The Public Health Ministry will declare the country to be in a post-pandemic Covid-19 stage on Friday, as the disease will likely cause only small and medium clusters from now.

Health permanent secretary Kiattiphum Wongrajit said, “We will keep to our schedule to announce a post-pandemic era on July 1. And what we expect to see is only small or medium clusters that will not do any harm to our public health service. The disease will be under control.”

He admitted that two new Covid-19 subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, had already arrived, but said the extent of their severity and transmissibility had not been confirmed. There had not been any significant change in the number of severe cases admitted to hospitals, he said.

The health ministry planned to announce a post-pandemic stage, instead of declaring Covid-19 an endemic disease, on July 1, Dr Kiattiphum said.

It had decided to wait for the World Health Organization to declare endemic status first.

After the post-pandemic announcement, the ministry would reconsider the state’s responsibility for Covid-19 treatment payments, Dr Kiattiphum said. At present the government pays for the treatment.