Thailand-
The Ministry of Public Health revealed today, February 27th, 2022, that according to a recent “Hygiene Poll”, sixty percent of Thais that participated in the poll are still afraid of Covid-19.
Dr. Suwanchai Wattana Yingcharoenchai Director-General of the Department of Health revealed the results of the poll to the Thai press this morning, however, TPN notes, the exact number of people polled were not revealed.
According to Dr. Suwanchai, the poll was conducted from February 18th-22nd of this month across Thailand and was called “Concerns and Feelings about the COVID-19 Situation”, or the Hygiene Poll for short.
Dr. Suwanchai explained that according to the poll results, 60 percent of people were still worried and afraid of Covid-19. Amongst other results, 21.3 percent were “used to the situation and not concerned.”
An additional piece of the poll also covered Covid-19’s impact on daily lives which, according to Dr. Suwanchai, 34.1% of people were stressed about their lives and their impact still directly due to Covid-19.
Dr. Suwanchai explained that for the 60 percent of people still afraid of Covid-19 they stated four activities they wanted to resume but were supposedly too frightened to do so:
1. Interprovincial travel
2. Attend parties/bars/clubs
3. Attend large family gatherings
4. For those with children, fully return to in-person schooling and school activities
TPN notes that the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) has recognized the fact that many people are still “afraid” of Covid-19 and are making moves to reassure the public that with the Omicron variant most cases are mild and asymptomatic (99.1 percent in Chonburi, according to the Chonburi Department of Public Health) and that Covid poses a low risk to people who are vaccinated and take basic precautions.
The MOPH also stated this weekend they plan to declare Covid-19 fully endemic within four months in Thailand and to continue to ease restrictions and rules, but admit they must also calm the nerves of a significant amount of the public, especially in rural provinces. One of the biggest changes will be encouraging people who are mild or asymptomatic to stay home vs. go to a hospital or seek medical care, according to the MOPH, who said new policies are being developed to encourage people to self-isolate at home or community isolation centers vs. potentially overwhelm hospital services with very mild cases of Covid-19.
