Thursday Covid UPDATE: 18 deaths and 1,911 new infections
The Thai ministry of health has announced the Wednesday tally from Bangkok and the provinces. There has been 18 new Covid-related deaths and 1,911 new infections in the past 24 hours.
The oddly consistent daily tally suggests that the infection rate is steady and not running “out of control”. (The Thaiger is not suggesting anything ‘sinister’ about the numbers but notes, statistically, that there is little variance in the daily figures despite a highly dynamic situation)
29,680 patients are still under state-controlled care. 2,435 people were discharged from care yesterday.
Here are the provinces with the highest number of new infections reported in the past 24 hours…
Bangkok – 739
Nonthaburi – 273
Samut Prakan – 143
Chonburi – 76
Samut Sakhon – 65
Surat Thani – 53
Nakhon Pathom – 47
Ayutthaya – 35
Chachoengsao – 35
Pathum Thani – 31
Nakhon Si Thammarat – 31
The worsening situation in the Klong Toey ‘slum’ area, a community of some 100,000, is the BMA and government’s most pressing issue. There’s been a surge of resources and mass testing in recent days. After recently testing, 1,336 Klong Toey residents over a period of 3 days, results showed 1 in 14 people testing positive. This could produce a new spike in the daily infection total in the next few days.
Meanwhile, a spokesman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that, following discussions with Thailand’s Centre of Disease Control relating to foreigners, expats and access to Covid vaccines, a further briefing on the matter will be made today.
On Tuesday, a ministry spokesperson Rungrueng Kitphati rolled back some of the earlier commitments to vaccinate “everyone”, including foreigners with a free Covid vaccine…
“The vaccines right now are only reserved for Thai people who are now at a high-risk level or living in the severe outbreak areas. Expats should wait for a clear policy from the government.”
He flatly denied reports of expats living in Thailand being allowed to register for free vaccines. But did offer a glimmer of hope…
“In the future, the country will provide more alternatives for vaccines so they could have a chance of getting it.”
Hopefully there will be some clarification of those comments. The Thaiger tips there will be another back-flip and foreigners will be offered some access to the next vaccine roll out (pure speculation on our part). We will report the results of that media conference as soon as it’s available.
