Next month will be critical for the Thai health system, because hospitals will be overwhelmed and there won’t be enough beds to accommodate the increasing number of COVID-19 patients. Worse still, only about half of the 15 million doses of vaccines expected for July will actually arrive, according to the Rural Doctor Society RDS).
In its Facebook post today (Sunday), the RDS said that COVID-19 infections are spreading, not just in Bangkok but in several other provinces as well, straining the healthcare system to the extent that patients have outnumbered hospital beds, resulting in them being kept at home awaiting admission.
With the ICU facilities fully occupied, severe cases who need urgent medical treatment will not survive and this is being reflected in the daily increase in fatalities, said the society.
The society also says that only four million, of the 10 million doses promised, are expected to be delivered in July, because AstraZeneca Thailand, the sole distributer of the vaccine in the Kingdom, is contractually obliged to supply the vaccine to other countries as well.
Additionally, only three million doses of the Sinovac vaccine are expected to be delivered next month instead of five million. “This means half of the vaccines will not arrive, a situation akin to shortage of armour and shields at a time we are under attack by the enemy,” said the RDS.
Amid the continuing spread of the virus and shortage of vaccines, the RDS says the lockdown measures, reimposed by the CCSA, will not help much, because the disease has already spread into communities and families.
On how the pandemic can be contained, the society said it will have to consult rural doctors and others before it can develop a solution.
