Sixth Wave? Bangkok COVID-19 Infections Hit More Than 10,000 Per Day

Bangkok is on the verge of another wave of COVID-19 infections as the number of the capital city’s daily cases hits more than 10,000.

After gradually recovering from lockdown measures and reopening its borders to international tourists, Bangkok is yet again on high alert because of the newly emerged BA.5 Omicron subvariant.

Despite the city’s preparedness to face a sixth wave, the number of patients could still reach “tens of thousands” by end-August, the Bangkok Post reported. The last wave, which was driven by the BA.2 Omicron subvariant, peaked at 28,379 in April and slowly declined until the start of July.

“As the BA.5 subvariant has the ability to elude protection from the virus, produced after vaccinations and infections, it is by far the most infectious COVID strain because it can infect those who are already vaccinated or previously recovered from a COVID infection,” Dr. Yong Poovorawan, Chulalongkorn University Head of the Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine, was quoted as saying by the Bangkok Post.

“Thailand will face a sixth wave of outbreak, in which we will see a higher infection rate than previous waves.”