Since the start of the third wave, the government has been stuck in a difficult, damned if you do, damned if you don’t position. Impose too many restrictions and long-suffering small businesses may finally topple. Impose too few, however, and infections would continue with no end in sight.
Instead of the eradication strategy that the government successfully accomplished last year, this time the government has opted for a middling approach and eventually started removing restrictions even before a consistent improvement in case numbers could be detected. The result was a continued rise in infections which has put the health system under severe strain and now the re-imposition of a ban on dining inside.
This oscillation between closing and opening feels disorienting and does neither public health nor the economy much good. Even while it is clear that there is not much appetite at the highest levels of power to return to last year’s eradication strategy, more can still be done to combat the current situation.
Ken Lohatepanont 