Covid-19 to be removed from emergency treatment list
published : 15 Feb 2022 at 09:51
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Mongkol Bangprapa
Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul is moving ahead with a plan to change the conditions for Covid-19 treatment.
The Public Health Ministry plans to remove Covid-19 treatment from the list of conditions covered by the Universal Coverage for Emergency Patients (UCEP) scheme from the beginning of next month.
The change means people who test positive for the coronavirus but do not need critical care have to go to the hospital where they are registered under their welfare scheme, to be covered for the cost.
Only those with a critical, secondary infection brought on by Covid-19 will be covered by the UCEP. The UCEP allows patients to seek treatment at any hospital free of charge for three days and then they are transferred to their registered hospital.
Mr Anutin said no one would be left behind by the policy change as the ministry planned to downgrade Covid-19 from a pandemic to endemic disease.
The ministry plans to declare Covid-19 an endemic disease by the end of this year.
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Vocabulary
- coverage (noun): protection or insurance against risks or dangerous things happening; insurance coverage - ความคุ้มครอง , ขอบเขตคุ้มครองในการประกันภัย
- critical: very seriously ill or injured and might die - อย่างรุนแรง อย่างวิกฤต
- downgrade: to reduce someone or something to a lower rank or position, to reduce the strength of something - ลดความสำคัญ, ลดความรุนแรง
- endemic: regularly found in a particular place or among a particular group of people and difficult to get rid of - ประจำท้องถิ่น
- pandemic: a disease that affects almost everyone in a very large area - โรคที่มีการแพร่กระจายหรือระบาดไปทั่ว
- policy (noun): a set of plans or action agreed on by a government, political party, business, or other group - นโยบาย
- registered (adj): to be on an official list; to be on an official list of names of people who are allowed to do something, e.g., vote, study, sell something, stay in a hotel etc - ซึ่งลงทะเบียนไว้
- scheme: a plan that is developed by a government or large organisation in order to provide a particular service for people - แผนการ โครงการ
- treatment: the process of providing medical care - การรักษา
- welfare: help given, especially by the state or an organization, to people who need it; good care and living conditions - สวัสดิการ
