People returning from cities to their home provinces for Songkran could be a vector for spreading the coronavirus disease to older members of their families, a disease specialist warned on Thursday.
The warning came from Thiravat Hemachudha, director of the Health Science Centre of Emerging Diseases at Chulalongkorn University.
Songkran is a major event, more so than the calendar New Year, when young working people return home en masse to visit their parents and other family members, he said.
But their behaviour also made them prone to spread the virus to other people.
"The younger age group can efficiently spread the disease as they are active and love socialising after work or school," Dr Thiravat said in an interview on CU Radio of Chulalongkorn University on Thursday.
When they return home during the Thai New Year break the coronavirus situation in Thailand could worsen, he said.
His worries about young people were reflected in the latest report on local Covid-19 cases on Thursday, when 11 people aged 25-38 years were found infected with the virus - the first cluster infection detected in Thailand.
Some members spread the infection to the others in their group during drinking sessions together when they shared drinking glasses and cigarettes.
The Public Health Ministry says it is trying to prevent Thailand entering the third phase of the outbreak, marked by mass infections. But Dr Thiravat argued that the country is already in the third stage.
"The fact is, we are already in the third phase. But we do not have a large number of patients in serious condition who need to be treated in an ICU," he said.
