Thailand recorded seven new COVID-19 cases in state quarantine today (Friday), including a two-year old Thai girl arriving from Saudi Arabia.
According to the CCSA, three new infections arrived from Saudi Arabia, including the toddler, an eight-year old Thai student and a 45-year old Thai man. They arrived on September 5th and immediately entered state quarantine in Bangkok. All three tested positive for COVID-19 on September 9th.
The fourth case is a 14-year old Russian student, who arrived from Russia on August 31st and entered alternative state quarantine on the same day. He also tested positive on September 9th.
Three others arrived from India on September 6th. Two are Thai nationals, including a 33-year old woman and a 31-year old mature student. They entered state quarantine in Chon Buri province. The third is a 33-year old Indian engineer who entered alternative state quarantine in Bangkok. All were found to be infected by the disease on September 9th.
Cumulative infections in Thailand, to date, are 3,461, with 3,312 recoveries and 91 others are still in hospital. The death toll remains 58.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s well known virologist, Professor Dr. Yong Poovorawan of Chulalongkorn University, said the challenge to the development of COVID-19 vaccines in Thailand is not funding, but the shortage of qualified researchers and, to compound that problem, most are working separately and developing multiple candidate vaccines.
He cited the case of an outbreak of influenza in Thailand about a decade ago, when Thai researchers tried to develop their own candidate vaccines. Ten years later, they are still only in Stage 3 of human trials.
He recommended that authorities analyze the causes of the delay in developing those flu vaccines to draw lessons for the development of COVID-19 vaccines, adding that researchers should pool their resources and work as a team, instead of separately chasing after several candidate vaccines simultaneously.
