Thailand officials still aiming for Covid-19 ‘endemic’ status in July

Thailand’s officials say their goal remains to achieve endemic status for Covid-19 on July 1 if certain benchmarks continue to be met. Thailand’s deputy public health minister said in a speech that, if Covid-19 is declared an endemic, mask-wearing rules might ease depending on the Covid-19 situation in each area.

In the plan for endemic status, the number of infections was expected to drop to 1,000-2,000 cases per day by the end of May, after stabilising in April. In his speech, the deputy public health minister, Sathit Pitutecha, said that Thailand has seen a downward trend in the number of Covid-19 infections, even if official numbers underestimated the number of daily cases.

“It’s not that we’re concealing the number of cases but it is possible that some patients who test positive from antigen test kits don’t report their infections.”

This week, Thailand’s Deputy…