The government has assured all COVID-19 patients, who may receive treatment at home or at a community isolation center, that they will be closely monitored by medical professionals, and promising the provision of 40 million tablets monthly of locally produced Favipiravir antiviral from October.
Mr Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, secretary to a Minister attached to the Office of the Prime Minister, has given an assurance that COVID-19 patients with milder symptoms will be closely monitored by medical teams via a telemedicine platform while receiving treatment at home or at a community isolation center.
He said the government has developed the BKK HI Care platform which allows doctors to monitor patients’ condition remotely.
With the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases, beds at general hospitals and field hospitals have been prioritized for COVID-19 patients with more serious symptoms. Patients with milder symptoms are encouraged to sign up with the Home Isolation (HI) scheme where their symptoms will be continuously monitored via telemedicine channels, or to seek admission to a community isolation center should their housing arrangements be inadequate for home isolation.
Patients who receive a positive COVID-19 test result can sign up for the BKK HI Care platform on the LINE messaging application, either by manually adding the platform’s official account or by scanning the provided QR code.
So far, 285 healthcare facilities in Bangkok are now taking care of some 9,000 patients on this platform.
Mr Thanakorn said today the government is now working to ensure a sufficient inventory of Favipiravir, an antiviral drug used in Thailand for COVID-19 treatment. The government is now relying on foreign imports of the drug, as the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) is only in the early stages of producing the drug locally.
The GPO is expected to start delivering locally produced Favipiravir drug under the trade name Favir from this month, with production capacity expected to reach at least 40 million tablets per month from October onwards. (NNT)
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