Thailand’s government said on Saturday that it had found 198 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.
Of those, 180 were local infections and 18 were found in quarantine facilities, according to the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
Of the 180 local infections, 69 were found via tests at medical facilities and 111 via proactive tests, mostly in Samut Sakhon, where the ongoing second wave began.
This brings the total number of infections since the pandemic began last year to 13,302 cases while 10,448 people have recovered from the disease and 2,782 patients are being treated.
One new fatality, bringing the death toll to 72 people.
The deceased person was an 81-year-old male patient from Phichit who had diabetes and contracted the virus from a family member who visited Samut Sakhon.
The second wave of the outbreak has led to 9,065 confirmed cases between December 15 and January 23.
While avoiding the term “lockdown”, the government has imposed travel restrictions in 28 highly controlled provinces including checkpoints and penalties.
Bangkok, one of the highly controlled provinces, had relaxed some if its partial lockdown measures to allow 13 temporarily closed venues to reopen on Friday.
Clusters and provinces
The second wave of the outbreak has reached 63 out of the 77 provinces in Thailand so far.
The hardest-hit province continues to be Samut Sakhon, which reported 5,184 confirmed cases between December 18 and January 23.
This was followed by Bangkok (657), Chonburi (648), Rayong (573), Samut Prakan (322), Chanthaburi (220), Nonthaburi (159) and Ang Thong (110).
Of the 180 local infections reported on Saturday, 163 were found in Samut Sakhon followed by Bangkok (9) and Samut Songkhram (5).
Dr Panprapa Yongtrakul, CCSA’s deputy spokeswoman, said the potential of finding new cases via tests in medical facilities has been on a downward trend in the past few weeks but the number of new cases being found via proactive tests is still in the three-digit numbers.
She asked for the public to continue to adhere to the coronavirus prevention measures.
