Phuket elderly to get booster jabs

PPHO Chief Dr Kusak Kukiattikoon announced the campaign during a live broadcast by the Phuket branch of Radio Thailand yesterday (Mar 16).

The elderly were specifically at greater risk of suffering greater consequences from being infected with COVID-19, he said, noting that the elderly had always been under close watch by health officials as they were a large segment of the ‘Group 608’ patients.

‘Group 608’ has become Phuket officials’ preferred term for higher at-risk patients, comprising people over 60 years old along with those suffering from any of the seven recognised medical conditions that place patients at higher risk of developing serious signs of infection, plus women more than 12 weeks pregnant.

Phuket health officials were specifically concerned with the elderly being exposed to greater risk of infection during the upcoming Thai New Year Songkran festival, when many people return to their family homes to visit their elders, he said.

“Of this group [the elderly], 96% have not received a third-dose booster shot,” Dr Kusak pointed out.

“Of those, more than 70% have not received any vaccination injections at all,” he added.

“This is a very important segment of our community,” he added.

Dr Kusak pointed out that currently 92.88% of the 539,183 target population of Phuket had received at least one COVID-19 vaccination injection, while 87.48% of the target population had received a second jab.

So far 67.92% of the target population had received a third-dose “booster” injection, he said.

“We are looking to increase that to over 70%,” Dr Kusak noted.

Some 20,000 people in Phuket recognised as Group 608 patients were registered to receive a third-dose booster shot, he said.

“Their names will be distributed to all tambon hospitals and health officials will go to their houses to vaccinate them, especially the elderly who are bed-ridden,” he said.

Dr Kusak urged people to test themselves for COVID-19 by antigen test kit (ATK) before travelling home to visit their elderly relatives during Songkran.

“They should always wear a face mask while visiting their elders, and take extra caution when performing the traditional rod nam dam hua blessings [the pouring of water over elders’ hands], and strictly observe social distancing,” he added.

Dr Kusak noted that daily infection rates have been falling. On Tuesday (Mar 15), provincial health officials recorded 384 new local cases. In addition, three Phuket Sandbox tourists and 21 Test & Go tourists had tested positive, he added.

However, he cautioned that the low number of people arriving from abroad testing positive was a result of the falling number of international arrivals. “The number of infections from this group still represents about 2.02% of all arrivals,” he said.