A record 51 Covid-19 fatalities and 3,174 new cases were reported over the past 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry said on Wednesday morning.
The previous daily high of Covid-19 fatalities was 47 on May 27, when the country logged 3,323 new infections.
There were 3,138 cases in the general population and 36 among prison inmates.
On Tuesday 1,941 Covid-19 patients were diagnosed recovered and were discharged from hospitals.
Since April 1, around when the third wave of Covid-19 began, there have been 199,676 Covid-19 patients, 162,351 of whom have recovered.
Since the pandemic started early last year, there have been 228,539 Covid-19 cases, 189,777 of whom recovered.
The death toll was at 1,650 in the third wave and 1,744 from the beginning of the pandemic early last year.
Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said in the afternoon briefing that the 51 new fatalities were 29-91 years old and 26 of them were male.
One fatality was from Myanmar and the rest Thais. Thirty-four of them had hypertension and five had no chronic illness. Nineteen contracted the disease from other family members and 10 others either visited or lived in outbreak areas.
There were 34 new fatalities in Bangkok, three each in Pathum Thani and Samut Prakan provinces, two each in Chon Buri and Nakhon Pathom and one each in Nonthaburi, Ratchaburi, Yala, Prachin Buri, Songkhla, Sa Kaeo and Saraburi.
The 3,174 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours included 3,112 local infections in 65 provinces and 26 imported cases.
Of the local infections, 2,392 were confirmed at hospitals and 720 via mass testing.
“The number of new cases found at hospitals and via mass testing is rising. This raises concerns, and all parties – the government, the private sector and people – must help with serious disease control,” Dr Taweesilp said.
“There were reports from hospitals that their beds were totally occupied and new cases must wait. This must be solved.”
Bangkok had the most new cases at 956, followed by 501 in Samut Prakan, 240 in Samut Sakhon, 185 in Songkhla, 142 in Chon Buri, 120 in Pattani, 93 in Pathum Thani, 91 in Ratchaburi, 89 in Narathiwat and 79 in Nakhon Pathom.
The capital had 96 Covid-19 clusters, including two new ones – a cluster of 34 cases at a sewing factory on Soi Pradu 1 in Bang Kholaem district and a cluster of 46 cases at a jewellery factory in Klong San district.
Samut Prakan had two new clusters – 17 new cases at an ice factory in Bang Sao Thong district and 167 at a construction company in Muang district.
Samut Sakhon had two new clusters – five cases at a tyre factory in Krathum Baen district and six cases at a processed seafood plant in Muang district.
Pathum Thani had a new cluster of 22 cases at an auto parts factory in Nong Khae district while Ratchaburi had a new cluster of 73 cases in a military camp in Muang district.
The 26 imported cases were from Cambodia (18 Thai returnees including 13 illegal ones), India (1), Mozambique (2), Indonesia (1), Dominican Republic (1), Saudi Arabia (2) and Myanmar (1).
On Tuesday, 37,018 people were receiving treatment for Covid-19 at hospitals including 1,526 critically ill with lung inflammation. Of the seriously ill people, 433 were dependent on ventilators (210 in Bangkok alone).
Authorities were concerned about the rising number of patients dependent on ventilators nationwide, Dr Taweesilp said.
Global Covid-19 cases rose by 369,588 in 24 hours to 179.92 million. The worldwide death toll went up 8,240 to 3.89 million. The United States had the most cases at 34.43 million, up 11,005.
bkk
