New Covid-19 cases rise by 136 to 1,524 today (Updated)
The total of Covid-19 patients in the country rose to 1,524 today with 136 new cases confirmed over the last 24 hours, said Dr Sukhum Karnchanapimai, permanent secretary of the Public Health Ministry, today (March 30).
He added that since March 12, more Covid-19 patients had been found outside Bangkok. As of March 29, confirmed Covid-19 infections found outside Bangkok accounted for 54 per cent.
Anupong Sujariyakul, senior expert in preventive medicine at the Department of Disease Control, said the cases can be divided into three groups.
The first group of 71 were connected to cluster cases - two people had attended a boxing event in a stadium, 10 had worked and been to entertainment venues, and 59 had had close contact with others previously confirmed as infected.
The second group comprised 52 people of whom 21 had just arrived in the country ( including 17 Thais and 4 foreigners from Russian, Albania, France, and India ), fifteen were working in crowded areas or in places frequented by foreigners, two were medical staff, three entered crowed areas, four travelled on public transportation and 14 were infected from other sources.
The last group of six are still under investigation. Meanwhile, 16 people have fully recovered and returned home.
Two more deaths were reported today -A 54-year-old man in Yala province and 56-year-old woman treated at a private hospital in Bangkok. Both died yesterday.
As of March 30, the total number of confirmed cases in the country stood at 1,524 - 1,388 are under treatment, of whom 23 are in a critical condition , 127 have recovered and been discharged, and there have been nine deaths.
The areas under close watch for spread of the virus are Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Chonburi, Phuket, Krabi, Deep South provinces (Narathiwat, Pattani, Songkhla and Yala), Sa Kaeo, and Ubon Ratchathani province.
The 136 new confirmed cases reported today break down into: Bangkok 80 cases, Chiang Mai 9, Samui Prakarn 7, Phuket 6, Chonburi and Nakhon Sawan 3 each, Nontaburi and Nakhon Ratchasima 2 each, and one patient in Songkhla, Surat Thani, Surin, Buriram, Krabi, Uttaradit, Mae Hong Son, Khon Kaen, Suphan, and Lamphun while 14 have yet to be verified.
Dr Sukhum asked people to maintain a distance of at lease more than two metres form each other, otherwise the risk of infection is 67.8 per cent higher.
Globally, there are more than 700,000 confirmed cases in 199 countries and about 30,000 deaths.
