Covid-19
Thai Health Officials ‘Concerned’ About The Rise Of Omicron BA4 And BA5 Variants
(CTN News) – The Thai government will be able to gain a better understanding of how the highly transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron are spreading in the kingdom in the coming weeks, experts say.
Infections with Covid-19 are estimated to be 10 times higher than the daily figures.
Siriraj Hospital’s Faculty of Medicine dean, Dr Prasit Watanapa, said the number of patients who have Covid-19 and have severe symptoms isn’t increasing significantly despite the rising number of patients with the illness.
As the hospital’s bed occupancy rate rises, Siriraj, the country’s oldest teaching hospital, is prepared for more Covid-19 patients to come, he said.
The patients sought treatment for worsening symptoms of their chronic diseases, but because Covid-19 testing is normally required before they are admitted for treatment, many of them also had Covid-19, he said.
It is especially concerning now that the highly transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron are spreading and more infections have been reported with these strains.
In the next couple of weeks, we’ll get a better understanding of the BA.4 and BA.5 spreading situation in the country, even though the strains have been spreading for months in Europe.
The BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants are replacing the BA.2 sub-variant as the dominant variants in Europe every day, but there is still not enough evidence to say whether these strains are more virulent.
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