Bangkok officials set up another 1,000 isolation beds amid surge in infections

As Covid-19 infection numbers surge in Bangkok, officials have set up another 1,000 beds in isolation facilities across the capital. According to a Bangkok Post report, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has instructed all 50 district offices to create more community isolation facilities. Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang says the additional isolation facilities will help ease the burden on hospitals and the healthcare system. Covid-19 patients who are asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms can be treated at the centres, keeping hospital beds free for the seriously ill.

According to Aswin, the 1,000 extra beds are in addition to 13 community isolation centres already operating across Bangkok. He was speaking to the Bangkok Post as he inspected an isolation centre in the Klong Toey district. At that facility, 400 of the 500 beds were already occupied. The governor says around 45% of Bangkok’s 3,500 beds are now occupied, but says there are no seriously ill patients going without treatment.

The capital is currently grappling with a spike in Covid infections, with the highest number of cases in the country. Since Thailand’s first reported case of the Omicron variant on January 1, Bangkok has recorded 62,954 cases of the virus. Yesterday, Thailand reported 16,426 new infections, the highest since August 2021. Of those, 2,891 cases are in the capital. 136 are imported infections but the vast majority are cases of local transmission. The CCSA also announced 27 Covid fatalities yesterday.

According to Dr Theera Worathanarat from the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University, yesterday’s CCSA report does not include 11,816 people who received a positive result through antigen tests.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post