Another Covid-19 patient dies as 198 new cases reported
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on Sunday reported 198 new cases with one death in the past 24 hours.
Seven of the cases were international travellers in quarantine.
Of the new cases, 118 were exposed to the virus while visiting high-risk areas. The province with the highest number of infections was Samut Sakhon (76), followed by Bangkok (21), and Samut Prakarn (12).
Proactive testing led to the discovery of 73 cases, 70 of them foreigners and two Thais un Samut Sakhon, and one case in Rayong of a Thai woman.
Of the overseas travellers, four are Thai nationals returning from Belgium, Malaysia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Also testing positive were two French nationals who flew in from their country and a Myanmar man at the screening checkpoint.
A woman in Samut Sakhon, 73, who had an underlying disease (high blood pressure, Alzheimers, and epilepsy) later developed pneumonia and passed away on January 23. She got the infection from her family member on January 4 and was confirmed positive on January 9.
Apisamai Srirangsan, assistant spokeswoman, said infection numbers nationwide had deceased from the first week of outbreak. Thailand found infections in 39 provinces during January 3-9, in 24 provinces during January 17-23 and only in seven provinces on Sunday. At the same time, the detection rate in the outbreak area -- Samut Sakhon -- is at 7 per cent on average.
Meanwhile, 119 patients have recovered and been discharged.
As of Sunday, the number of confirmed cases in Thailand rose to 13,500. Of these, 11,136 contracted the virus domestically, including 4,568 who were found via proactive testing, and 2,364 are returnees. So far, 10,567 have recovered and been discharged, 2,860 patients are still in hospital and the death toll has risen to 73.
According to Worldometer, as of midnight on Saturday, the number of confirmed cases globally had risen to 99.33 million (increasing by 670,974), 71.37 million have recovered, 25.82 million are active cases (110,663 in severe condition) and 2.13 million have died (up by 16,743).
Thailand ranks 126th on the global list of most cases. The US tops the list with 25.56 million, followed by India 10.65 million, Brazil 8.81 million, Russia 3.7 million and the United Kingdom 3.62 million.
