A FORENSIC doctor at Ramathibodi Hospital Mahidol University said in a Facebook post today (July 7) that the real number of Covid patients and death toll in Bangkok is far higher to go by lots of dead bodies showing infection while a large number of people have not got a chance to be tested, Thai Rath newspaper said.
Dr. Smith Srison, head of the Forensic Medicine Laboratory, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital Mahidol University, said the situation in Bangkok is so severe that he is now running into a lot of Covid positive dead bodies.
He mentioned that yesterday he examined four dead bodies, one was a elderly person who it was certain died of coronavirus but not having been able to get a bed in a hospital, died at the scene. The other three bodies too all yielded positive results.
He added that this is just in that one day and from the one district Ramathibodi Hospital received the bodies.
Since Thursday most of the bodies he swabbed were from extremely congested slums and flats where when one person catches the infection many others do with that person not being able to find a place to get tested.
Dr. Smith underscored that the situation in Bangkok is very serious with the announced number of cases and fatalities definitely not the true totals.
There are lots of people who have not been swabbed. In Ramathibodi Hospital itself people queue up from 10 p.m. for a test in the morning.
As for the dead, some forensic physicians are unable to swab all of them despite an exposure risk because they could not get payment for the test.
Meanwhile the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said there were 6,519 new coronavirus cases and 54 fatalities nationwide in the 24 hours to this morning, Amarin TV said.
This takes the cumulative confirmed total since the start of the pandemic to 301,172 and in the current wave that began in April 272,309.
The death toll too has now risen to 2,387.
Of today’s batch of cases 4,958 emerged in surveillance and service systems, 1,490 found through proactive searches, 55 fell sick in prisons and detention centres while 16 overseas arrivals were placed in state quarantine.
Another 4,148 patients have been cured, taking total recoveries since the start of the pandemic to 231,171 and in the current wave 203,745. Still undergoing treatment are 67,614 patients with 2,496 in severe condition and 676 requiring ventilators.
An update of the vaccination drive is as follows:
From February 28 to July 6, 2021 altogether 11,328,043 doses have been administered.
Another 223,268 people got their first jab, adding up to 8,245,297 who have done so;
An additional 46,385 got their second jab, with 3,082,746 now having got both shots.
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