Thailand Reports Nineteen New Cases of Covid-19 in State Quarantine

Thailand’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said 19 people arriving in Bangkok were quarantined after being found to be infected with Covid-19. The cases were reported on Friday, all were quarantined arrivals and 14 of them were Thai citizens.

The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said the new cases came from 11 countries.

Four were from Saudi Arabia. Three of them were Thai students – boys aged 5 and 10 and a girl aged 12, and the fourth a Thai woman teacher, 40.

Three cases were from the United States – Thai men aged 30 and 75 and an American man aged 61.

Two were Indian nationals arriving from India, both men – a company employee aged 32, and an engineer, 40.

Two cases were from Germany – Thai women aged 26 and 52. Furthermore two others were from the Republic of Georgia – a Thai masseuse, 30, and Thai businesswoman aged 37.

The six other cases were arrivals from the United Kingdom (a Thai businesswoman, 27), Luxemburg (a 30-year-old Thai chef), Sweden (a 31-year-old Thai masseuse), Italy (a 42-year-old Italian male programmer), Oman (a 69-year-old Omani male businessman), and Poland (a 41-year-old Thai man).

Of the total 3,961 cases, 3,790 or 95.6% had recovered, including two new discharges over the previous 24 hours, and 111 were in hospital, the CCSA reported. The death toll remained unchanged at 60.

Global Covid-19 cases rose by 540,802 over 24 hours to 61.30 million. The worldwide death toll was up by 10,953 to 1.44 million. The US had the most cases at 13.25 million, up 108,063.

AstraZeneca for Covid-19 vaccine

Thailand has signed an advance agreement with AstraZeneca to secure a supply of its Covid-19 vaccine and for local production with technology from the British-Swedish firm.

The agreement comes amid reports that AstraZeneca is preparing to conduct new global trials, after critics questioned aspects of an earlier trial that produced results showing up to 90% efficacy of the vaccine. However, CEO Pascal Soriot said he didn’t expect the additional trial to hold up regulatory approvals in the UK and European Union.

In addition to supplying the vaccine to Thailand, AstraZeneca will also support the local mass production of the doses by Siam Bioscience.

Furthermore the number of doses to be supplied to Thailand was not disclosed. But Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on Thursday that the contract was for the purchase of 26 million doses, enough for 13 million people, as each person needs two shots.