24-hour Covid caseload falls to 2,230 but deaths double

Thailand recorded 38 Covid-19 fatalities and 2,230 new cases over the previous 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry reported on Tuesday morning.

The number was sharply lower than the 5,485 new cases logged on Monday, but the drop was largely accounted for by a big reduction in the number of newly infected prisoners -- just 77 on Tuesday, versus 1,973 on Monday.

There were 2,153 new infections among the general public -- still significantly fewer than Monday's 3,532.

Over the previous 24 hours, 3,390 Covid-19 patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals.

Since April 1, around when the third wave of the pandemic began in Thailand, there have been 133,159 Covid-19 cases, of whom 84,309 have so far recovered.

Since the pandemic started early last year, Thailand has logged 162,022 coronavirus cases.

The death toll in the third Covid-19 wave has risen to 975 and the total toll since last year has increased to 1,069.

Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said during the afternoon briefing that 22 of the 38 new fatalities were in Bangkok, three in Nakhon Pathom, two each in Samut Prakan, Suphan Buri and Kalasin and one each in Chiang Rai, Chanthaburi, Chon Buri, Pathum Thani, Songkhla, Udon Thani and Ayutthaya.

Seventeen of the new fatalities caught the disease from relatives and 19 of them had hypertension.

The 2,230 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours included 2,132 local infections in 50 provinces and 21 imported cases. Of the local infections, 1,326 were confirmed at hospitals and 806 via mass testing.

Bangkok logged 864 new cases, followed by 253 in Samut Prakan (including a new cluster of 55 cases at a frozen food factory in Bang Bo district), 166 in Phetchaburi, 164 in Trang, 112 in Nonthaburi, 83 in Saraburi, 82 in Samut Sakhon, 61 in Pathum Thani, 47 in Chon Buri and 40 in Nakhon Pathom.

The 21 imported cases were from India (1), China (1), Taiwan (1), Canada (1), Japan (1), Germany (2), Turkey (2), Russia (1), Saudi Arabia (4), Pakistan (2), Indonesia (2) and Cambodia (3).

On Monday, 49,218 Covid-19 patients were in hospitals, including 1,236 critically ill cases and 378 dependent on ventilators.

Global Covid-19 cases rose by 359,544 in 24 hours to 171.46 million. The worldwide death toll went up by 7,886 to 3.56 million. The United States had the most cases at 34.11 million, up 5,235, and the most deaths at 609,767, up 115.

India was second with 126,698 new cases for a total of 28.17 million and 2,782 new deaths for a toll of 331,909.