Infections on upward curve, warns DDC

The number of new Covid-19 infections is on a steep upward curve, doubling or tripling weekly, a Department of Disease Control (DDC) official said on Saturday.

While the infection rate in Bangkok is beginning to level off, cases in the provinces are rising sharply, said Taweesap Siraprapasiri, a senior official with the DDC.

The number of new cases in Bangkok remains high yet the rise has begun to slow down, apparently as a result of measures being implemented to control the spread of the outbreak, he said.

The country had a record high of 15,335 new Covid-19 cases and 129 new fatalities over the past 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry reported on Sunday morning.

Dr Taweesap said the average number of deaths per day has risen from less than 50 to more than 100 in line with the rise in number of new infections over the past month.

However, with a slowdown being observed in the increase of new infections in Bangkok, the total number of Covid-19 deaths per day is unlikely to continue growing, he said.

The number of new infections in other countries, including those with between 50% and 60% of their population vaccinated against Covid-19, continues to rise as well, he said.

In the US where about half the population is vaccinated, the number of new Covid-19 cases is rising particularly in states with a low vaccination rate, while in the UK the number of new cases has already risen to about 40,000 per day, he said.

The mortality rate in these countries, however, isn't high, which comes as an indication that Covid-19 deaths result from several factors, he said.

Currently Thailand is capable of administering 300,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine per day.

The total number of doses administered has reached 15.3 million so far, with more vaccines set to arrive this week, he said.