BANGKOK — Thailand reported two new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, a single-digit increase for the eighth consecutive day.
Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman of the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration, said new patients were found in Bangkok and Narathiwat province each. Today’s report brings the total tally to 3,017 since the outbreak began in January.
A 19-year-old woman in Bangkok shared close contact with her family members who previously tested positive for the virus, while a 51-year-old woman in Narathiwat province contracted the virus from an infected patient, Taweesin added.
The spokesman said the largest cluster of new cases in two weeks are still the foreign inmates who are being held at a immigration detention facility in Songkhla province at 23 cases, followed by active case-finding operations in the southern provinces at 18 cases.
Those who shared close contact with infected patients continue to be the country’s largest cluster of infection at 1,182 cases, according to the Department of Disease Control.
Dismissing allegations that the government is under-testing people for the coronavirus, Taweesin said that the country’s total test number is not falling behind other countries in the region.
He said a total of 286,008 samples have undergone COVID-19 tests in Thailand, or 4,294 tests per one million population.
“This is no fewer [than other countries and territories]. It’s even higher than Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia when compared to their scales of cases tested per population,” Taweesin said.
As of Tuesday, 163 infected patients are being treated at hospitals, while 2,798 patients have recovered.
