Severe illness and fatality numbers falling in Thailand and stable worldwide, says CCSA
Small waves of new Covid-19 cases are being seen locally and globally but the number of severely ill patients and fatalities is not rising, according to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
The number of severely ill patients and fatalities is stable worldwide and has been declining steadily in Thailand, CCSA spokeswoman Sumanee Watcharasin said on Thursday.
“Hospital bed occupancy among yellow- and red-coded patients and daily drug use has thus dropped in the country,” Dr Sumanee said.
There were 25 more Covid-19 fatalities and 2,004 new patients admitted to hospitals on Wednesday. This compared with 28 coronavirus-related fatalities and 2,240 patients on Tuesday.
The seven-day average of new cases was 1,666, according to Our World in Data, down from 1,815 in the seven-day period to Aug 25. The daily figure actually fell below 1,000 (to 994) on Monday for the first time since April 13.
As of midnight Wednesday, a total of 15,990 people were receiving Covid treatment (up from 15,754 the previous day), including 8,557 in hospitals (down from 8,634). Of the remainder, 145 were in field hospitals/hospitel facilities (down from 147) and 7,232 in home/community isolation (up from 6,911).
Of those in hospitals, 736 were seriously ill patients with lung inflammation (down from 765) and 355 dependent on ventilators (down from 384).
“The numbers of severely ill patients and those depending on ventilators have been falling slowly over the past two weeks,” said Dr Sumanee, adding that the hospital bed occupancy rate of Covid patients nationwide was 12.8%.
In the 24 hours to midnight Wednesday, 1,743 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovering.
Among the 2,004 new inpatients, there were 1,996 cases in the general population, seven among prison inmates and one imported case.
The 25 people who died over the past 24 hours were aged from 58 to 101 years.
Bangkok logged three new deaths and there were three new fatalities in the adjacent province of Samut Prakan.
Other central plains provinces had nine new deaths: three in Trat, two in Ratchaburi and one each in Ayutthaya, Sing Buri, Chachoengsao and Chon Buri.
The North reported three new deaths in Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Sukhothai.
The Northeast saw four new fatalities — two in Nakhon Ratchasima and one each in Mukdahan and Ubon Ratchathani. The South had deaths in Phuket (2) and Songkhla (1).
“All the new fatalities were elderly people and those with underlying illnesses. New daily fatalities did not rise,” Dr Sumanee said.
Since the pandemic started in early 2020, there have been 4,652,923 cases in Thailand, including 2,429,488 this year, with 4,604,605 complete recoveries to date.
The cumulative death toll stands at 32,328 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 10,630 this year.
Global Covid cases rose by 651,472 in the past 24 hours to 608.02 million. The worldwide death toll went up by 1,925 to 6.49 million.
The United States had the most cases at 96.35 million, up by 71,334, and the most deaths at 1.07 million, up 403.