Thailand Expects Endemic COVID-19

BANGKOK, Jan 27 (TNA) – The National Communicable Disease Committee agrees to redefine COVID-19 as an endemic disease when situations meet criteria. The committee’s meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul today considered criteria for the COVID-19 status as an endemic disease. They include the new caseloads that do not exceed 10,000 a day, the fatality rate of less than 0.1%, less than 10% of COVID-19 cases being admitted to hospitals, enough immunity among people and more than 80% of vulnerable people receiving at least two COVID-19 vaccine doses. When the criteria are met, the Public Health Ministry will announce the revised status of COVID-19. Dr Kiattiphum Wongrajit, permanent secretary for public health, said that more than 90% of present COVID-19 cases resulted from infection with the Omicron variant. He also said that the Public Health Ministry planned to report only the number of severely ill COVID-19 patients instead of daily new caseloads. (TNA)