Chiang Mai is still experiencing more Covid-19 cases with 20 infection clusters detected on Thursday.

One of the major clusters is centred around Muang Mai fresh market in Muang district where an accumulated 587 cases were reported.

Another seven minor infection clusters linked to the market were also detected in other districts, local public health officials said.

Infections in the market were detected among vendors and workers delivering goods and vegetables to customers, vendors from other markets, and family members who came into contact with them.

Those who visited the market between Oct 9-12 were asked to undergo urgent testing and self-quarantine for 14 days.

The Chiang Mai provincial public health office on Thursday reported 233 new Covid-19 cases during the past 24 hours. Of them, 229 were local infections, and the rest were those who picked up the virus from other provinces. Since April, there were an accumulated 10,797 cases and 43 fatalities. Of them, 8,738 were recovered and discharged from hospital.

In Pattani, a Covid-19 outbreak there has persisted unabated with some new 644 infections and two more deaths reported on Thursday, bringing accumulated cases to 25,224 and accumulated fatalities to 339 in the southern province.

Provincial public health officials are stepping up a vaccination drive in a bid to cover at least 50% of the provincial population this week to create herd immunity.

Local people aged 12 and older are being encouraged to use the walk-in Pfizer vaccination services at public health units near their homes.

Pattani governor Niphan Boonluang said that additional field hospitals are being built to accommodate rising new cases, and urged local communities and residents to step up precautions against the disease.

In Songkhla, the provincial communicable disease committee on Thursday reported 594 new cases and four deaths, bringing accumulated infections to 36,097 and accumulated fatalities to 165 in the province.

Of them, 31,300 cases had recovered and discharged and some 6,100 remained in hospital. Most infections were detected among those people who did not receive vaccines, the committee said.