A delay in the Covid-19 vaccine purchase plan has unforgivably crippled Thailand's efforts in handling the third wave of coronavirus outbreak that hit the country early this month.
It remains unclear if the Prayut Chan-o-cha government, particularly the Public Health Ministry, will be able to beat the virus as it did in the two previous outbreaks or when it can get the current outbreak under control. Currently, only 1.3% of the population have been vaccinated, too few to create herd immunity.
The country has seen a surge in infections, surpassing 1,000 for about a week, while virus transmission has covered every province.
The outbreak may void the government's plan to reopen the country in the next two months and, as chances of the country making a turn-around are dim, the damage to the economy and the health sector are unfathomable.
It's a tough situation indeed.
The new outbreak is attributed to the fact that we are coping with the British variant that is known to spread up to 1.7 times quicker than the original coronavirus strain.
The new outbreak is associated with the Thong Lor cluster which involved several entertainment venues whose operators had breached anti-virus measures.
As the government pledges to accelerate the vaccine process, with 26 million Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines being delivered in one or two months, there emerges a great challenge: how to inoculate the population in time as the vaccination drive goes on at a snail's pace.
Thailand started inoculating people, with a focus on priority groups, on Feb 28. Currently, we have two vaccine brands, China's Sinovac and AZ, with a total of 2,117,300 doses.
Almost two months have passed and just 864,840 people have received jabs (746,617 people received their first shot and 118,223 are fully vaccinated).
It means only 13,000 vaccine doses are being administered each day. At this rate, it will take several years before we can achieve herd immunity.
We have to blame miscalculation on the part of the government for the delay. Or shall we say complacency?
We have to admit that we had an impressive performance in battling the virus, with the infection number curbed quickly in the the first few months.
Efficient disease control measures, in principle, should allow a steady delivery of vaccines.
About 23 million AZ doses are to be imported in June, while six million locally-made vaccines will become available in the same month, followed by 10 million doses per month until the end of the year.
The country had been expected to achieve herd immunity by then but the unexpected Thong Lor cluster has ruined all that.
In fact, we had plenty of time to handle the crisis and should have done better by keeping our guards up.
More importantly, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has underestimated the new virus from the beginning.
Even now, he still refuses to admit that the vaccination plan is too slow and instead says everything is proceeding "as planned".
He bragged about the ministry's strong mechanism in distributing the vaccines. Recently, he highlighted nearly 2,000 state hospitals and nearly 10,000 smaller, tambon-level hospitals across the country under the ministry.
He wanted to highlight that vaccines can reach every tambon but it remains to be seen if they can handle distributing 65 million doses scheduled to be delivered in June.
The ongoing vaccination rate -- 13,000 doses a day -- means there can be issues when all the vaccines arrive.
The number of vaccines is not helpful if the vaccination speed cannot be accelerated. But we cannot be daunted.
In fact, the private sector has expressed enthusiasm to give a hand in vaccine distribution. Some even advised that the government to diversify its vaccine sources instead of relying on AZ but the government staunchly turned down the advice.
There are concerns that the government does not want to share the achievement of inoculating the country.
It's welcome news that the private sector wants to help to speed up the vaccination in every step. But there can be problems ahead, particularly regarding trust, as a large number of people are concerned about vaccine safety and may refuse to get vaccinated.
It is the duty of the government to boost public trust in vaccines -- that it is a major tool to keep us safe, the best available option and side effects are only minimal.
However, the government has to admit that its own flaws in law enforcement have dented public trust. Until today, the government has not probed into allegations that a cabinet minister had a part to play in the Thong Lor cluster. Without a probe, the government has effectively protected those in the wrong.
Operators of those entertainment venues had breached anti-virus measures, i.e. lack of social distancing. Already operating without a proper licence, those venues were found to have also violated beyond permitted hours. This happened under the noses of the police.
Now the police are seemingly hesitant in taking action against those operators, saying that it's the job of City Hall to regulate those places.
Should the government continue to protect those who had a hand in the third wave instead of correcting the problem, we can hardly expect to cope with outbreaks that may occur again and again.