Thailand reports record 23,557 new Covid-19 cases

BANGKOK - Thailand reported on Thursday (Feb 24) a record daily increase of 23,557 new coronavirus infections, as the country deals with an outbreak driven by the Omicron variant.

The Southeast Asian country also reported 38 new deaths, according to the country's Covid-19 centre.

The daily death toll from the virus, however, was well below the 184 fatalities reported on Aug 13 last year, when Thailand recorded its previous daily record of 23,418 infections.

A World Health Organisation official said last month there is evidence the Omicron variant causes milder symptoms than previous variants and while case numbers have surged to records in many places hospitalisation and death rates have often been lower than in earlier phases of the pandemic.

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In Thailand, there are currently just below 181,000 people receiving treatment in hospital or isolating in the community, versus more than 212,000 on Aug 13 last year, data from the health ministry showed.

Up to now, about 69 per cent of people in Thailand have been fully vaccinated, compared with about 12 per cent at the end of August.

Since the pandemic, Thailand has reported a total of about 2.79 million infections and 22,768 deaths.