By Orathai Sriring and Juarawee Kittisilpa
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand plans to install 10,000 field hospital beds in Bangkok, a health official said on Saturday as the country tried to deal with a third wave of COVID-19 infections.
At least a dozen hospitals in the capital said they had stopped testing for the coronavirus since Friday due to a lack of kits or capacity. Hospitals are reluctant to test because they have to admit people if they are positive, authorities say.
“We are aiming to increase (field) hospital beds to 10,000 in a jiffy, which should give the public confidence that we can still contain this outbreak,” Suksan Kittisupakorn, director general of the Thai medical services department, told reporters said.
The current boom appears to be the country’s worst yet, he said.
Thailand reported 789 new cases and one death on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections to 31,658, with 97 deaths.
So far this month, Thailand has reported 2,697 new domestic infections, including 1,058 cases in Bangkok, the center of an outbreak in which cases have risen from several dozen to several hundred a day.
The outbreak, which includes the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant first identified in Britain, has spread rapidly to 62 of Thailand’s 77 provinces, Opas Karnkawinpong of the Department of Disease Control said in a briefing.
Thailand’s third wave comes ahead of the big national holidays next week and because the country is trying to reopen to foreign tourists.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has asked people to limit the spread. “I’m very worried. If anyone does not need to travel, please stay home,” he said in a podcast on Saturday.
Thailand intends to start mass vaccination from June. It has vaccinated more than 530,000 health workers and people considered vulnerable.
Thailand, which received 1 million doses of vaccine from China’s Sinovac vaccine on Saturday, will receive another 500,000 doses this month, Deputy Government Spokeswoman Traisee Traisoranakul said.
(Reporting by Orathai Sriring and Juarawee Kittisilpa; Additional reporting by Satawasin; Staporncharnchai and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by William Mallard)