The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) is urging more people, particularly the estimated 40 million people of working age, to download and install the MorChana Covid-19 location tracking app help contain Covid-19.
Currently the app has been downloaded 6.79 million times and registered by more than 4.83 million users, while at least 10 times this number is required to ensure an effective ecosystem for containing the spread of Covid-19 in the country, said CCSA spokesman Taweesilp Visanuyothin on Wednesday.
The higher the number of MorChana app users, the more effective the Covid-19 alert system will be, Dr Taweesilp said.
The CCSA on Wednesday recorded 157 new confirmed Covid-19 cases, 132 of which were local transmissions, he said.
Of the 132 cases, 90 were ones found in the government's Covid-19 surveillance operation and the rest were found in active case finding, he said.
The Covid-19 situation along the border was "still worrisome" and all residents in border areas were being urged to cooperate with security authorities to watch out for illegal border crossings and report them to authorities, he said.
Even in Bangkok, he said, the discovery of a Covid-19 infection in a child as young as nine months pointed to the need to heighten the Covid-19 surveillance system in the capital.
The infection of the baby in Bangkok was announced on Wednesday.
Another case was found in Samut Sakhon earlier this week.
As of Wednesday, Thailand has recorded 10,991 cases, including 6,943 patients who have recovered, and 67 deaths, he said.
As the curve of new Covid-19 infections now appears to be levelling off, it provides a good opportunity for the country to heighten efforts to flatten the curve, he said.
The number of provinces with new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday rose to 60, with the northern province of Phitsanulok recording its first case in this new wave of the outbreak, Dr Taweesilp said.
Ten out of these 60 provinces have recorded more than 50 in the cumulative number of cases, he said.
Samut Sakhon, a local hotspot for the latest wave of infections, alone has recorded more than 3,000 new Covid-19 cases, he said.
The other 17 provinces that have not reported any cases so far are being encouraged to keep working hard to prevent the spread of the virus, he said.
Since the new wave of Covid-19 transmission erupted, 6,745 new cases have been recorded from Dec 15 last year until Wednesday, he said.
