The first field hospital in Thailand’s northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima is scheduled to open on Thursday, to ease congestion at general hospitals.

Located in the Chartchai Hall building of the Chalerm Phrakiat Stadium, the field hospital is equipped with 100 beds and will accommodate COVID patients who have already spent seven days in a general hospital, with mild or no symptoms or who do not have congenital diseases and who do not require a respirator.

21 new COVID-19 cases, among them 14 employees of a barbecue pork shop, were recorded in the province today, raising the cumulative infections there to 144.

The barbecue shop infections have prompted health officials to conduct active screening on about 1,000 of the shop’s customers. All tested negative.

Meanwhile, one medic at Non Daeng Hospital was found to be infected and 12 other people have been identified as being at high risk after being in close contact.

About 50 people, working at the hospital, and about 100 patients have already been screened, none of them tested positive. Many of the hospital’s workers have been quarantined, resulting in the hospital having to close some departments and suspend out-patient services until April 25^th.