Bangkok, Thailand-
The first major Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration, or CCSA, meeting in quite a few weeks is set for this Friday, March 18th, and it is shaping up to be one to keep a close eye on.
Yesterday, spokespeople for the CCSA reiterated that Thailand’s health system can handle the current Covid19 situation, regardless of any concerns about potential new sub-variants of Omicron.
Dr. Apisamai Srirangsan, the current CCSA spokeswoman, stated at a small press conference on March 14th that over 90 percent of cases in Thailand of Covid-19 currently were mild or asymptomatic and could be treated at home without the need of doctors or hospitals. Some highly vaccinated areas, like Pattaya, have 99.3 percent of their cases mild or asymptomatic.
There are still concerns from some doctors and health professionals due to many elderly and vulnerable in rural areas still not fully vaccinated or boosted, however, the CCSA is fully focused on a campaign to expedite this by Songkran, the Thai New Year, set for the middle of April.
However, Dr. Apisamai remained confident the health system could handle the relatively small number of serious cases regardless of easing more restrictions and strongly hinted that this week’s meeting was likely to see further easing. This comes as the business, hospitality, and tourism sector place renewed pressure on the Thai government to relax restrictions to boost the economy.
So, what restrictions remain?
Quite a few, although not all are enforced. The most prominent are travel restrictions in programs like Test and Go and Thailand Pass, which are the rules that the tourism sector most want lifted or eased to boost foreign tourism.
Other rules still in place is the legal closure of all bars and nightlife nationwide (although many are open as restaurants temporarily, with or without food), a legal closing time of 11:00 P.M. for aforementioned restaurants, widespread mask mandates including outdoors even if alone, an array of tracking programs and tracing programs, and many provincial rules and color coding systems.
Large events also remain banned or discouraged in most areas.
With Songkran approaching rapidly, Thailands biggest holiday and a massive source of domestic tourism income, the CCSA appears set to further ease restrictions although it is not yet clear by how much or to what level. Importantly, provincial governor’s can still strengthen restrictions as seen by the governor of Khon Kaen banning alcohol entirely from restaurants recently.
To be fair, the decision is clearly not an easy one and at least in Thailand many do not seem ready to move on from Covid19 yet, especially in rural provinces. However, this week’s meeting should give a strong sign of the future direction as the CCSA has already announced they plan a four month period to treat Covid as endemic and drop nearly all restrictions, living as normal as possible.
See you Friday afternoon, where we will report live on the decisions..if any of course, as things can rapidly change…that are made.
