The Public Health Ministry has raised the nation’s Covid-19 alert level from 3 to 4 following a rapid increase in Omicron variant infections.
Health permanent secretary Kiattiphum Wongrajit said raising the warning to level 4 included encouraging people to work from home, suspend travel, closing risk areas and limiting the number of people at gatherings.
"We are seeing a fast outbreak at this time. There are several provinces that have more than one new case, including 769 cases in Chon Buri and 454 in Bangkok. So we do need to raise the alert to level 4," he said.
Dr Kiattiphum said patients with mild symptoms should be isolated at home, to allow hospitals to cater for patients with more serious conditions.
Thailand logged 5,775 new Covid-19 cases and 11 more fatalities during the previous 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry announced on Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, 2,673 Covid-19 patients left hospitals after recovering from the coronavirus.
Since the pandemic started in early 2020, there have been 2,245,250 Covid-19 cases, with 2,185,502 complete recoveries so far.
The vast majority of the Covid cases and deaths have occurred since April 1 last year when the third wave of Covid-19 began.
The death toll stood at 21,686 during the third wave and 21,780 since the beginning of the pandemic.
