Thailand warms up, causing temperature checks to plummet

According to Rungruang Kitphati, the Head of the Ministry of Public Health’s Health Technical Office, temperature checks were one of the first Covid screening techniques because the most common symptom of most patients was a high fever. The Ministry of Public Health will recommend to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration that temperature measurement equipment and checkpoints are removed from all Thai airports and other sites since there is no proof that they reduce the transmission of coronavirus. As a result, temperature measurement devices and temperature checkpoints were installed across the country.

Last year, Singapore discontinued temperature inspections, and the US and Canada did not even promote them, so Rungruang believes it is time for Thailand to follow suit. The administration will propose eliminating the temperature checkpoints at the next CCSA conference, according to Rungruang. He went on to stress that the ministry would continue to advocate booster doses, wearing a face mask in busy situations, handwashing all day, and keeping a social distance.

He states that the Ministry of Public Health has looked into the temperature-measuring system and now agrees that the government should scrap it now that Thailand’s pandemic situation has improved. He went on to claim that there was no evidence that airport infrared temperature screening devices were effective in blocking Covid.