THE government has increased the Covid hotline system 1330 by 150 lines to 3,000 as today’s (Feb.23) tally soared to 21,232 cases and 39 deaths while Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has increased the capacity of waiting centres by 50 percent, Naewna newspaper said.
The Public Health Ministry said of today’s 21,232 cases 21,064 were domestic while 168 foreign arrivals tested positive.
This takes the cumulative confirmed total since Jan. 1 to 547,358.
Another 16,662 patients were cured increasing total recoveries since Jan.1 to 405,964 with 173,605 patients still undergoing treatment.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said he is concerned about the number of Covid patients increasing and reminded people to take the utmost care of themselves while instructing the Public Health Ministry and related agencies to ensure all patients quickly enter the medical treatment system.
Aside from expanding the 1330 hotline system by adding another 150 lines taking the total to 3,000, Gen. Prayut also unveiled a new contact channel via Line @NHSO for patients to fill out their details with staff to contact them within six hours.
He added that the Public Health Ministry had already issued a Level 4 Covid warning with people advised to not go to risky places and join gatherings, focus on working from home and put off unnecessary inter-provincial travel.
Meanwhile Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang said that over the past 10 days there has been an average of 3,000 Covid patients in the capital.
As occupancy of Covid waiting centres has reached 60 percent, the capacity has now been increased by 50 percent to cope with the increased number of patients.
While confirming that waiting centres have enough room for patients Asawin admitted that the number of beds in hospitals had dwindled. However many of the patients are at the green level, or with mild symptoms, but nonetheless they still have to be taken care of.
Asked whether hospitals in BMA’s network could set aside beds for patients in severe condition, or at the red level, Asawin said he was pushing this with Ratchaphiphat Hospital having kept 40 beds to immediately admit such patients.
He pointed to a problem that the Erawan Centre had encountered with green-level patients refusing to go to the community waiting centres preferring to wait to be admitted to a hospital or a room in a hotel which would be more comfortable.
He added that he understood that everyone wanted to be comfortable and that in fact those with mild symptoms could be treated at home with medical personnel sending medicine to them.
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Top: A woman getting vaccinated. Photo: NNT
Home Page: Beds in a Bangkok hospital ward. Photo: NNT
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