Wearing more than two face masks does not mean better protection from Covid-19, a senior Public Health Ministry official said on Wednesday.
Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences, said wearing more than two masks was unnecessary. It would not give the wearer a greater chance of avoiding infection.
"People do not need to put on three or four masks to go out in public," he said at a ministry briefing. "A booster shot and universal prevention measures are enough."
Dr Supakit's advice came as the highly transmissible Omicron variant continues its spread throughout the country. Weekly tests on about 2,000 samples at the department showed only one was of the Delta variant.
"Omicron now is in full control of new infections," he said.
Most Omicron cases were of the BA.2 strain which could spread faster than BA.1 but was not more dangerous.
Confirmed new cases are now consistently above 20,000 a day. Some medical experts are fretting about another spike during the Songkran holiday in mid-April with the expected exodus from centres of infection like Bangkok as people return to their home province to celebrate the Thai New Year with close relatives, many of them elderly.
