The health office in the southern province of Songkhla has reported its first fatality from Omicron variant today (Sunday). The patient died at the Hat Yai Hospital on Wednesday.

The patient was a bed-ridden 86 year old woman who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. She had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine at Na Mom Hospital and was thought to have contracted COVID-19 from her grandson, who had returned from Phuket.

According to the timeline, the woman had a fever and productive cough on January 6^th. She tested positive, using an antigen test kit, and was sent to Hat Yai Hospital the following day, where a second test confirmed the infection.

She was admitted to the intensive care unit after she experienced breathing difficulties and developed a fever of 38.5^oC. An X-ray showed infection in both lungs and she was given Dexamethasone and Remdesivir.

On Wednesday, at about 9.20am, she was pronounced dead. Specimens were sent to a lab in Songkhla, which confirmed infection by the Omicron variant.

The woman’s death was reported by the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on January 12^th, but it was not known at the time that she had been infected with the Omicron strain.

Today, the COVID-19 Information Centre reported that 8,077 new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in the past 24 hours, bringing total infections, since the start of this year, to 101,050. 

80,549 people are still undergoing treatment and 53,517 have recovered. The death toll so far this year is 9.