Thread: Samut Sakhon reports 541 new COVID-19 cases Sunday afternoon

Samut Sakhon, Thailand’s coastal hot spot in the new wave of COVID-19 infections, has reported 541 cases in a single day, according to the provincial health office this afternoon (Sunday).


According to the Samut Sakhon Facebook page, 455 migrant workers and 86 Thais are newly infected, raising accumulated cases in the province to 2,401 since the middle of December. 131 have, however, recovered.


Meanwhile, a shrimp venders’ group today announced the indefinite postponement of the resumption of trade at the Thalay Thai fresh market, due to the resurgence of COVID-19 infections.


The provincial administration is seeking cooperation from businesses in the province to make room available on their grounds to accommodate their workers who may contract the virus.


The spokesman of the Royal Thai Army, Lt-Gen Santipong Thampiya, said today that one retired army officer, who visited the Office of the Secretariat of the Army on December 29th, has tested positive for COVID-19 in the first screening and is now being isolated at home pending a second test.


He said that the retiree travelled to Rayong province on December 20th with some friends and they ate lunch at a restaurant in Map Ta Phut district. She developed a cough on December 27th and went for a test a private hospital the following day.


He also said that the army has ordered the tracing of the retiree’s close contacts for health screening and observation adding,however, that there is not yet a need to close the secretariat office, which has already been disinfected.


Samut Sakhon reports 541 new COVID-19 cases Sunday afternoon | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

So, they re-opened the epicentre of the largest outbreak of COVID in the country caused by the illegal trafficking of immigrants to work at the country's largest wholesale seafood market by vested interests seeking to minimise their labour costs in little more than two weeks after the outbreak.

Commercial interests clearly are taking priority now over public health.

Here in Chonburi we have an increasing rate of infection, higher than other chanwats, yet they still permit the operation of restaurants and hotels where people are free to gather - the notion that numbers will be controlled is fanciful since it is a measure that is pretty much unenforceable.

This is not going to end well.

Nothing short of a full nationwide lockdown will avert a disaster. The Thai simply do not have the capacity to care for the numbers that will need ICU/breathing assistance and ventilators if the R rate climbs over 1.

The importance you place on ventilators seems to be at least six months out of date.

By the time COVID patients are on ventilators there is only about a 20% chance they will survive anyway.

But yes, if the virus takes hold then the health care resources of the country would be most likely stretched beyond breaking point...agreed.

And some want their holiday improved by a 30% cut in the quarantine period.