Pharmacies to distribute 8.5m antigen test kits to risk groups
Pharmacies nationwide will distribute 8.5 antigen test kits (ATK) to citizens in risk groups, the Pharmacy Council of Thailand said on Thursday.
According to the council president, Jiraporn Limpananont, citizens in the risk group must register with the National Health Security Office (NHSO) to receive the ATK. Those categorised as risk groups include:
▪︎Families of patients
▪︎Those who have travelled to places where there were patients
▪︎People who are likely to be infected, such as those coughing or having fever
Jiraporn said that the NHSO would send the list to the selected or nearby pharmacies. The pharmacy will contact them to question their symptoms or confirm if they are in the risk groups by telephone or Line. After that, they will send the ATK to the house with guidelines on how to use it properly.
After testing, citizens who received the ATK must send a photo of the result to the pharmacy. If the result is negative, they will be in home quarantine and get another ATK after 3-5 days.
If the result is positive, pharmacists will ask about their symptoms to evaluate their symptom levels (green-yellow-red).
If they are healthy or asymptomatic patients, they will be in home isolation. Pharmacists will send medicines and monitor their symptoms. They will move to community isolation instead if they cannot be in home isolation.
Patients in the yellow or red group will be sent to hospitals.
She also mentioned that pharmacies will be the servicing unit for home isolation and will send Favipiravir to patients.
There were over 10,000 eligible pharmacies nationwide; 1,000 pharmacies already have joined but the organisation is promoting more pharmacies to join.
She added that the NHSO has cooperated with the council and the Food and Drug Administration while waiting for the ATKs. Once they get the ATK, the system will be ready and will separate patients from citizens to reduce the virus spreading.
