Thailand’s well known virologist, Dr. Yong Poovorawan, has proposed that the Government stop all social events and activities that attract crowds, and to provide easier public access to COVID-19 tests, in order to prevent a wider spread outbreak.

Writing on his Facebook page today, Dr. Yong said that Thailand has been rehearsing for how to cope with the COVID-19 spread for two months, and it is about time for real action, adding that everyone must strictly comply with the rules and guidelines issued, on an almost daily basis, by the Ministry of Public Health.

The chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology, at the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, said that about 10,000 new infections are reported worldwide each day and the numbers tend to rise exponentially.

In Thailand, he noted that group infections have been reported, including a group of boxing fans, adding that social measures, such as suspension of all events and large crowd activities, should be suspended to prevent the rapid and widespread transmission of the contagion.

Dr. Yong, who recently predicted that Thailand will definitely enter Stage 3 of the virus outbreak, pointed out that it would be very difficult to screen a lot of people, if it is found that one or two infected people were among a large crowd at an event.

He said Thailand could become the second South Korea if new infections keep multiplying, adding that one pro-active approach to stem the transmission is to allow wider public access to COVID-19 tests.

While admitting that this approach will need a huge budget, he said that it is essential if the contagion is to be contained, as has apparently been successfully achieved in China.