The PPHO report, marked as accurate as of 8pm last night, also marked two news cases of Phuket Sandbox tourists being confirmed as infected, and one new death attributed to COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths in Phuket attributed to COVID-19 since Apr 3 to 16.
The 89 new local infections bring the total number of new local infections on the island in the past seven days to 455, as follows:
- Aug 12 - 33 new cases
- Aug 13 - 82 new cases
- Aug 14 - 109 new cases
- Aug 15 - 49 new cases
- Aug 16 - 50 new cases
- Aug 17 - 43 new cases
- Aug 18 - 89 new cases
The current total of 2,171 infected in Phuket since Apr 3 does not include nine people infected with COVID-19 in other provinces and 23 returning from other countries and testing positive.
The current Phuket tally also does not include 38 COVID patients brought back to Phuket under the “Bring Phuket people home” policy, or the 60 Phuket Sandbox arrivals who have tested positive for the virus after landing on the island since the Sandbox scheme began on July 1.
According to the PPHO COVID report for yesterday, 847 people were under medical care or supervision, an increase of 48 from the day before.
The report also marked 1,392 people in total being discharged from medical care for COVID infection since Apr 3 ‒ 42 more patients than the 1,350 reported for Tuesday.
The report posted last night recorded 14 new cases of people suspected of being infected with COVID-19 after testing positive by antigen test kits (ATKs) yesterday (Aug 18).
The 14 suspected cases, which have yet to be confirmed by RT-PCR tests, bring the total number of people now being held at “COVID-19 Care Centers” across the island to 281 (+35).
The report did not confirm how many people who tested positive by ATKs were confirmed infected by RT-PCR tests or how many people had been released from ATK detention at ‘COVID-19 Care Centers’ and allowed to go home.
The PPHO daily COVID situation report posted last night also reported that Phuket currently has in total 930 beds available for COVID patients (+12 from yesterday), with 699 of the beds occupied (+63), and 231 beds still available (-51).
The report also marked that of the COVID patients in care 22 were designated as ‘Red patients’ (-3); 268 were designated ‘Yellow’ patients (+24) and 356 were ‘Green’ patients (+31).
Of note, 75.16% of the total number of hospital beds available are now occupied by patients. Among the conditions set out for reviewing the suspension of the Phuket Sandbox scheme was if the number of available hospital beds exceeded 80%.
However, several of other key criteria for reviewing of suspending the Sandbox scheme have already been exceeded, notably having more than 90 new cases within one week.