The government reported another 31 Covid-19 fatalities on Tuesday, for an accumulated toll of 452, and 1,919 new infections raise the total caseload since the start of the pandemic to 86,924.
The daily death toll matched the record high announced on May 3, when the government reported 2,041 new cases. It compares with 22 new deaths reported on Monday and 1,630 new cases.
Updating the figures on Tuesday, the Department of Disease Control said that since the third wave of Covid-19 started early last month there have been 58,061 cases.
Of these, 29,611 had recovered, including 1,829 discharged over the past 24 hours.
Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said later during his daily briefing that 17 of the 31 fatalities were in Bangkok, two each in Nonthaburi, Suphanburi, Chon Buri and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces and one each in Nakhon Pathom, Pathumthani, Samut Prakan, Lampang, Chiang Mai and Phichit.
He said 15 were men and 16 were women. They were 34-94 years old and included two foreigners, Ukrainian and French nationals.
Thirteen of them had hypertension and 10 diabetes. Other chronic diseases they suffered were high cholesterol, renal disease, heart disease, obesity, previous stroke, thyroid disorder, lung disease, liver disease and lupus.
Seventeen fatalities caught Covid-19 from infected relatives and four from colleagues. Two visited markets. Two more visited at-risk provinces. One was in close contact with a previously confirmed case. Another worked at an entertainment place.
Since April 1, Covid-19 had claimed 318 lives in Thailands, of which 86% had a chronic illness and 46% were in Bangkok, Dr Taweesilp said.
The 1,919 new cases over the previous 24 hours were in 60 provinces. They included 1,902 local infections, of which 1,318 were confirmed at hospitals and 584 through mass testing.
Of the new community infections, 855 were in Bangkok, 160 in Pathum Thani, 141 in Nonthaburi, 89 in Chanthaburi, 73 in Chon Buri, 70 in Samut Prakan, 44 in Ranong, 42 in Surat Thani, 38 in Nakhon Ratchasima and 35 in Samut Sakhon.
New daily cases from the third Covid-19 wave linked to entertainment places were declining and health authorities hoped there would be no more gambling gatherings which could make the Covid-19 situation more complicated, Dr Taweesilp said.
Seventeen new cases were quarantined arrivals from India (11 Thai returnees), Pakistan (1), the Philippines (1), Africa (1) and Cambodia (3 Thai returnees).
Of the 86,924 total cases, 57,037 (65.62%) had recovered and 29,435 were in hospitals, 1,207 seriously ill and 390 dependent on ventilators.
The number of severely ill cases was rising in Greater Bangkok but was stable in other provinces, Dr Taweesilp said.
Global Covid-19 cases rose by 611,096 in 24 hours to 159.59 million. The worldwide death toll went up by 10,586 to 3.32 million. India logged 329,517 new cases for a total of 22.99 million, and 3,879 new fatalities for a toll of 250,025.
