Cases drop, but it's technical: CCSA

Cases drop, but it's technical: CCSA

The number of new Covid-19 fatalities dropped below 100 for the first time on Sunday as the number of new cases fell fall for the fifth consecutive day to 11,535, under the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA)'s new accounting system.

The number of new deaths reported on Sunday fell from 126 to 91, going below 100 for the first time since April 9, it said.

The CCSA has begun only counting fatalities directly caused by the virus. Previously, it considered every patient "who died with the virus" as a Covid-19 fatality, including patients with pre-existing conditions.

As a result, sharp falls in the kingdom's fatality rate are expected.

Last week, the CCSA said it would start making the distinction between "those who died from the virus" and "those who died from the virus" starting yesterday.

Thanakorn: Still some way to go

At the time, the average number of fatalities stood at 120 per day, with almost half the deaths being primarily caused by the virus.

Even though the number of fatalities has dropped below 100, the figure is still concerning when compared to last week's figure.

According to the CCSA, the 91 people who died were aged 28 to 101, with an average age of 79. Nakhon Ratchasima had the most Covid-19 deaths, while Bangkok registered only one, it said.

The number of daily cases also fell to 11,535 from 12,888 on Saturday. However, the new case figures did not include 9,924 positive results from antigen tests.

Despite the downward trend, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the government will not rush to declare the disease endemic, said government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana. He said daily case numbers must drop below 10,000 while the daily death rate must be 0.1% of all patients being treated at hospitals.

In other news, the National Health Security Office (NHSO) said it has distributed 4.6 million antigen test kits to more than 1.6 million people during the past two months.

NHSO secretary-general Dr Jadej Thammatacharee said a total of 964,964 recipients, or about 60%, reported their test results and 53,455, or 3.3%, were positive. He said the other 653,784 recipients have yet to report their test results.

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