Traveling and Celebrating During Songkran as Super Spreading Events: A Potential Triggering Factor of the Surge of COVID-19 Cases in Thailand

Abstract

Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country in Southeast Asia, recently celebrated Songkran, a Buddhist new year festival, on April 12 to 15, 2021.1 Since the celebration is a fourday holiday that ends on a Thursday, many Thais extended their celebration until the weekend, making it a week-long holiday. As a result, many people from Bangkok, the country’s capital, went home to their respective provinces or visited tourist hotspots to spend their week-long vacation despite the slight surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the country. The complacency of several Thais became apparent as the country had successfully controlled the outbreak in the past months. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Songkran was celebrated every April 13, typically marked by the traditional splashing of water in the sweltering summer heat and commemorated by visiting temples to pay respect to the monks and getting together with family and friends.1 However, the annual Songkran celebrations in 2020 and 2021 were completely different from the usual and accustomed holiday activities. In 2020, the government completely canceled the Songkran festival due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Strict preventive measures were implemented during that time, and the public willingly followed due to fear of catching the contagious disease.1 Due to the cancellation and successful implementation of strict public health protocols, the Songkran in 2020 did not cause any problem in the country’s COVID-19 situation.2 In 2021, however, the government did not cancel Songkran but rather imposed banning water-splashing, powdersmearing, and foam parties. Instead, only religious practices were allowed, such as sprinkling water on Buddha statues and pouring water onto the palms of the elderly to ask for blessings. Despite the restrictions on public gatherings, the government allowed the public to travel domestically during the holiday as long as they complied with the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration guidelines. The Tourism Authority of Thailand even encouraged its locals to travel within the country to promote tourism. With an estimation of 3.2 million domestic trips during the week-long Songkran, many people used this opportunity to celebrate and travel outside the capital city.1 Moreover, compounding the festivity is the revival of the nightlife spots in central Bangkok which resulted in a riskier and more susceptible situation for COVID-19 transmission. Unfortunately, on April 14, 2021, just a day after the Thai New Year, daily new cases of COVID-19 in the country started to increase into more than 1000 cases (1,335 cases) from tens to hundreds of daily new cases before the celebrations.3 The number of cases peaked at thousands for the first time since the pandemic hit the country. Prior to Songkran, Thailand was able to successfully control the COVID-19 transmission despite being the first country in the world to report the first COVID-19 case outside China.2 However, the country’s COVID-19 situation changed after the event. As of May 17, 2021, the country has reported 111 082 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with nearly three-quarters of the reported cases since the Songkran celebrations, indicating a new wave of COVID-19 infections in Thailand. Among the total cases, 43 268 are active cases, and 9635 are new single-day cases, the highest recorded daily new cases so far.3 Health authorities are very worried about the current spike of cases since the new http://ijtmgh.com Int J Travel Med Glob Health. 2021 Dec;9(4):196-197 doi 10.34172/ijtmgh.2021.33 TMGH IInternational Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health J