New local Covid cases at 107, total 934

New local Covid cases at 107, total 934

An official measures the body temperature of a monk at Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat in Muang district of Phitsanulok province on Tuesday. The Public Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 107 more local cases of Covid-19. (Photo: Chinnawat Singha)
An official measures the body temperature of a monk at Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat in Muang district of Phitsanulok province on Tuesday. The Public Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 107 more local cases of Covid-19. (Photo: Chinnawat Singha)

The Public Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 107 new local cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), raising the total to 934 with deaths unchanged at four, blaming the spread mainly on partygoers.

Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman of the ministry, said the new cases were divided into three groups.

The first group comprised 27 people who were in contact with previous patients or attended the venues of previous patients. They included four people from boxing stadiums and an inter-provincial bus driver.

Five others were from entertainment places  -  a visitor, a singer, a receptionist, a musician and an entertainment venue owner.

Fourteen others had been in contact with previous patients, including a vendor, a student, a taxi driver, a prison inmate and a policeman. Four others had attended religious ceremonies in Malaysia and they lived in the southern provinces of Songkhla and Yala.

The second group of 13 consisted of six returnees and foreigners - from Britain, France and Germany - five who were in crowded places or worked with foreigners, including a cashier, and two doctors who treated a patient who initially withheld the information that he had visited a boxing stadium.

The doctors were in contact with 15 medical staff in operating rooms, and 10 other doctors who all had to be quarantined.

The third group comprised 67 people whose cases were under investigation.

Of the 934 patients, 70 had recovered and were discharged including the latest group of 13,  while 860 remained at hospitals, four of them severely ill. The local death toll remained unchanged at four.

“Partygoers transmitted the disease to about 100 other people… at risk people must obey social distancing, both at their workplaces and at home… Do not conceal your history of risky behaviour because health personnel could be infected and the health system drastically affected,” Dr Taweesin said.

People who returned to their home provinces risked transmitting the disease to other people close to them. Local health officials and volunteers would contact them and advise them about self-isolation, he said.

Dr Asadang Ruayajin, spokesman of the Disease Control Department, said Covid-19 had spread to most  regions in the country and 25% of the transmissions were from people who went to boxing stadiums, and 10% each from people at entertainment places and other risk areas, and people with risky occupations.

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