Thailand recorded 171 new COVID-19 cases today (Tuesday), the majority of which were locally transmitted, with 13 imported cases, bringing the total to 12,594 cases, 8,357 of which are from the new outbreak.
Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin said there are 3,168 people receiving treatment, while 9,356 have already recovered. He said the rate of infection is stabilising, but not yet falling, and most new infections are being discovered though proactive screening.
Samut Sakhon is still the province with the highest number of cases recorded, mostly among immigrant workers. The total number of infections in the province, since the new outbreak began, is now over 4,600, followed by Chonburi’s 647, Bangkok’s 606 and Rayong’s 568 cases.
There are still 16 provinces with no infections being reported, and there are 31 provinces which have seen no new COVID-19 cases in the past 14 days.
Dr. Taweesin focused on the situation in Samut Sakhon today, saying that the more proactive they are, the more cases they find. Officials now aim to screen 600 factories per day, 50 people per factory, hopefully covering all factories by the end of this month. Thousands of factories in the province are small, with no more than a hundred workers.
The CCSA spokesperson asked the factory’s owners not worry and to cooperate because the labour ministry has already announced that any workers, entering Thailand legally or not, who have been in Thailand since before Dec 29th last year, are now allowed to work legally.
Dr. Taweesin said the situation in Bangkok is, however, worrisome. The area in which most cases are being found is in the west of the capital and related to night entertainment venues, and possibly connected to the outbreak in Samut Sakhon.
He also mentioned the southern provinces, bordering Malaysia, which are recording thousands of new cases daily. He said that the area has to depend on health volunteers and local public health officials being vigilant.
Regarding the tracing application, Mor Chana, he praised the businesses that received 4.9 star reviews from the application’s users, with convenience stores topping the scores, over other types of business. The application has now been downloaded almost 8 million times and has about 6.54 million registered users.
Dr. Taweesin also reiterated the PM’s message that the government will wait until they are sure the vaccine is safe before they start the inoculation program.
