Covid UPDATE Saturday: 257 deaths, news briefs

The dramatic drop in new infections over the past week has levelled off a bit with 15,942 new infections being reported across Thailand in the past24 hours, a rise from yesterday’s reported 14,653 cases. 277 of today’s new cases come from the Thai prison system.

There’s also been 257 deaths, the numbers remaining high whilst other trends are more positive.

20,351 patients have now recovered and been released from state care, public and field hospitals over the past 24 hours… this number remaining above the number of new infections for the past 2 weeks.

• In Phuket, the number of new infections, mostly local, continues to worry local officials. It has averaged over 200 for the past 2 weeks with no additional restrictions being put in place to address the rise in local infections. Indeed, the restrictions for entry are to be eased this week, allowing easier re-entry for local residents as well as domestic travellers to return to the island.

Fri, Sept 3 – 242 new cases

Thu, Sept 3 – 235 new cases

Wed, Sept 1 – 204 new cases

Tue, Aug 31 – 257 new cases

Mon, Aug 30 – 256 new cases

Sun, Aug 29 – 162 new cases

Sat, Aug 28 – 210 new cases

• The Japanese embassy in Bangkok says that their government will again donate AstraZeneca vaccines to Thailand. Japan donated 1.05 million AstraZeneca vaccines to Thailand at the beginning of July and have declared that another shipment of 300,000 vaccines will be forthcoming.

The second shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines from Japan is slated to arrive on September 8, this coming Wednesday. The Japanese shipment will have 775 oxygen concentrators to aid in the care of patients with severe Covid-19 infections as well as equipment for the cold chain system that is essential to keep vaccines at a low temperature during storage, transportation, and distribution of vaccines. Read the rest of the story HERE.

• In the battle to get access to high-quality vaccines in Thailand, October is set to see an upgrade with the initiation of administering a mix of AstraZeneca and Pfizer doses for patients. The deputy director-general of the Disease Control Department said today Thailand will receive about 10 million Pfizer vaccines arriving each month beginning in October.

The government now plans to supplement the first dose of domestically-produced AstraZeneca with a second dose of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine 1 to 3 months later. While mixing vaccine brands is still controversial with less data on efficacy and safety, many agree that the AstraZeneca-Pfizer combination is a step up from the current mixture of Sinovac and AstraZeneca commonly in use in Thailand today. Read the rest of this story HERE.

SOURCES: FRB |NBT