198 new infections, 1 death – Thailand’s Covid-19 update

After a week of high and lows in the reporting of the latest clusters, Thailand officials are reporting 198 new infections of Covid-19 today, with 180 being locally transmitted. 69 of those local infections were found via tests at medical facilities and 111 were found by proactive testing. Most of the proactive tests were found in Samut Sakhon, where the 2nd wave of the virus is thought to have began.

Of the 180 local infections reported on Saturday, 163 were found in Samut Sakhon followed by Bangkok with 9 cases and Samut Songkhram with 5. 18 cases, out of the newly reported bunch, were found in quarantine facilities, according to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.

The new cases bring the total number of infections to 13,302 since the pandemic began last year. 10,448 people have recovered and 2,782 patients are currently being treated for the virus. The total number of deaths has risen by 1 to 72 people. The new death was of a 81 year old male patient from Phichit who had diabetes. He contracted the virus from a family member who visited Samut Sakhon.

Since the 2nd wave of infections has begun, there have been 9,065 cases confirmed between December 15 and January 23, which have brought on travel restrictions in 28 provinces. Such provinces are considered “highly controlled” with those entering and leaving required to pass through checkpoints.

The 2nd wave of the outbreak brought the virus to 63 out of 77 provinces in Thailand with the hardest-hit province continuing to be Samut Sakhon, which reported 5,184 confirmed cases between December 18 and January 23.

This was followed by Bangkok (657), Chonburi (648), Rayong (573), Samut Prakan (322), Chanthaburi (220), Nonthaburi (159) and Ang Thong (110).

Yesterday, Bangkok, including 4 north-western districts listed as “highly controlled” allowed 13 types of businesses to reopen, in a signal that partial lockdown measures in the capital were being relaxed.

Panprapa Yongtrakul, CCSA’s deputy spokeswoman, said the potential of finding new cases via tests in medical facilities has been decreasing in the past few weeks but the number of new cases being found through proactive tests is still in the three-digit numbers.

SOURCE: Thai Enquirer