Thailand announced a daily record in new coronavirus cases on Thursday after clusters in two jails saw nearly 3 000 inmates infected, among them a leader of anti-government protests held while awaiting trial for insulting the king.
Authorities reported 32 Covid-19 deaths and 4,887 infections, a new daily high in cases after 2 835 prisoners were added to the tally following the mass testing of thousands of inmates in two Bangkok jails.
Thailand is suffering its biggest outbreak so far, with overall cases tripling to 93 794 and deaths increasing fivefold to 518 in the past six weeks, after a year of success in containment.
So far only 1.3 million of its people have been inoculated against the Covid-19 and the government has been rushing to secure 100 million doses of vaccines for use this year for a mass-inoculation campaign starting next month.
Thailand on Thursday authorised the emergency use of the vaccine of Moderna Inc, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) secretary-general Paisan Dankhum told Reuters.