The number of seriously ill coronavirus patients is falling overall and the coronavirus-related death rate is also declining, but at a slower pace, health officials said on Monday.
There were 26 more Covid-19 fatalities and 3,854 new cases recorded on Sunday, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) announced.
Sunday’s figures did not include 3,894 positive results from antigen tests over the past 24 hours. This would raise the total to 7,748.
This compared with the 24 coronavirus-related fatalities and 3,649 new cases reported the previous day.
As of midnight Sunday, a total of 42,534 people were receiving Covid-19 treatment (down from 44,737 the previous day), including 17,802 in hospitals (down from 17,849). Among the remainder 3,967 were in field hospitals/hospitel facilities (up from 3,787) and 20,518 in home/community isolation (down from 22,837).
Of those in hospital, 882 were seriously ill with lung inflammation (down from 901) and 425 dependent on ventilators (down from 438).
Bangkok had the most seriously ill patients at 89, followed by 48 in Udon Thani, 38 in Nakhon Ratchasima, 38 in Samut Prakan and 29 in Chanthaburi.
The 24-hour period also saw 6,031 patients discharged from hospitals after recovering.
“The number of seriously ill patients and those dependent on ventilators has been falling over the past week,” said Dr Chakkarat Pitayawonganon, epidemiology director of the Department of Disease Control.
According to the CCSA, the 26 people who died were aged from 22 to 93 years.
Bangkok logged five more deaths and there were two in the adjacent provinces of Samut Sakhon and Pathum Thani.
Other central plains provinces further from the capital had five deaths - in Saraburi, Ang Thong, Chon Buri, Trat and Nakhon Nayok.
The North reported four deaths - in Phayao, Phitsanulok, Phrae and Lamphun.
The Northeast saw nine fatalities - two each in Ubon Ratchathani and Loei and one each in Nakhon Ratchasima, Yasothon, Si Sa Ket, Sakon Nakhon and Surin.
The South had one more coronavirus-related death, in Phuket.
“The number of new fatalities is declining but at a slower pace. Most new fatalities were people aged 70 years or more and over half of them were unvaccinated,” Dr Chakkarat said.
Among 3,854 new cases over the past 24 hours, there were 3,852 in the general population and two among prison inmates, with no imported cases.
Of the new infections in the general population, 3,845 were confirmed at hospitals and seven via mass testing.
Bangkok continued to lead the most daily cases at 1,655 followed by 101 in Khon Kaen, 94 in Buri Ram, 84 in Kalasin, 82 in Samut Sakhon, 79 in Chon Buri, 76 in Samut Prakan, 70 in Surin, 68 in Nakhon Pathom and 67 in Suphan Buri.
“The number of new cases is decreasing at a slower pace, amounting to about 4,000 a day now,” Dr Chakkarat said.
Since the pandemic started in early 2020, there have been 4,446,502 Covid-19 cases, including 2,223,067 his year, with 4,373,970 complete recoveries to date.
The accumulated death toll stood at 29,998 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 8,300 so far this year.
Global Covid-19 cases rose by 327,598 in 24 hours to 531.67 million. The worldwide death toll went up by 552 to 6.31 million.
The United States had the most cases at 85.72 million, up 4,772, and the most deaths at 1.03 million, up 14.
“New cases are rising in many European countries including France and Germany… New cases are also going up in North Korea,” Dr Chakkarat said.