There were 87 more Covid-19 fatalities and 9,317 new transmissions were in Thailand on Tuesday health authorities said on Wednesday morning.
This raised the toll to 2,934 deaths and the number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 363,029.
Official said 9,188 of the new infections were in the general population and 129 in prisons.
Apisamai Srirangson, a spokeswoman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said later in the afternoon briefing that the 87 new fatalities were aged 24-104 years and 70% of them were over 60 years old.
Forty-eight of them had hypertension and 33 diabetes. Forty-six either lived in or visited outbreak areas.
Bangkok recorded 55 new fatalities while there were six in Pathum Thani, five in Yala, four in Narathiwat, three in Pattani and one each in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Kamphaeng Phet, Chanthaburi, Chachoengsao, Chon Bri, Tak, Nakhon Phanom, Rayong, Songkhla, Sukhothai, Suphan Buri and Udon Thani.
The 9,317 new Covid-19 cases included 9,180 local infections in all 77 provinces and eight imported cases.
Of the local infections, 7,159 were confirmed at hospitals and 2,021 via mass testing. Bangkok logged 2,332 new cases with 130 clusters, followed by 1,006 in Samut Prakan, 577 in Samut Sakhon, 513 in Chon Buri, 398 in Pathum Thani, 347 in Nonthaburi, 339 in Chachoengsao, 202 in Nakhon Pathom, 195 in Pattani and 191 in Narathiwat.
“About 17% of people walking into hospitals in Bangkok test positive for Covid-19. The rate is quite high,” Dr Apisamai said.
Dr Apisamai said Greater Bangkok had 4,862 new cases and four far southern provinces recorded 651. Meanwhile, new cases were rising in the other 67 provinces, by 3,667 on Tuesday. Chachoengsao had a new cluster of 196 cases at a construction site in Phanom Sarakham district.
Pathum Thani had a new cluster of 66 cases at a food factory in Sam Khok district. Chon Buri had a new cluster of 35 cases at a metal coating plant in Ban Bung district. Ayutthaya had a new cluster of 54 cases at Talad Yai Wang Noi market in Wang Noi district. Samut Sakhon had a new cluster of 23 cases at a tyre factory in Krathum Baen district.
The eight imported cases were from the United Arab Emirates (3), Belgium, Bahrain, South Korea, South Africa and Cambodia.
On Tuesday, 99,511 people received treatment for Covid-19 at hospitals - 56,057 at conventional hospitals and 43,454 at field hospitals. Among the patients, 3,201 were critically ill and 828 of them, a quarter of seriously ill cases, were dependent on ventilators, Dr Apisamai said.
She advised infected people who planned to return to their home provinces for treatment to check with their local officials first, because many provinces already reported that they were overloaded with Covid-19 patients.
Global Covid-19 cases rose by 510,140 in 24 hours to 188.58 million. Globally, new cases exceeded 500,000 in 24 hours, showing a leap from about 300,000 new daily cases earlier, and experts put the blame on the Delta variant of Covid-19 first detected in India, Dr Apisamai said.
The global death toll went up by 8,117 to 4.06 million. The United States had the most cases at 34.81 million, up 28,923, and the most deaths at 623,435, up 307. Thailand ranked 59th by the number of its accumulated cases.