Thailand stops counting COVID-19 cases through rapid testing

Citizen Thailand wearing masks on the streets of Bangkok – Photo: REUTERS

May 29, newspaper Bangkok Post Citing the Thai Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), this change is because most infected people have mild or no symptoms and are treated at home. Health authorities will discuss ways to record the number of new infections after removing rapid test results.

CCSA Deputy Spokesperson Sumanee Wacharasint said that the DDC wanted to focus on hospital admissions and stressed that changing the way it was recorded would not affect the monitoring of the outbreak.

“We are introducing changes to the number of COVID-19 cases and after June 1 we plan to only report cases that are symptomatic and require hospitalization,” Ms. Sumanee said. These adjustments are expected to be submitted to the Thai Ministry of Health on May 30 and then implemented by the CCSA.

On May 29, Thailand’s Ministry of Health said that the country recorded 3,649 new COVID-19 cases and 24 deaths, down from 4,488 cases and 38 deaths the previous day.

Thailand is easing anti-epidemic measures. The country recently proposed removing the mandatory mask wearing requirement in some areas and adjusting the regulations by mid-June 2022. High-risk groups such as the elderly, people with underlying medical conditions, and pregnant women are still recommended to wear masks in crowded places.

However, some Thai experts still believe that people should continue to wear masks. According to Thira Woratanarat, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, because there is no longer counting positive cases by rapid testing, of course the number of infections will decrease sharply. Due to the inaccurate data, Mr. Woratanarat said that wearing a mask is still very important.

Globally, testing for COVID-19 is also plummeting, which experts fear will make it difficult for scientists to track the disease and detect new variants.

The AP news agency quoted experts as estimating global testing fell 70 to 90% from the first quarter to the second quarter of this year, while many sublines of the Omicron variant appeared in the US and Africa.

In the US, Johns Hopkins University data shows that the country has recorded about 73,000 cases per day in the past two weeks, an increase of 40%. But the actual number may be higher due to reduced testing and the fact that many cases of home testing are not reported to health authorities.