Thailand COVID March 14
Thailand Ministry of Health reports 22,130 new COVID-19 cases and an additional 69 deaths since yesterday. The ministry also announced an additional 23,508 recovered patients.
Health experts are now concerned with a new omicron subvariant in Hong Kong. The country records the worst wave since the pandemic began. They have also recorded the highest death rate so far.
New Variant
Deputy chairman of a Senate committee on public health, Dr. Chalermchai Boonyaleephan reported that the omicron has mutated. So, far there were three variants known which were BA.1, BA.2, and BA. 3. He also noted that the days with the highest death rate in Hong Kong coincides with the emergence of BA.2.2. This original variant mutated to this subvariant due to the continuous rise in cases. For every 1 million people, 5,000 were infected and 30 of them would die.
The high number of cases partnered with the high mortality rate was observed with the subvariant BA.2.2. This is what we are seeing in Hong Kong at the moment.
”It is necessary to keep a close watch on the situation,” he posted.
The Centre for Medical Genomics at Mahidol University also shared their observation on the Hong Kong outbreak. The fatalities were mostly associated with the elderly and the unvaccinated. This subvariant is not yet found in Thailand.
The Director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences, Supakit Sirilak, said that this is yet to be confirmed. The Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (Gisaid), the database for COVID sequencing has not yet confirmed anything.
“Currently, Gisaid has not accepted it. [BA 2.2] has only been referred to as such among Hong Kong scientists,” he said.
“Actually, another variant named BA.2.3 is found in the Philippines and is much more common than BA.2.2.
There is a process when declaring a new variant. It will take some time. GSAID will also raise awareness if it was a threatening subvariant. They have sounded alarms on subvariants like deltacron 14 days after it was found.