Majority Not Pleased with Prayut Governments Handling of Pandemic

According to an opinion survey people in Thailand are not satisfied with the government’s handling of the third wave of the pandemic. The survey was conducted by the National Institute of Development Administration, Nida Poll.

The poll on the pandemic was conducted nationwide on May 17-19 and May 27-28, with 1,312 respondents aged 15 and over of various levels of education and occupation. The purpose was to compile opinions on the third wave of Covid-19 disease and the government’s response to it, the pollster said.

In terms of satisfaction with the government’s handling of the situation in April-May, 30.49% of respondents said they were not satisfied with the government’s slow response and poor communication with the people and the confusion, and it was too slow to acquire vaccines.

Another 22.56% were totally dissatisfied with the actions taken by the government, saying it was incompetent in its vaccine management, resulting in people not being able to make their own choice of vaccine.

On the other side, 12.20% said they were very satisfied with the government’s handling of the situation, while 33.31% were fairly satisfied, saying that Covid-19 was a global situation and the government had done its best to get vaccines.

The rest, 1.44%, had no comment or were not interested.

Asked about their decision on vaccination, most respondents – 62.04% – said they would get free vaccines provided by the government; 17.99% would not seek vaccination; 15.93% would seek vaccination at a private hospital which had government permission; 3.73% were still undecided; and, 0.31% would seek vaccination abroad.

Asked which vaccine they would prefer, 30.71% were still undecided; 20.58% AstraZeneca; 19.05% Sinovac; 14.56% Pfizer; 4.57% Moderna; 3.13% Johnson & Johnson; 0.46% Sputnik V; and, 6.94% said they would never seek vaccination.

Record-breaking 5,485 new Covid cases, 19 deaths

Meanwhile, Health authorities on Monday reported 5,485 new Covid-19 cases, the most ever in a 24-hour period, raising the number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 159,792. A further 19 coronavirus-related fatalities took the accumulated toll to 1,031.

The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said 3,532 of the new infections were in the general population and 1,953 in prisons.

Bangkok still led the number of new transmissions with 1,356 cases, followed by Phetchaburi (555), Samut Prakan (358), Saraburi (327) and Pathum Thani (211).

CCSA assistant spokeswoman Apisamai Srirangson said the capital had detected two new clusters, a residential camp for construction workers in Bang Na district and a community in Sathon district, taking the total Bangkok clusters under close surveillance to 45.

Bangkok also logged the most deaths – 12 – while one each was reported in Kanchanaburi, Chachoengsao, Chon Buri, Nakhon Ratchasima, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon and Nonthaburi.

The centre also reported 58 imported infections, including 55 Thais who returned to the country from Cambodia via the Sa Kaeo border crossing. The others were a man from the Maldives and a Russian man

Source: Bangkok Post, Nida