File photo: REUTERS
Thailand on Tuesday (October 5) reported 9,869 new COVID-19 cases, 11,152 recoveries and 92 additional deaths over the past 24 hours.
◼︎ 11,152 recoveries
◼︎ 9,596 new infections
◼︎ 273 prison / prison infections
▶︎ Total infections since April 1: 1,628,368
▶︎ Total recoveries since since April 1: 1,504,229
Tuesday’s cases bring the total number of COVID-19 infections in Thailand to 1,657,231 with 17,203 deaths.
The news comes as Thailand’s government is in talks with U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co to purchase 200,000 courses of the company’s experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 treatment, a Thai official said on Monday.
Many Asian countries are scrambling to lock in supplies of the potential treatment early after they lagged behind Western nations in COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, hit by tight supplies.
South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia said they are all in talks to buy Merck’s potential treatment, while the Philippines, which is running a trial on the pill, said it hopes its domestic study would allow access to the treatment.
Source: – Asean Now)