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The government on Wednesday asked the public for understanding as asked for hospital beds to be reserved for severe coronavirus cases, potentially leaving less ill patients to wait for an available bed.
The third wave, which started at entertainment venues in Bangkok and surrounding provinces, has led to 17,780 cases and 16 deaths since April 1.
The country has been reporting more than 1,000 cases per day since April 14 and the outbreak is leading to a shortage of hospital beds, especially in six hard-hit provinces.
Many patients have taken to social media to complain about the shortage, the condition of field-hospitals beds and the lack of responsiveness from hotlines.
“The sorting between the severity of cases is very important,” said Dr Apisamai Srirangsan, deputy spokeswoman for the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
“We would like to preserve these beds for people who really need them, where hospitals should not be taking in patients that are still healthy and asymptomatic,” she added.
Currently, there are 17,162 people being treated at hospitals.
Anucha Burapachaisri, the government’s spokesman, said on Tuesday that there are about 28,000 beds around the country at the moment. This includes private and public hospitals, hotels that have been converted to quarantine facilities or “hospitels”, and field hospitals set up to cope with the bed shortage in hard-hit provinces.
Of 17,162 people who being treated at hospitals, 13,797 are being treated at private and public hospitals while 3,365 patients are being treated at field hospitals. The data on how many people are in the so-called hospitels was not given.
Of the total admitted people, 223 are in critical condition including 55 patients who require a ventilator to breathe, the CCSA said on Tuesday.
Apart from the field hospitals and asking for infected people to wait at home until a hospital bed is available, the government had also set up hotlines for people whose conditions are worsening and may need a bed more urgently, Apisamai said.
This include the numbers 1668 and 1330 for people who could not find a bed within one or two days, and 1669 for emergency cases such as people with high fever, troubled breathing or diarrhoea.
An official LINE account (@sabaideebot) has also been set up to help answer questions and provide guidance for people waiting for a bed.
Daily numbers
Thailand found 1,458 new coronavirus cases in 67 provinces in the past 24 hours.
Of those, 1,346 were found via tests at medical facilities, 108 via proactive tests at known clusters, and four in quarantine facilities.
Of the 1,441 local cases, the highest numbers by province were 365 in Bangkok, followed by 134 in Chiang Mai, 80 in Chonburi, 69 in Nonthaburi and 64 in Rayong.
Of the 67 provinces that reported cases in the past 24 hours, 38 provinces have reported fewer than 10 cases, 23 provinces have reported between 11 and 50 cases, four provinces have reported between 51 and 100 cases, and two have reported more than 100 cases.
There are now nine major clusters around the country including entertainment venues in Bangkok and Songkhla, an event in Phuket, a football match in Nakhon Si Thammarat, entertainment venues in Chonburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Sa Kaeo and Chiang Mai, and a prison in Narathiwat.