Community surveillance of COVID-19 by village health volunteers, Thailand

PROBLEM: To control the increasing spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the government of Thailand enforced the closure of public and business areas in Bangkok on 22 March 2020. As a result, large numbers of unemployed workers returned to their hometowns during April 2020, increasing the risk of spreading the virus across the entire country. APPROACH: In anticipation of the large-scale movement of unemployed workers, the Thai government trained existing village health volunteers to recognize the symptoms of COVID-19 and educate members of their communities. Provincial health offices assembled COVID-19 surveillance teams of these volunteers to identify returnees from high-risk areas, encourage self-quarantine for 14 days, and monitor and report the development of any relevant symptoms. LOCAL SETTING: Despite a significant and recent expansion of the health-care workforce to meet sustainable development goal targets, there still exists a shortage of professional health personnel in rural areas of Thailand. To compensate for this, the primary health-care system includes trained village health volunteers who provide basic health care to their communities. RELEVANT CHANGES: Village health volunteers visited more than 14 million households during March and April 2020. Volunteers identified and monitored 809 911 returnees, and referred a total of 3346 symptomatic patients to hospitals by 13 July 2020. LESSONS LEARNT: The timely mobilization of Thailand’s trusted village health volunteers, educated and experienced in infectious disease surveillance, enabled the robust response of the country to the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus was initially contained without the use of a costly country-wide lockdown or widespread testing.