Kindergarten and elementary school students should no longer have to wear masks in schools as the Covid-19 situation in Thailand continues to improve, according to virologist Yong Poovorawan.
Dr Yong posted on his Facebook account on Friday that infections in children are uncommon as the majority are already immune. According to a study by the Centre for Viral Studies, around 80% of primary and kindergarten students have already been infected, and many others already vaccinated.
Despite the possibility of re-infection, the symptoms are not severe and one in three pass without any at all. "Everything will proceed naturally, just as with a respiratory disease," wrote Dr Yong, chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Medicine.
While the Department of Health, along with the Ministry of Public Health, still recommends juveniles over two years old wear masks, Dr Yong suggests that, for young children, wearing a mask is ineffective and not worth the trade-off in educational development.
Dr Yong also said that new coronavirus strains from visitors arriving from Western countries could pose a higher health threat than older strains from tourists arriving from China.
Amid concerns over rising infections with China easing restrictions on travel, Dr Yong wrote that China's recent outbreak is predominantly led by the Omicron subvariant of Covid-19, BA.5, which had already spread in Thailand.
"We should be more concerned about the strains that have not spread in Thailand, especially the BQ variant from the West, which is more alarming," he wrote "We do not check and cannot force [them] to wear face masks."
According to Dr Yong, 70% of Thai people have been infected with Covid-19, and 96% of the population already have antibodies for Covid-19.
