Thai public health officials have been trying to track down 10 people from five different provinces who may have been exposed to COVID-19 during their visits to Muang Mai market in Chiang Mai, where 265 people, mostly traders and workers, have been found to be infected.
The Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) Assistant Spokesperson Dr. Apisamai Srirangsan said, today (Monday) that the Muang Mai and Sor Tor Gao market clusters, in which 91 people are infected so far, continue to spread, resulting in six additional clusters affecting another 106 people to date.
As the disease spreads among the families of the infected from the two wet markets, health officials have been trying to find the whereabouts of ten traders from Bangkok, Lampang, Pathum Thani, Kanchanaburi and Rayong to alert them of their risk and the possibility that they may unknowingly spread the disease to their families and other people.
In addition to the market clusters, she disclosed that clusters of infections have also been reported at some eateries, schools, factories and funerals.
Infections in the four southern border provinces of Songkhla, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat continue to rise, with 2,185 cases recorded in the past 24 hours, accounting for 22% of today’s 10,035 new infections countrywide, surpassing Bangkok’s 2,122 cases, or 19% of nationwide cases.
She attributed the high rates of infection, fatalities and severe cases in the southern provinces to the low rate of vaccinations there.
Only 41.9% of the population in those provinces have received their first vaccine jab. 49.3% in Yala, 45.6% in Songkhla and less than 40% in Pattani and Narathiwat.
Dr. Apisamai said that, this month, 50% of the people there must be vaccinated, adding that 668,481 additional doses of vaccines were sent to the four provinces yesterday.
The CCSA reported 10,590 recoveries, 60 more deaths and 2,969 severe cases, including 680 who need ventilators.
