More Than 60 Different XBB Sublineages Circulating In Thailand, COVID-19 Hospitalizations/Deaths Rising. 226 On Ventilators And 64 Deaths Last Week!
Thailand COVID-19 News: Thai health authorities reported 2,632 COVID-19 inpatients for the period 14
th May 2023 to 20
th May 2023, representing an increase of 12% from the previous 7 days that recorded 2,356 COVID-19 inpatients. (Note that the ambiguous term inpatients are now being used in COVID-19 reporting and not definite COVID-19 infections cases or actual hospitalizations!)
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Pic Credit:AlJazeera News - Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP
It was reported that 64 people died from COVID-19 for the same period, representing an increase of 191% from the previous week of 22 COVID-19 deaths.
Worryingly, it was also reported that the number of COVID-19 inpatients with lung inflammation rose to 401 for the same period and that about 226 COVID-19 inpatients are now on ventilators.
In reality, considering the reputation of the health authorities and simply extrapolating the figures presented, we can safely say that there is indeed a COVID-19 crisis in the country and the number of daily infections could be very high. We do not have access to the actual daily infections and also the actual daily hospitalizations or the actual numbers of COVID-19 test performed and access to the actual test positivity rates. We do not even have access to the actual excess death rates in the last 3 months despite hearing stories of high incidences of heart failures, strokes, kidney and liver failures. (All tell-tale signs of the wreckage that COVID-19 can impose on human.)
Many private hospitals are already reporting new record high figures of COVID-19 hospitalizations and some hospitals are even turning away patients due to shortage of COVID-19 hospital beds.
According to local
Thailand COVID-19 News coverages, health authorities are attributing the rise of COVID-19 infections due to the reopening of schools!
Interestingly, according to data from the CoV Spectrum platform, for the period 15
th of April 2023 to 15
th May 2023 there were more than 60 different XBB sub-lineages circulating in the country!
https://cov-spectrum.org/explore/Thailand/AllSamples/from%3D2023-04-15%26to%3D2023-05-15/variants?nextcladePangoLineage=xbb*&
Among them are the spawns of the more worrisome sub-lineages like XBB.1.16, XBB.1.91., XBB.1.9.2 and XBB.2.3.
FU.1 or XBB.1.16.1.1 has already been identified in the country alongside the spawns of XBB.2.3 like XBB.2.3.2, XBB.2.3.5 and XBB.2.3.11.
https://cov-spectrum.org/explore/Thailand/AllSamples/from%3D2023-04-15%26to%3D2023-05-15/variants?nextcladePangoLineage=FU.1&
angoLineage=XBB.2.3.2&">https://cov-spectrum.org/explore/Thailand/AllSamples/from%3D2023-04-15%26to%3D2023-05-15/variants?nextcladePangoLineage=XBB.2.3.2&
https://cov-spectrum.org/explore/Thailand/AllSamples/from%3D2023-04-15%26to%3D2023-05-15/variants?nextcladePangoLineage=XBB.2.3.5&
https://cov-spectrum.org/explore/Thailand/AllSamples/from%3D2023-04-15%26to%3D2023-05-15/variants?nextcladePangoLineage=XBB.2.3.11&
Again, these data might not be accurate as we might be missing out many more XBB sub-lineages or any new SARS-CoV-2 variants as there is very genomic sequencings being conducted in Thailand over the past two months!
https://cov-spectrum.org/explore/Thailand/AllSamples/Past6M/sequencing-coverage
This is expected as even COVID-19 testing are at very low levels.
We have no clue about the rates of asymptomatic COVID-19 infections and asymptomatic transmissions taking place in teh country and most of the ignorant authorities and even the public are unaware of the long-term health implications of getting exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus let alone about viral persistence and the effects of viral persistence!
The good news however is that the health authorities did however warn that COVID-19 infections are still expected to rise in the country for a while more!
We can expect to see the excess death rates in Thailand to ‘silently’ increase over the next few months but hopefully let’s pray that they will be some politicians, high profile figures, celebrities and high-sos so that it will at least garner more media attention and cause more of the ignorant masses to adopt more safety precautions and measures and make them more aware that COVID-19 is not over yet nor is it a mild infection that we can live with!
For the latest
COVID-19 News, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.
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