BACKWARD APPROACH AND THE MANAGEMENT OF COVID-19 SECOND OUTBREAK IN THAILAND

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Suree Nung-Alee,ManasRanjan Behera,,Samrong Koonawoot, Budsayarut Puncreobutr

Abstract

The objective of this research is to study the causes of COVID-19 outbreak, to study the guidelines and the outcomes from deploying the Backward Approach in managing the new round of COVID-19 outbreak in Thailand. This is a qualitative research.  The sample group of people used in this research consisted of those who are involved in the management of the outbreak such as, administrators of the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), Provincial Public Health doctors in the 10provinces of highest numbers of infected persons and in the 10 non-epidemic provinces and organizations or establishments where proactive search caseshave been conducted. There were 66 key informants. The study has been done by in-depth interview, participated observation and non-participated observation in the 4 color-marked areas according to the severity of the outbreak in Thailand.


            From the study it is found that 1) The causes of the new round of the outbreakconsisted of the entry into Thailand of foreign workers, laborers of multi nationalities, self-smuggling in and out of the country of Thai gamblers to foreign gambling casinos situated along the borders of Thailand, and the social activities or events, set up in poorly ventilated enclosure and crowded places, neglecting the outbreak preventions and protections 2)The guidelines deploying Backward Approach in managing the second round of COVID-19 outbreak were set in 4 steps: Raising awareness and corporate societal responsibility, deploying societal responsibility measures, the use of integrated control measures, and deploying intensive control measures 3) The result from deploying the Backward Approach in managing the second round of COVID-19 outbreak in Thailand, it is found that the outbreak was under control within 6 weeks since the finding of the new infected persons by using only the 3 stepsof the Backward Approach in: Raising awareness and corporate societal responsibility, deploying  societal responsibility measures, and deploying integrated control measure. After the implementation of these 3 steps, the intensive control measureswerede-concentrated and the new round of the outbreak was stopped within 2 weeks later. Only 8 weeks were needed to manage and control the new round of the outbreak. Significant success from deploying the Backward Approach in managing the second round of COVID-10 the outbreak in Thailand, resulting in the negative impact to the country’s economy which  is clearly much less than the impact in the first round of the outbreak.

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