The number of severely ill Covid-19 patients is rising and may accelerate due to long holidays this month, according to the Department of Disease Control.
Dr Chakkarat Pittayawonganon, the epidemiology director of the Department of Disease Control, said on Monday that serious Covid-19 cases with lung inflammation increased gradually from 638 two weeks ago (June 28) to 786 on Sunday.
The number of severely ill patients dependent on ventilators rose from 290 two weeks ago to 349 on Sunday.
The increase in severely ill patients reflected the rising numbers of cases overall. At this stage, the spike is confined to certain provinces but later expand to others, Dr Chakkarat said.
"New infections are increasing in Greater Bangkok and major tourism provinces... Several periods of long holidays this month may spread the infections faster," he said.
"The growing number of patients with lung inflammation can impact the supply of beds and medicine needed for treatment. People can help by strictly protecting themselves from the disease," he said.
However, the Public Health Ministry is maintaining its Covid-19 alert at Level 2 to facilitate tourism - especially on long holidays - to stimulate the economy as the health system could still handle Covid-19 cases, he said.
"Despite the increase, the health system can still cope... Our peak of patients with lung inflammation used to be thousands a day during the outbreak of the Delta variant," Dr Chakkarat said.
He also said that the number of new fatalities was stable over the past two weeks, averaging 18 a day.
New cases admitted to hospital rose from 2,082 a day on average two weeks ago to 2,212 on average as of Monday.
On Sunday the country logged 24 new Covid-19 fatalities and 1,811 new cases admitted to hospitals.
