Severely ill Covid cases seen rising even faster due to long holidays

People queue for Covid-19 vaccination at Bang Sue Grand Station in Bangkok on Monday as health authorities reported a rising number of severely ill patients. (Photo: Apichart Jinakul)
People queue for Covid-19 vaccination at Hammer Sue Grand Place in Bangkok on Monday as health authorities reported a rising number of seriously ill patients. (Photo: Apichart Jinakul)

The number of severely ill Covid-19 individuals is rising and might accelerate due to lengthy holidays this month, according to the Department of Disease Control.

Dr Chakkarat Pittayawonganon, the epidemiology director of the Section of Disease Manage, said on Monday that serious Covid-19 cases with lung inflammation increased steadily from 638 a couple weeks ago (June 28) to 786 on Sunday.

The number of severely ill patients dependent on ventilators rose from 290 two weeks ago to 349 on Sunday.

The increase in severely sick patients reflected the rising numbers of cases overall. At this stage, the spike is confined to certain provinces but later expand to others, Dr Chakkarat said.

“New infections are increasing within Greater Bangkok and major tourism provinces… Several periods associated with long holidays this month may spread the infections quicker, ” he stated.

“The growing number of sufferers with lung inflammation can impact the availability of beds and medicine needed for treatment. People can help by firmly protecting themselves in the disease, ” this individual said.

However , the Public Health Ministry is preserving its Covid-19 alert at Level two to facilitate travel and leisure – especially upon long holidays – to stimulate the economy as the health system could nevertheless handle Covid-19 cases, he said.

“Despite the increase, the health system can still cope… Our peak of patients with lung swelling used to be thousands per day during the outbreak of the Delta variant, inch Dr Chakkarat mentioned.

He also said that the number of new fatalities has been stable over the past two weeks, averaging 18 each day.

New cases admitted in order to hospital rose from 2, 082 per day on average two weeks back to 2, 212 on average as of Monday.

Upon Sunday the country logged twenty-four new Covid-19 fatalities  and 1, 811 new cases   admitted to hospitals.