To the Editor,
In Southeast Asian countries, Thailand is the first country that reported a case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outside of China. The first confirmed case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in Thailand was announced on January 17, 2020 [1]. The diagnosis and contact tracing this disease were tested by using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.
As of May 02, Thailand has reported 2966 cases of laboratory-confirmed coronavirus 2019, 2732 recovered cases, and 54 deaths from COVID-19 in 68 of 77 provinces. Bangkok has the highest number of cases (1538 cases) followed by Phuket (220 cases), and Nonthaburi (157 cases), respectively [2]. The average age of COVID-19 patients was 40 years (range, 1 month to 97 years) and 1621 of the 2966 patients (54.65%) were men [1].
The highest number of confirmed cases in Thailand was reported on March 22. There were 188 new cases of tested positive for COVID-19 who related boxing stadium and drinking venue [3]. An immediate nationwide lockdown was instituted in Thailand, which protected Thailand citizens from COVID-19. The government of Thailand has announced a nationwide curfew on April 3, 2020. The government requests that people must wear a face mask, practice social distancing, and remain inside their residents from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m [4].
After the curfew has been in place, the figure for new COVID-19 cases was continued to fall when compared with the cases report in March as shown in Fig. 1 [5]. According to the curfew and quarantine or isolation situation, the positive rate among persons under investigation is 1.9%, which seems to be decreased from mid-January to April 6, 2020.
Fig. 1.
Epidemic curves of reported cases with COVID-19 in Thailand.
Even though the number of new cases showed a downward trend, the COVID-19 national curfew and emergency decree for Thailand has been extended to June 15, 2020 to curb the spread of this virus. However, the restrictions will be gradually eased to prevent a second wave of infections. Furthermore, there were no new deaths reported for 5 days in a row and there were no new cases of healthcare workers. A significant decrease in the daily number of new COVID-19 cases could be likely attributed to the rigorous Thai government lockdown measures. Accordingly, stringent containment of people in heavily affected areas seems to have a great potential to prevent or slow down the spread of COVID-19.
Ethical approval
This article does not require any human/animal subjects to acquire such approval.
Financial support
No financial support was provided relevant to this article.
Declaration of competing interest
All authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.
Acknowledgments
Not applicable.
References
- 1.Thai Ministry of Public Health, Department of Disease Control New COVID-19 patient rate. 2020. https://covid19.ddc.moph.go.th/en [cited 2020 May 02]. Available from:
- 2.World Health Organization (Thailand) COVID-19-WHO Thailand situation reports [Internet], WHO Thailand situation report-70. 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/searo/thailand/2020-05-02--tha-sitrep-70-covid19-final-en.pdf?sfvrsn=c6db772e_2.pdf [cite 2020 May 02]. Available from:
- 3.World Health Organization (Thailand) COVID-19-WHO Thailand situation reports [Internet], WHO Thailand situation report-29. 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/searo/thailand/2020-03-22-tha-sitrep-29-covid19-final.pdf?sfvrsn=aba4d51e_0.pdf [cite 2020 May 02]. Available from:
- 4.World Health Organization (Thailand) COVID-19-WHO Thailand situation reports [Internet], WHO Thailand situation report-41. 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/searo/thailand/2020-04-3-tha-sitrep-41-covid19-final.pdf?sfvrsn=9e14aebc_0.pdf [cite 2020 May 02]. Available from:
- 5.Ministry of higher education, science, research and innovation and department of disease control [internet] 2020 May 02. https://www.nrct.go.th/ The number of recovered and accumulated cases: 2020.