Daily News reported, on 22 July, hospitals couldn’t admit a woman going into labor. She had to give birth at home, on the living room floor.
Thai PBS reported a 50-year-old man found dead near Bovornnivet Temple around 10am on 20 July. Rescue workers sealed off the area. But it wasn’t until 10pm the body was picked up. Two other men were also found dead on the street that same day.
On 24 July, a homeless man died at Victory Monument. Postmortem revealed he was infected with COVID-19.
On 23 July, a nurse named Praepach Thanyawattaweesook passed away. She contracted COVID-19 from her workplace. She has not received Sinovac jabs and was on the list for an alternative vaccine. Her last post on Facebook was, “Where’s the miracle?”
The previously much-vaunted Thai healthcare system has been put to the test. Unfortunately, thus far, it hasn’t lived up to the test. This is not the fault of the women and men who work round-the-clock and in the front line, risking their lives.
It’s the lack of foresight. The lack of planning. The lack of strategy. The lack of leadership. It’s the decision-makers, who after the pandemic’s first wave ended in mid-2020, has been prancing around in a lavender field: “Let’s bet on one horse,” “COVID-19 is nothing,” and “We don’t need COVAX.”
Now, we’ve run out of hospital beds. We don’t even have enough ambulances. We scramble to mix vaccines. We order 20 million Pfizer doses, but they won’t come until the fourth quarter. We are joining COVAX, but that can’t happen until 2022.
General Prayut Chan-o-cha likened the pandemic to war, and as a soldier and a general, he said there is no surrender and that he will fight until victory.
But as Move Forward MP Rangsiman Rome tweeted yesterday about this war where the people keep dying:
“The victims of government’s delay and mismanagement are doctors, nurses, and people. If you still have any humanity left, you should realize who is responsible for so many dead Thais.”
“There’s only one conclusion; the leader is too stupid for the responsibility. Not only stupid but also lacking the awareness for one’s stupidity. That’s all.”
2021-07-26