Songkhla’s provincial communicable disease committee has announced it is imposing a night-time curfew, effective on Wednesday night until July 29, after a surge of Covid-19 cases across the province.
Provincial governor Jaruwat Kliangklao, also chairman of the committee, said the curfew is to confine the movement of residents to their homes between 10pm and 4am.
The restaurants, markets and department stores are allowed to stay open until 9pm.
Mr Jaruwat said the spike in number of Covid-19 cases was attributed to face-to-face interactions and contact in at-risk groups, leading to the spread of the virus.
The committee also asked people for cooperation in complying with curfew measures to curb the transmission of Covid-19, he said.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 situation in Chana district still needs to monitored closely as the virus has spread to local communities, observers said.
Public health officials were working with health workers to expedite the investigation, together with implementing proactive mass testing, they said.
Chana Hospital director Dr Supat Hasuwannakit said more than 500 beds will be obtained this week after three field hospitals were set up.
Dr Supat said it will take about a month to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases.
Despite restrictions in the southern provinces, the virus has still managed to spread throughout communities.
The number of infections has risen since the recent cluster at a factory last week.
Of the 17 field hospitals, 1,176 beds have been occupied and there remains only 768 beds — enough for asymptomatic patients from green zones.
As of Wednesday, 157 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in the province, found in industrial factories and communities.
The proactive mass testing in factories found 33 cases — 23 in a Songkhla canning factory and 10 from five other factories.
Another 46 cases were found from contact with at-risk groups in industrial factories, 15 from Yala’s Islamic preaching centre and 63 others from contact with patients in Chana district.
The recent cases raised the accumulated number to 5,463, with a total of 15 deaths. Some 22 were reported to be critically ill, 361 were moderately ill and 236 were receiving antiviral drug favipiravir.
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