dr Supakit Sirilak said the Beta variant, which is more resistant to immunity elicited by vaccination, is currently found in the southern region, where 70% of the cases are still caused by the more transmissible Delta variant.
Yala and Narathiwat each found one new Beta case in the past week. The DMS has ordered the local medical sciences center in Songkhla to perform genetic sequencing on more samples to better categorize the rate of infections by variants.
Dr Surakameth Mahasirimongkol, Director of the Medical Life Sciences Institute, said other variants of concern including the Mu variant are yet to be found in Thailand, based on the samples sequenced. (NNT)
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