The Muang district of Thailand’s southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat has fallen quiet, with about half of the shops shuttered, light traffic and fewer people in public venues, after the province was designated as a “maximum control and restrictive” or “dark red” zone by the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration, due to a recent surge in new COVID-19 infections.
More checkpoints have been set up on main roads in the township, such as on Karome and Ratchadamnoen roads, with police and health officials carrying out random COVID-19 tests among passengers on public transport.
517 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths were recorded on Friday, raising accumulated infections in the province, since April 1st this year, to 22,984.
Governor Kraisorn Visitwong said, today (Saturday) that, after the “dark red” designation, the provincial communicable disease committee has decided to postpone indefinitely the resumption of on-site classes, scheduled for November 1st.
He said that a working committee will assess the readiness of each school, teachers and students to resume on-site learning and then submit its findings to the provincial communicable disease committee for consideration.
Meanwhile, it is reported that about 30 medics at the Maharaj Hospital have tested positive for the virus and about 100 more people are considered to be at high risk for having close contact with the infected.
According to the CCSA, 10,648 new infections and 82 more deaths were recorded nationally in the past 24 hours. There were 10,794 recoveries and 107,378 are still undergoingtreatment, with 41,251 in general hospitals and the rest in field hospitals and other isolation facilities. 668 are on ventilators.
Of the deaths today, the youngest was a 10 year old and the oldest 94. 45 were men and 37 women.
