In this photo released by Department of Corrections, prisoners sit inside a field hospital set up at Medical Correctional Institution to treat COVID-19 inmates, in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 8, 2021. (Photo: Department of Corrections, Thailand via AP) The combined cases bring the country's totalinfections to 111,082.
Thailand's COVID-19 task force also recorded 25 newdeaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 614 since the pandemicstarted last year.
A new field hospital called "Busarakam" hasbeen opened at Impact Muang Thong Thani in Nonthaburi for up to 5,000 COVID-19patients with moderate symptoms from Bangkok and its surrounding provinces.
Currently, the list of provinces in dark red, or maximum-control,zones has reduced to only four: Bangkok,Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani and Samut Prakan.
As from May 17, restaurants in these four provinceswill be permitted to resume dining on premises, until 9pm. But they can onlyseat 25 percent of their full capacity.
Meanwhile, in 17 provinces in red zones, dine-in servicesare permitted until 11pm.
In 56 provinces designated in orange zones, restaurantsare allowed to operate their usual operating hours but the sale of alcohol isstill banned.
Thailand has administered 2.2 million doses of COVID-19vaccines to front-line workers and high-risk groups so far.
Meanwhile, experts warned that Malaysia could behome to several super spreading, local SARS-CoV-2 variants that are slippingoff the health authorities' radar.
According to virologists, while the Health Ministrywas focusing on imported variants of concern (VoC), especially the B1617 fromIndia, unidentified local strains could be fuelling the current wave ofinfections.
Professor Dr Sazaly Abu Bakar, who heads UniversitiMalaya's Tropical Infectious Diseases Research and Education Centre, said thepresence of superclusters in prisons and detention centres nationwide furtherproved that the virus had higher ability to endure and proliferate.
There could be one or more local strains based onthe increasing number of new cases, rising infectivity and higher transmissionrates, as well as growing number of asymptomatic and sporadic cases.
The facility identified two potential local strainsrecently, he added.
He said Malaysia does not have enough data andresearch on local samples of the virus in its garrison, stressing that the onlyway for the country to win is to score a breakthrough in treatment./.
VNA
