Wednesday Covid Update: Daily death count hits record high; provincial totals

The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration recorded 3,174 new Covid-19 cases today, raising Thailand’s total count since the start of the pandemic last year to 228,539. A record high of 51 coronavirus-related fatalities was recorded today, most in Bangkok, raising the pandemic’s death toll in Thailand to 1,744. The new high in the daily death count is “quite a worrying situation,” according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Natapanu Nopakun, who gives the daily CCSA report in English.

Thailand now has 37,018 active Covid-19 cases. 1,526 patients are in critical condition including 433 on ventilators. Bangkok public hospitals have run extremely low on beds in intensive care units. Natapanu says health officials are continuing to monitor the situation as well as the number of hospital beds available for patients in critical condition, adding that new options to increase the number of available hospital beds are “being explored.”

“Our priority is to save people’s lives.”

The latest and most severe wave of Covid-19, infecting 199,626 people since April 1, has spread to Thailand’s overcrowded prisons. Of the new cases reported today, 36 were found in correctional facilities, a downward trend after more than 30,000 inmates tested positive for the virus.

Bangkok remains the epicentre in the latest wave with 956 new cases reported today. Cases are high in surrounding provinces with 501 new cases reported in Samut Prakan, 240 in Samut Sakhon, and 79 in Nakhon Pathom.

Infections have also risen in Thailand’s Deep South by the Malaysian border where the Beta variant of the virus, which was first found in South Africa, is spreading. 185 new cases were reported in Songkhla, 120 in Pattani, and 89 in Narathiwat.

Clusters continue to primarily be in factories and construction sites where people work in crowded conditions.

Vaccine update…

As of today, 8% of the population in Thailand have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine with around 8.1 million doses of the vaccine administered since February 28. Natapanu says they are still on track to hit this month’s target of 10 million doses administered by the end of the month.

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