Samut Prakan is adopting a new approach of "dividing and vaccinating" to prevent Covid-19 infections from escalating into big clusters, according to the Public Health Ministry.
The approach, called the khanom krok strategy, is modelled on a Thai custard-making terracotta utensil containing many small half-circle holes in it.
Public health permanent secretary, Kiattiphum Wongrajit, said the idea was to first identify infection pockets in communities in Samut Prakan which had 501 new cases yesterday, the second-highest transmission total after Bangkok which reported 956 infections.
Dr Kiattiphum said the khanom krok method was devised following close consultation with the Department of Disease Control, the provincial office and medical institutes. After identifying infected communities, the sick are brought in for treatment while those still healthy are immediately vaccinated.
Enough local residents must be inoculated to effectively control the spread of the virus.
The ministry hopes to emulate the success of containing outbreaks previously reported in Bang Khae and Klong Toey districts of Bangkok.
Samut Prakan, which borders Bangkok, has witnessed many multi-clusters where daily cases jumped three to fivefold in recent months.
All nine districts have reported infections stemming from 41 clusters in factories, markets, residential communities, condominiums and workers' dormitories.
The khanom krok strategy involves conducting sentinel surveillance in which a certain percentage of people across communities are tested for Covid-19, including those who appear not to be ill.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is then administered to a sufficient number of local people to control virus transmission.
Residents are categorised into the elderly, at-risk and healthy groups, which scopes down infections and determines where and how much vaccine will be used.
Also, the method works in tandem with the bubble and seal practice usually targeting factories where workers live in dormitories typically located within construction sites.