BANGKOK (THAILAND) – Thailand confirmed 1,543 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, considered to be the sharpest increase since the start of the pandemic and the fourth record rise this week, amid a third wave of infections in the country.
The new outbreak comes due to the travel by people during the country’s Songkran new year holidays and with vaccination rates continuing to be low.
Health official Chawetsan Namwat said measures were being planned or thought of based on case numbers in each area and would be proposed to the coronavirus taskforce, seeking approval on Friday.
“We have to divide up the areas based on seriousness, which is different and so measures have to be suitable for each area,” Chawetsan told a briefing.
Authorities have already urged people to restrict travel and begin working from home.
Shopping malls will also remain closed early at 9 pm and the banking association said branches outside malls will close at 3.30 pm, and there would be limit on customer numbers.
Thailand’s last major lockdown was in late March last year, with a curfew imposed in April.
Of the new infections reported on Thursday, 409 were in capital Bangkok, the epicentre of the outbreak.
The new cases took the total number of infections to 37,453, with deaths remaining at 97.
All positive cases have to be admitted into care under Thai rules, and 8,973 patients are currently being treated.
Chawetsan dismissed claims that the rate of vaccination was slow He, however, added that the country had gotten only a limited supply. Government data showed about 2,000 additional doses administered by Thursday from a day earlier out a total of 581,308.
Thailand has vaccinated less than 0.4% of its population, behind neighbours like Malaysia with 1.5% and 14.6% in Singapore, as per a recent estimate by a prominent media organisation.
The country has received two million doses of China’s Sinovac shots and 117,300 AstraZeneca shots.