About 14,000 people with severe Covid-19 have now recovered and been allowed to return home over the weekend, said the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) yesterday.
Of them, around 5,000 were in Bangkok, said Apisamai Srirangson, the CCSA assistant spokeswoman, citing the latest daily discharge totals for Aug 8-9.
The numbers reflect a sharp increase in people who have recovered from the virus in recent days. Aug 3 marked the first day since the beginning of July that the daily number of people infected and diagnosed with mild or severe symptoms, making a full recovery, at 18,950, all but equalled the 18,901 new infections recorded.
Friday also represented a further milestone with 22,172 recoveries outstripping the reported 21,379 new infections. Yesterday, 19,603 new infections were reported as opposed to the 19,819 people who made a full recovery.
Dr Apisamai said the high number of recoveries was freeing up beds for the critically ill.
However, those suffering the most severe symptoms require complicated treatment by specialist doctors in well-equipped wards or intensive care units, she added.
In past weeks, the Bussarakam field hospital in Nonthaburi opened a new ward to treat seriously-ill Covid-19 patients having previously only catered for more mild cases since it opened.
After opening its doors on May 14, the field hospital has treated 14,000 people, 11,000 of whom have recuperated and been discharged, according to the CCSA.
Dr Apisamai said almost 100,000 people infected with Covid-19 who showed slight or no symptoms have been placed in home isolation in Bangkok.
Community isolation centres in Bangkok, where people with the virus await referrals to field hospitals or regular hospitals depending on their symptoms, now offer 8,886 beds.
Yesterday, Bangkok and five neighbouring provinces -- Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi and Nakhon Pathom -- collectively registered 80 fatalities, while four southern provinces saw 10 deaths, The remaining 55 deaths occurred in other parts of the country, including four in prisons.
The CCSA said 65% of the deaths reported on Monday were people aged 60 or over.
"That is the reason why the Public Health Ministry is trying to inoculate senior citizens, bed-ridden patients, people with chronic diseases and pregnant women as quickly as it can," said Dr Apisamai.