BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand reported on Tuesday 35 new coronavirus deaths, a record daily number that included the country’s youngest victim up to now, a two-month-old baby, as authorities struggle to contain a third wave of infections.
The Southeast Asian country’s latest COVID-19 outbreak has seen infections more than triple and deaths increase six fold since it started in April, following a year of success in containing earlier outbreaks.
The new deaths included a two-month-old baby with a heart condition, the COVID-19 task force said.
Bangkok, the epicentre of the current outbreak, recorded 876 new infections on Monday, still the highest among the country’s provinces.
“New infections found in Bangkok remain high. Overall new cases are still on a rising trend,” Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the COVID-19 task force, told a briefing.
Bangkok has now recorded 28,658 new infections since the outbreak emerged in April.
The latest cases included 29 clusters in markets and most recently construction sites, he said, adding more than 1,100 new cases were found at a construction site in the Laksi district.
Prime Minster Prayuth Chan-ocha said the government planned to vaccinate at least 5 million people in Bangkok, or 70% of its population, in the June-July period.
Thailand has also seen a series of prison clusters and the corrections department said 11,670 inmates from 13 jails had now been infected.
Authorities have yet to start a mass immunisation drive, with 1.52 million recipients of a first-dose of a COVID-19 vaccine so far, mostly frontline workers or members high-risk groups.
A mass vaccination drive is expected next month, as Thailand aims to inoculate 70% of adults among its more than 66 million population.
Thailand announced on Tuesday 2,473 new infections, taking the overall number of cases to 113,555 since the pandemic started last year.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Orathai Sriring; Editing by Ed Davies)
