SAMUT SAKHON: The rate of coronavirus infections remains high in Samut Sakhon with 1,843 new cases reported on Tuesday, second only to Bangkok, and 17 more deaths.
Bangkok reported 4,397 new cases, Samut Prakan 1,200, and Chon Buri 1,182.
Of the new cases in Samut Sakhon, 1,634 were confirmed at hospitals and 209 detected via mass testing.
The cases found at hospitals were 1,333 people living in Samut Sakhon (1,149 Thais and 184 foreign nationals) and 301 people from other provinces (270 Thais and 31 foreign nationals).
The 209 cases found by mass testing were 189 Thais and 20 foreign nationals, the provincial public relations office said on its Facebook page on Tuesday.
The 1,843 new infections brought the provincial total to 74,588 of whom 49,605 had recovered and been discharged, including 590 discharged over the past 24 hours, the public relations office said.
A total of 24,662 were still under treatment at hospitals. The new deaths brought accumulated fatalities to 321.
Samut Sakhon governor Verasak Vichitsangsri said on Tuesday he was not deterred by hard work, but he had been in poor health since recovring from a severe case of Covid-19 and planned to take early retirement.
He tendered his resignation letter to the Interior Ministry on Aug 16, citing poor health, according to the Samut Sakhon public relations office Facebook page on Tuesday.
Earlier, the governor said on one of his Facebook accounts, Sakravee Srisangdharma, that he was thinking of bowing out early, despite having a year left at the Interior Ministry before compulsory retirement at age 60.
He also expressed frustration over the bureaucratic red tape hindering efforts to combat the spread of the disease and the provision of vaccines and testing kits.
Mr Veerasak caught national attention and earned much public sympathy last year when he became infected with the virus after Samut Sakhon was identified as the source of the second outbreak.
He then spent almost three months in Siriraj Hospital, where he was said to have been unconscious and on respiratory support for more than half of the time.
