The Ministry of Public Health is getting ready to declare COVID-19 an endemic before the end of this year.
According to Health permanent secretary Kiattiphum Wongrajit, the National Communicable Disease Committee has agreed to begin preparations in order to categorize Covid-19 as an endemic during a meeting on Thursday. He said the MOPH believes that while Covid-19 had spread for more than two years, trends indicated that the disease was currently under control and infections not too severe.
The Committee hopes for Covid-19 to naturally turn into an endemic virus but stressed the need to set guidelines and improvise measures to prepare for the transition. Before the transition can be considered, officials have established requirements that must be met. These criteria were as follows: no more than one death per 1,000 cases, 80 percent of the population fully vaccinated for protection against the Omicron variant, and a satisfactory efficiency in treating patients by the health system. The criteria’s details will be finalized later.
According to the permanent secretary, the implementation of plans, methods, and goals have been established. Once the criteria have been fulfilled and the situation appears promising, a declaration will be made for the virus to be treated as an endemic. Officials are hoping that this will happen within this year.
Meanwhile, the Committee also approved the establishment of adult vaccine clinics to offer daily walk-in vaccinations for adults who wish to be inoculated. The permanent secretary urged people to get their first vaccination or booster shots as soon as possible in order to boost their immunity against the virus. (NNT)
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