Foreign
THAILAND hit a new daily record with the discovery of nearly 10,000 new coronavirus cases on Monday.
This is coming after massive infections were found in the prison system, official data showed.
The country reported 9,635 new cases, including 6,853 infected in the prison system, according to the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
The sharp increase in new infections was a result of massive active cases found in prisons across the country.
During the first two weeks of May, health authorities checked over 24,000 inmates in eight prison facilities, of which 10,748 were found to be infected.
Meanwhile, 2,200 were waiting for test results, Natapanu Nopakun, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at the CCSA daily news briefing.
Excluding the prison clusters, the tally of Monday’s new infections reached 2,782, with the capital Bangkok registering the largest count of 1,843 new cases.
The new infections brought the country’s total number of infections to 111,082 with more than 70 per cent of the infections having been confirmed since the beginning of April.
This was confirmed by the health authorities when the third wave began and quickly spread across the country.
The death toll climbed to 614, with 25 new fatalities reported on Monday, according to the CCSA.
A large number of new infections came when the country decided to relax some restrictions on dine-in services at restaurants from Monday.
Restaurants in the capital Bangkok and three other provinces can provide dine-in services with the limited serving capacity and operating hours.
Previously, they could only open for food delivery.
As of Monday, 43,268 patients were under treatment in hospitals, with 1,226 in critical conditions, Natapanu said.
Thailand was largely successful in bringing COVID-19 under control last year.
But the resurgence of infections from early this year hit the economy and threatened to undermine its plans to welcome back foreign travellers. (NAN)
– May 17, 2021 @ 13:13 GMT
Tags: 000 COVID-19 infections Thailand reports new daily record of nearly 10
