The country registered 25 more Covid-19 fatalities and 16,330 new cases during the previous 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry announced on Saturday morning.
The latest 24-hour total is the highest since Aug 29 last year and compared with 15,242 new cases and 23 fatalities reported on Friday morning.
Of the 25 people reported to have died, there were 13 men and 12 women, all Thais, aged 40 to 100, with an average age of 71.
Bangkok had four new fatalities while there were four others in the adjacent provinces of Nakhon Pathom (2), Pathum Thani (1) and Samut Prakan (1). Other central plains provinces saw six more deaths: in Ratchaburi (3), Suphan Buri (2) and Prachin Buri (1).
The North saw six more fatalities in Chiang Rai (2) and one each in Chiang Mai, Phetchabun and Lamphun. The Northeast reported three more deaths – two in Roi Et and one in Maha Sarakham.
The South reported three more deaths – one each in Chumphon, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Narathiwat.
There were 16,049 new cases in the general population, 131 among prison inmates and 150 imported cases.
Of the local infections, 15,809 were confirmed at hospitals and 240 via mass testing.
The number of new cases increased in many provinces, except Samut Prakan. Bangkok continued to lead the new cases at 3,233, up 214 from 3,019 announced on Friday, followed by 949 in Samut Prakan (-30), 841 in Nonthaburi (+226), 813 in Chon Buri (+28), 478 in Phuket (+66), 383 in Nakhon Pathom (+65), 367 in Nakhon Si Thammarat (+70), 364 in Pathum Thani (+64), 350 in Samut Sakhon (+6) and 336 in Nakhon Ratchasima (+78).
The 150 imported cases included 43 from Russia, 14 from Kazakhstan, nine from Ukraine, seven each from Denmark, France and Germany and six each from Sweden and Romania.
On Friday, 118,493 people were receiving Covid-19 treatment at hospitals (up from 111,393 the previous day), including 610 seriously ill patients (up from 569) and 128 dependent on ventilators (up from 113).
The 24-hour period also saw 9,205 patients discharged from hospitals.
(Screenshot from https://epidemic-stats.com/coronavirus/thailand)
Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang said on Friday that 15 more community isolation (CI) centres with 1,591 beds would be opened in Bangkok.
Now, there were 21 CI centres with 3,411 beds, of which 856 were occupied, he said.
The capital also has seven field hospitals with 1,418 beds, 779 of them occupied.
The governor assured the public that there were enough beds for Covid patients at both CI centres and field hospitals.
Vaccinations continued to progress, with 119.46 million doses administered in all 77 provinces as of Friday. 75.8% of the population have now received one dose of the vaccine and 70.7% have received two shots, while 25.2% have got a booster shot.
On Friday alone, 451,666 vaccines were administered — 71,211 as a first shot, 72,778 as a second shot and 307,677 as a booster shot.
(Screenshot from https://epidemic-stats.com/coronavirus/thailand)
Since the pandemic started in early 2020, there have been 2,577,445 coronavirus infections, including 354,010 cases this year, with 2,436,540 complete recoveries to date.
Of the 22,412 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, 714 have occurred so far this year.
The highest number of fatalities in a 24-hour period was 312 recorded on Aug 13. The highest number of cases was 23,418 on Aug 18.
Global Covid-19 cases rose by 2.31 million in 24 hours to 408.89 million. The worldwide death toll went up 10,927 to 5.82 million.
The United States had the most cases at 79.22 million, up 149,318. Thailand ranked 30th globally with 2.57 million cases.