COVID-19 infections in Bangkok have doubled to about 700 cases a day since the Songkran festival, with the number of actual infections possibly surpassing 1,000 cases day, including those not officially recorded, said Dr. Wantanee Wattana, deputy permanent secretary of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), today (Monday).

Despite the substantial spike in new infections, she said there is no reason to panic, because most of the cases are of the prevalent sub-variant, while the number of cases of the emerging sub-variant, Omicron XBB.1.16, remains small.

Nevertheless, she suggested that vulnerable people, such as the elderly and those with underlying diseases who have not been vaccinated in the past six months, get vaccinated with either Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca, as well as LAAB for people with poor immunity, kidney disease or HIV, which are available free of charge at BMA’s health centres.

For the general public, Dr. Wantanee said that social distancing, the wearing of face masks in public and frequent hand washing are helpful in preventing infections.

Those who have symptoms associated with COVID-19 infection should take rapid antigen tests, separate themselves from others and work from home, she added.

She also said that the BMA will only prescribe anti-viral medication to those who develop serious symptoms, noting that patients with mild symptoms should be treated with medication in accordance with their symptoms and rest.

Meanwhile, Dr. Yong Poovorawan, head of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine of Chulalongkorn University, said that the best timing for COVID-19 vaccination is this month and May, before the virus spreads in May and June, adding that those who were last vaccinated about six months ago should be inoculated once a year.

COVID vaccination is like inoculation against influenza, it is voluntary, but it will be most useful for vulnerable people in reducing the severity of the infections, said Dr. Yong.