The Department of Medical Services insists there will be enough Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds as it readies 300 more to accommodate Covid-19 cases in Greater Bangkok.
Dr Narong Aphikulvanich, the department's deputy chief, said in a press briefing on Tuesday that the department is working with its alliance -- comprised of hospital universities and privately owned hospitals, to increase treatment capacity for those who need to stay in ICUs.
The department aims to increase the number of beds from 120 to 187 by the end of this month, and further ramp up that number to 292 by the end of May.
Currently, 47 patients are being treated in ICUs. On average, those patients need 10-14 days before they can leave intensive care.
"At the current level, we are sure that we have enough room to treat those severe cases if we can successfully maintain a low number of new daily cases. Strong efforts to curb the outbreak helps us a lot to provide beds and medical staff to take care of the patients we have," he said.
Thailand had 2,613 Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday. Among them, 1,800 cases are in Bangkok and the surrounding area. There are currently 1,218 beds available for Covid-19 cases in 105 hospitals in Bangkok.
For other provinces, there are 4,955 ICU beds, plus 3,031 beds in cohort wards developed for Covid-19 patients.
There are 10,184 ventilators available nationwide.
In terms of testing capacity, the Department of Medical Sciences says there are 93 laboratories nationwide that can test for the coronavirus.
Among them, 46 belong to the department, 28 are from private laboratories and 19 belong to universities.
Combined, Thailand has testing capacity of up to 20,000 samples per day.
