Thailand hit with 72 deaths, 9,276 infections as cases keep surging
Thailand recorded 72 fatalities and 9,276 confirmed cases on Friday, which pushed the country’s total caseload to 317,506 infections and 2,534 deaths.
Most of the new cases, or 8,998, were among the general population and 278 were in prisons. The last time infections crossed the 9,000 mark was on May 17, when 9,635 cases were found, but most of them were in prisons.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) made the daily announcement later than usual on Friday because it was at a meeting to discuss details related to the partial lockdown. Bangkok and other dark-red provinces – Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan Samut Sakhon, Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla – will go into partial lockdown from Monday for 14 days. Under the lockdown, people will have to stay indoors from 9pm to 4am and are urged to work from home.
Only food courts and pharmacies in malls will be allowed to operate, though markets, supermarkets, shops, banks and petrol stations can open as normal.
The CCSA is scheduled to provide further details at 4pm.
Separately, Bangkok again led the list of new cases with 3,116 patients followed by 544 in Samut Sakhon and 437 in Samut Prakan.
Meanwhile, 3,928 patients have recovered and been discharged in the last 24 hours.
Of the total 317,506 infections in Thailand, 240,077 have recovered fully and returned home, 74,895 are still in hospitals, and 2,534 have died.
Also, another 305,295 people were given their first Covid-19 shot in the last 24 hours, while 50,453 were given their second shot, bringing the total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in Thailand to 11,975,996.
According to Worldometer, as of 11am on Friday, the number of confirmed cases globally had risen to 186.33 million, 170.46 million of whom have recovered, 11.85 million are active cases (77,811 in severe condition) and 4.02 million have died (up by 8,230).
Thailand ranks 62th on the global list of most cases, which is topped by the US with 34.67 million, followed by India with 30.74 million, Brazil with 18.96 million, France with 5.79 million, and Russia 5.7 million.
