Thailand’s government said on Wednesday that it had found 59 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.
Of those, 51 were local infections and eight were found in quarantine facilities, according to the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
This brings the total number of infections since the pandemic began last year to 12,653 cases while 9,621 people have recovered from the disease and 2,961 patients are being treated.
One new fatality brought the death toll to 71 people.
The deceased patient was a 48-year-old woman driver transporting migrant workers at a border checkpoint in Tak. She tested positive for the virus on December 27 before succumbing to the disease.
The second wave of the outbreak, which began in mid-December, has led to 8,416 confirmed cases and 11 deaths between December 15 and January 20.
While avoiding the term “lockdown”, the government has imposed travel restrictions in 28 highly controlled provinces including checkpoints and penalties.
Dr Apisamai Srirangsan, CCSA’s spokeswoman, said the number of new locally transmitted cases is on a downward trend.
However, people should remain vigilant, she said, as the majority of the new cases found in the general public in previous weeks were asymptomatic and they are related to people going to high-risk areas.
“We really need cooperation from the people,” she said.
“If you know or have been alerted that you have been to a place with high risk of infection or a venue that was visited by an infected patient, please report to the nearest hospital and get yourself tested immediately.”
She said doing so would avoid the emergence of other clusters. She also asked the public to report on venues that break Covid-prevention guidelines and for people to continue to avoid large gatherings.
Clusters and provinces
With the addition of Nakhon Phanom, the second wave of the outbreak has reached 62 out of 77 provinces in Thailand so far.
Of the 62 provinces, 14 provinces have reported new confirmed cases in the past seven days.
The hardest-hit province continues to be Samut Sakhon, which reported 4,683 confirmed cases between December 18 and January 20. This was followed by Chonburi (647), Bangkok (619), Rayong (571), Samut Prakan (319), Chanthaburi (216), Nonthaburi (156) and Ang Thong (105).
Of the 59 local infections reported on Wednesday, 27 were found in Samut Sakhon, while 13 were found in Bangkok, three in Samut Prakan and three in Rayong.