126 new cases, 116 local transmissions-Covid-19 Update

Thailand is reporting 126 new cases of Covid-19 today over the last 24 hours with 116 of those cases being locally-transmitted. The death toll remains unchanged at 80 deaths since the pandemic began. Of the 116 locally-transmitted cases, 37 were found by testing at medical facilities and 79 were found by proactive testing.

Most of the cases found through proactive testing were in the original hotspot of the second wave, Samut Sakhon, while others were found in Tak province, the centre of a new cluster of infections. Now, the total number of Covid-19 infections in Thailand sits at 24,405 since the pandemic began. 21,180 have recovered from the virus and 3,145 are currently undergoing treatment.

The second wave of the virus, which began on December 15, has reached 63 out of 77 provinces in the country so far. Samut Sakhon, a province bordering Bangkok, has seen 80% of those cases after a fresh seafood market became the centre of a large breakout.

Between December 18 and today, Samut Sakhon has reported 15,624 confirmed cases. Bangkok was next in terms of the most cases reported at 912, followed by Chonburi, Rayong, Samut Prakan, Chanthaburi, Nonthaburi, Pathumthani, Tak and Ang Thong.

Samut Sakhon officials have announced that they are re-opening 22 wet markets from Monday. However, the seafood market where the outbreak began is not one of them, and it is not yet known when that might re-open. The 22 markets have been closed since December 19 as a result of the virus outbreak.

Officials in Samut Sakhon have begun a 3-day clean-up operation across all 22 markets, aimed at boosting public confidence. Meanwhile, tourism operators on the island of Samui are calling for the national vaccine rollout to be accelerated, in a bid to re-start international tourism by the third quarter of 2021. Ratchaporn Poolsawadee from the Tourism Association of Koh Samui says domestic tourism alone cannot support the sector and it won’t recover without a vaccination programme.

SOURCE: Thai Enquirer