Covid-19 cases last week jumped by at least 900 on the previous week, with one fatality recorded each day, the Public Relations Department’s Covid-19 Information Centre revealed.
According to its report published on Monday, 2,762 people were hospitalised for Covid-19 treatment from June 2–8, an average of 395 people a day.
The number increased by 48.3%, from May 26–June 1, in which 1,863 hospitalised cases, or 266 cases a day, were recorded.
Both weeks were reported to have at least one person dying from the virus daily.
Since January, 23,245 patients have been hospitalised with Covid-19, with the number of deaths reported at 137 so far, according to the information centre's report.
Dr Thira Woratanarat from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine posted a warning on his Facebook account, about the virus' spread peaking during this season.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Medical Genomics, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University posted information on its Facebook page on Monday about the new generation of Covid-19 vaccine being developed using the KP.2 sub-variant as its base.
It said that researchers had used the KP.2 sub-variant as the vaccine’s base to support some patterns of the sub-variant mutation, namely the V1104L-type.
The centre also said that researchers selected this sub-variant for vaccine development as at least 22.5% of American Covid-19 patients were diagnosed with KP.2.
According to the research, the KP.2 vaccine used the V1104L-type sub-variant mutation to help with its efficacy maximisation, which led to a quicker response at the antibody level.
The KP.2-based vaccine is now awaiting approval from global organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), and is to be used as the main Covid-19 vaccine for the 2024–2025 season, said the centre.
On June 5, the Department of Disease Control (DDC) published the latest edition of the national Covid-19 diagnosis and treatment guidelines.
The guidelines for antivirus drug prescriptions and suggestions for Covid-19 patients were amended in this edition.
