The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is intensifying measures to cope with a surge in Covid-19 infections.
Pol Capt Pongsakorn Kwanmuang, spokesman for City Hall, said the BMA has assessed the Covid-19 situation and decided to step up measures to curb the virus transmission and respond to an increase in cases.
He said the BMA will issue restrictions to reduce people's mobility, increase beds to accommodate moderate and severe cases and speed up inoculation especially of the elderly, pregnant women and people with seven underlying diseases. He said the elderly can call a hotline 02-790-2855 to register for vaccination while pregnant women can drop by for vaccination at 12 venues.
According to Pol Capt Pongsakorn, there are 65 community isolation (CI) centres in 50 districts across the capital and the facilities can accommodate 8,625 patients. Seven of them have been upgraded into CI plus centres to treat up to 1,036 moderate cases. He said the Public Health Ministry will send vaccine supplies to 25 vaccination sites run by the BMA every Monday throughout August. City Hall will get 175,000 doses per week except in the fourth week it will get 225,000 doses.
There were record highs of 191 more Covid-19 fatalities and 21,379 new cases over the past 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry reported on Friday. There were 20,895 cases in the general population and 484 among prison inmates. Over the past 24 hours, 22,172 Covid-19 patients were diagnosed recovered and were discharged from hospitals.
Bangkok logged 4,700 new cases, followed by 1,355 in Samut Sakhon, 1,336 in Samut Prakan, 1,325 in Chon Buri, 716 in Nonthaburi, 552 in Pathum Thani, 527 in Chachoengsao, 476 in Nakhon Pathom, 427 in Saraburi and 358 in Ubon Ratchathani.
Greater Bangkok recorded 9,135 new cases and 123 more fatalities. The four southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Songkhla and Yala had 989 new cases and 14 new fatalities while 67 other provinces reported 10,761 new cases and 53 more deaths. The figures excluded data from prisons.
The Department of Disease Control reported that the 191 new fatalities were 21-104 years old and 123, or 64%, of them were 60 years old and over.
Of the deaths, 187 were Thais, three were from Myanmar and one was Japanese.
Two died at home in Chachoengsao and Ubon Ratchathani. Eighty-five of the new deaths either lived in or visited outbreak areas, 50 caught the virus from colleagues and minders and 40 got it from family members.
