Thailand's daily COVID-19 cases may hit 100,000, warns virologist

Dr Yong Poovorawan, senior virologist from Chulalongkorn University said at present, an average of 25,000 COVID-19 cases was being reported daily, including those tested positive using the Antigen Test Kits (ATK) in the kingdom.

He said data showed the infection rate in the kingdom now is 10 times of the four previous waves.

"As Thailand is facing its fifth wave of infections, I hope the infection rate will not surge to six-digit," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Over the last 24 hours, Thailand recorded 18,953 new COVID-19 cases and 30 deaths, bringing the total infections in the country to 2,712,315 and 22,624 fatalities.

He added that the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron were spreading rapidly, citing that in Singapore, an average of 15,000 cases were reported while South Korea's new daily cases topped 100,000 for the first time on Feb 18.

"Thailand may soon follow the same pattern.

"At present, the COVID-19 outbreak is on an upward trend in Asia. The infections will reach a peak, before they start to stabilise and the number of new cases will slowly fall like what happened in Europe and the United States," he said.

Dr Yong urged the public who tested positive to isolate at home or at community facilities in a bid to further prevent the spread of the virus.