544 Samut Sakhon cases:

SAMUT SAKHON: Another 544 coronavirus infections were reported in Samut Sakhon, where authorities are rushing to set up an eighth field hospital to accommodate the surge in patients.

Of the new cases, 121 were detected via mass testing, 270 at hospitals and 153 at bubbled and sealed workplaces and a prison, the provincial public relations office said on its Facebook page yesterday.

Mass testing found infections among 93 Thais and 28 foreigners, it said, adding the 270 detected at hospitals consisted of 191 Thais and 79 foreigners.

There were 77 Thais and 76 foreign nationals diagnosed as infected in the bubble-and-seal group — 126 at factories and 27 at the Samut Sakhon Provincial Prison, the post said.

The latest cases raised the provincial total to 28,486, of whom 5,405 remained under treatment, it said. Accumulated fatalities stood at 52, according to the Samut Sakhon public relations office.

The province has seven field hospitals with 2,057 beds. Currently, 1,815 beds, or 88.36%, are occupied, Thai media reported.

The authorities were accelerating the setting up of a new hospital with 500 beds to accommodate the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

Samut Sakhon governor Veerasak Vichitsangsri earlier criticised private hospitals in the province for denying conducting Covid-19 tests on people.

He said in a post on his Facebook page that the hospitals cited bed shortages and left the burden to the staterun Samut Sakhon Hospital, which is not fair.