Thailand logged 2,940 new Covid-19 cases and 30 more fatalities during the previous 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry announced on Thursday morning.
There were 2,883 cases in the general population and 53 among prison inmates.
On Wednesday, 2,798 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovering from the coronavirus.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said in the afternoon briefing that new cases among people who flew into the country since it was reopened on Nov 1 had surged over the last few days.
Infections among arrives under the recently-suspended quarantine waiver programme Test & Go rose from 22 on Monday to 35 on Wednesday, while new cases under the quarantine scheme jumped from two on Tuesday to 15 on Wednesday.
Travellers from the United Kingdom registered the most infections with 78, followed by the United States (62), Russia (35), and Germany and France (25 each), CCSA data from Dec 1-22 showed.
The Covid task force said the 30 new fatalities were Thais aged between 38 and 97 years old. Ratchaburi logged the most new deaths at seven, while Bangkok registered just a single Covid-related fatality.
Other central plain provinces further from the capital recorded 14 deaths. Aside from the seven in Ratchaburi, there were three in Nakhon Sawan, and one each in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Samut Songkhram, Sa Kaeo and Saraburi.
The Northeast had four new fatalities, two in Sakhon Nakhon and one each in Khon Kaen and Saraburi.
The South reported 10 more deaths – in Songkhla (4), Satun (2) and one each in Krabi, Trang, Yala and Surat Thani.
The North saw one new fatality in Chiang Rai.
Screenshot from https://epidemic-stats.com/coronavirus/thailand
The new cases included 2,883 local infections and 57 imported cases. Of the local infections, 2,705 were confirmed at hospitals and 125 via mass testing.
Bangkok had 432 new cases, followed by 227 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, 182 in Chon Buri, 171 in Samut Prakann, 95 in Bung Kan, 86 in Songkhla, 79 in Si Sa Ket, 68 in Chiang Mai, 65 in Pattani and 64 in Surat Thani.
On Wednesday, 38,314 people received Covid-19 treatment at hospitals, including 854 seriously ill patients and 227 dependent on ventilators.Since the pandemic started early last year, there have been 2,202,001 Covid-19 cases, with 2,142,186 complete recoveries so far.
The vast majority of the Covid cases and deaths have occurred since April 1, around when the third wave of Covid-19 began.
The death toll stood at 21,407 during the third wave and 21,501 since the beginning of the pandemic.
The kingdom’s all-time 24-hour high of Covid-19 fatalities was 312 recorded on Aug 18. The highest number of cases was 23,418 on Aug 13.
Global Covid-19 cases rose by 885,052 in 24 hours to 277 million. The worldwide death toll went up by 7,220 to 5.3 million. The US had the most cases at 52 million, up 227,605, and the most deaths at 832,939, up 1,544.
