Singapore is currently experiencing yet another Covid-19 surge, powered by the XBB subvariant of Omicron.
One sign that our situation is getting worse is when other countries start getting cautious about travellers coming from here.
And so it has proven to be the case again — travellers from Singapore arriving in Thailand will now be randomly tested for Covid-19.
Source: Markus Winkler on Unsplash
The stepped-up surveillance applies to all Thai airports, including Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand’s Department of Disease Control (DDC) was quoted by The Bangkok Post as saying.
Any arrivals from Singapore and Hong Kong who display respiratory symptoms may be randomly singled out for testing at the Department of Medical Sciences, said DDC deputy director-general Sophon Iamsirithaworn.
He also included the two cities under the group of “countries with XBB outbreaks”.
Dr Tares Krassanairawiwong, acting director-general of the DDC, revealed on Friday (14 Oct) that 29 people who arrived in Hong Kong had already tested positive for XBB.
Of these cases, 24 tested positive upon arrival in the Chinese city.
The remaining five were detected during their second day in Hong Kong.
Concerningly, most of these cases had returned from Singapore, he said, without specifying the exact number.
Additionally, Dr Tares added that three of these cases had returned from Thailand.
The DDC is investigating these three XBB cases.
However, Dr Sophon claimed that there was no local transmission of XBB in Thailand yet.
Just two weeks ago, on 1 Oct, Thailand opened their borders fully, with no restrictions, proof of vaccination or testing needed for arrivals.
However, the XBB strain seems to have caused their health authorities to become more cautious again and resume some form of testing.
The XBB strain, known as BA.2.10, has also been detected in Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, India, Japan and the United States (US).
It currently comprises 55% of infections in Singapore, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).
MOH has responded to the latest surge by tightening safe management measures (SMM) at all hospital wards and residential care homes for four weeks.
The ministry also said that the wave is expected to peak in mid-November.
Thankfully, while XBB has caused an increase in local cases, the number of severe cases has remained relatively low, according to MOH.
Guess we’ll have to ride out the wave like before and hope other countries don’t take even stricter measures towards arrivals from Singapore.
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Featured image adapted from Markus Winkler on Unsplash.
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