Phuket marks 129 new COVID cases, one more death

The PPHO daily report for Apr 17, marked as accurate as of 8pm last night, was posted online at 9:59pm.

The report marked five infections among Sandbox tourist arrivals and 29 new infections among Test & Go tourists, but no new infections among other international arrivals.

The report marked one new death attributed to COVID-19, bringing the total number of COVID deaths reported for April to 14 and the total number of COVID deaths reported so far this year to 107.

Officials marked 56 COVID deaths in March, 27 in February and 10 in January. Previously Phuket officials recorded six COVID deaths in December, 18 in November, 44 in October and 55 COVID deaths in September.

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The PPHO later (at 2:20pm, Apr 18) posted details of the death reported for Apr 17, as follows:

1) Case 41160, male, 57 years old (bedridden patient, Group 608*), diagnosed with COVID-19 with pneumonia, already suffered from high blood pressure, was a bedridden patient, had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine (Sinovac+AstraZeneca), risk history marked only that patient tested positive by ATK

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Meanwhile, the 129 new local infections reported brings the total number of new local infections reported on the island in the past seven days to 1,065, as follows:

• Apr 11 - 178 new cases
• Apr 12 - 165 new cases
• Apr 13 - 157 new cases
• Apr 14 - 152 new cases
• Apr 15 - 146 new cases
• Apr 16 - 138 new cases
• Apr 17 - 129 new cases

The report marked three people infected with COVID-19 in other provinces before entering Phuket since Jan 1, as well as eight returning from other countries and testing positive, and zero COVID patients brought back to Phuket under the “Bring Phuket people home”.

The report also marked 6,337 Phuket Sandbox arrivals who have tested positive for the virus after landing on the island since Jan 1, and 2,648 Test & Go tourists who have tested positive since Jan 1.

According to the report for Apr 17, there are 1,519 people under medical care or supervision, 24 fewer than the 1,543 reported yesterday.

The report also marked 186 people discharged from medical care for COVID infection yesterday ‒ but did not give a total for the number of patients released from medical care since Jan 1.

The report recorded 122 people suspected of being infected with COVID-19 after testing positive by antigen test kit (ATK), while the total number of people reported as currently being held at ‘COVID-19 Care Centers’ across the island decreased from 22 to 19.

According to the report for Apr 17, there are 16 ‘Red’ patients (-1), 136 ‘Yellow’ patients (+1) and 11 ‘Green’ patients (-1) in care.

A further 76 people who tested positive for COVID-19 were at ‘hospitels’ (+10), and 19 were designated to recover in “Community Isolation“ (-3).

The report also marked that of 1,448 hospital beds in total available (zero change), 269 were occupied (zero change).

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* ‘Group 608’ has become Phuket officials’ preferred term for higher at-risk patients, comprising people over 60 years old along with those suffering from any of the seven recognised medical conditions that place patients at higher risk of developing serious signs of infection, plus women more than 12 weeks pregnant.

@BobTB, 1 week Songkran Rd casulties and Covid-19 are 2 different 'portfolios'. Songkran Road happenings is a accepted Thai tradition, dressed with a bit show 'check + report charade'. Covid handling this moment is big foreign arrival tourist substitute government business.  Many Thai complain that no government bodies are taking care/thinking of them. ( read about the protests in ...

According to the Bangkok Post, 7906 people were charged with DUI this Songkran - 7141 from alcohol and 765 from illicit drugs. DUI needs to become as socially unacceptable in Thailand as it is in most of the developed world before things will improve. On a slightly more positive note, injuries this year were mercifully down on last year (1917 versus 2357 last year). Long may it continue!

The good news is that Covid deaths and infections are likely eventually to fall, while deaths from RTAs show no sign of doing so (278 nationally over the seven days of Songkran this year, compared with 277 last year). Speeding and DUI are the two biggest causes of accidents and this will only be reversed if there are major behavioural and attitudinal changes among Thai people.

@Taswegian The figures you're quoting cover the period from 11-16 April inclusive. Over the same period there were 671 Covid deaths and 128699 Covid infections, not including ATK test results. Based on those statistics I fail to see how you can argue that Covid is not at least as serious a problem as road traffic accidents.

Interesting to compare these figures with the road fatalities reported over just six days of Songkran. 1,720 Accidents, 237 deaths, 1,696 injured. Seriously, is covid really the problem in Thailand?