There were 17 more Covid-19 fatalities and 1,106 new patients admitted to hospitals on Friday, the Ministry of Public Health reported on Saturday.
This compared with 20 coronavirus-related fatalities and 1,191 patients on Thursday, as reported on Friday.
As of midnight Friday, a total of 13,793 people were receiving Covid-19 treatment (down from 13,905 the previous day), including 7,474 in hospitals (down from 7,502). Of the remainder, 134 were in field hospitals/hospitel facilities (up from 129) and 6,175 in home/community isolation (down from 6,264), while 10 others were not specified.
Of those in hospitals, 695 were seriously ill with lung inflammation (down from 697) and 348 dependent on ventilators (down from 351).
The 1,106 new patients were all local cases.
According to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), the 17 new deaths were aged from 47 to 98 years old, with the average age of 83. There were nine men and eight women, all Thais.
Bangkok saw one new death, and there were two more deaths in the adjacent province of Samut Prakan.
Other provinces in the Central Plains had 10 deaths – five in Prachuap Khiri Khan, two in Ratchaburi and one each in Kanchanaburi, Samut Songkhram and Sa Kaeo.
The Northeast reported two deaths – in Nakhon Ratchasima and Kalasin.
The North had two new fatalities – in Phetchabun and Phichit.
The South reported no new deaths.
The 24-hour period also saw 1,201 patients discharged from hospitals after recovering.
Vaccinations continued to progress, with 142.97 million doses administered as of Friday. The CCSA reported that 82.4% of the population have now received at least one dose of the vaccine, 77.3% at least two shots and 45.9% at least one booster shot.
On Friday alone, 18,704 vaccine doses were administered – 2,150 as a first shot, 4,340 as a second shot and 12,214 as a booster shot.
The Central Vaccination Centre (CVC) at Bang Sue Grand Station in Bangkok will close at the end of this month.
The closure date coincides with the Public Health Ministry’s announcement that Covid-19 will be downgraded from a dangerous communicable disease to a communicable disease under surveillance from Oct 1, Dr Mingkwan Wichaidit, CVC director, said on Friday.
From Aug 28 to Sept 3, 131,139 people tested positive for Covid-19 via antigen tests. That pointed to 18,734 new Covid cases daily on average over the seven-day period.
Since the pandemic started in early 2020, there have been 4,666,453 Covid-19 cases, including 2,443,018 this year, with 4,620,140 complete recoveries to date.
The accumulated death toll stood at 32,520 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 10,822 so far this year.
Global Covid-19 cases rose by 489,469 in 24 hours to 613.03 million. The worldwide death toll went up by 1,667 to 6.51 million.
The United States had the most cases at 97.02 million, up 50,622.
