The first local transmission of Omicron confirmed in Thailand on Dec 20 last year prompted the government to abruptly suspend new registrations for quarantine-free entry into the country and raise the Covid-19 alert to level 4 amid fears over the highly contagious variant.
The Public Health Ministry in late December predicted the worst-case scenario for Thailand would be a surge in cases to 30,000 per day, surpassing the peak for the Delta variant of more than 23,000 infections last year.
