TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government of Thailand announced its plan to exit the COVID-19 pandemic status set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and declare an endemic in October. The country's Centre for Covid Situation Administration (CCSA) spokesman Taweesilp Visanuyothi made the announcement on Friday, August 19, 2022.

“From October, the disease would be under the emergency operations center of the Public Health Ministry and provincial communicable disease committees, instead of the CCSA chaired by the Prime Minister,” Taweesilp said.

The decision to declare COVID-19 as endemic, according to him, was based on the current data of a low number of severe cases and fatalities. “The goal is for people to be able to coexist safely with COVID-19 and live normal lives,” Taweesilp added.

Meanwhile, WHO revealed the opposite situation for Indonesia a day before the announcement on Thursday, August 18. Quoted from the COVID-19 Situation Report number 93, throughout August 8-14, the weekly case per 100,000 population was 14.0 nationwide, which increased significantly compared to 9.3 per 100,000 population reported three weeks earlier as contained in report number 92.

Indonesia reported 37,796 weekly cases between August 8 and 14, up by 117 percent compared to the 17,388 weekly cases reported from July 4 to 10. The number of deaths in the same period also skyrocketed from 42 to 131, or by 212 percent.

MARIA FRANSISCA LAHUR

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