Health authorities on Sunday said 86 more Covid-19 fatalities and 9,539 new transmissions around Thailand occurred on Saturday, bringing the accumulated toll to 2,711 deaths and the number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 336,371.
They said 9,436 of the new infections were in the general population and 103 in prisons.
The total of new cases was only fractionally behind the all-time high of 9,635 cases recorded on May 17, 2021. The number of deaths was also the second-highest since the pandemic began.
According to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, the capital led all provinces in new infections with 2,741 cases, while new cases in Pathum Thani jumped from 672 reported on Saturday to 1,108 on Sunday.
CCSA spokesman Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin said the surge in Pathum Thani came from mass testing at Talad Thai in Khlong Luang district, accounting for 826 — about three-quarters of the new cases in the province.
The wholesale vegetable and fruit market has emerged as a major provincial cluster since first the first infections were detected on June 14.
The country imported 18 cases from four countries, led by Cambodia with 13 cases, two each from Myanmar and Bangladesh, and one from the United Kingdom. All were Thai returnees, according to the CCSA.
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