BANGKOK: After an 86 year-old woman in Songkhla succumbed to the highly contagious Omicron variant on Jan 12, Thailand last Saturday recorded the second fatality also involving an octogenarian.
Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) assistant spokesperson Dr Apisamai Srirangsan said the latest Omicron variant victim is an unvaccinated 84-year old woman with terminal lung cancer.
She said the bedridden woman, living in Kut Chap district of the northeast province of Udon Thani, believed to have contracted the virus from her son.
Dr Apisamai said the woman and her family requested to have treatment while in home isolation as she had no fever and breathing difficulties.
However, she said the woman’s condition deteriorated on Saturday when her oxygen levels dropped.
“Her family choose not to admit her to the hospital. She was pronounced dead at 7.45 pm (local time) on Saturday,” she said at COVID-19 briefing here today.
Over the last 24 hours, Thailand recorded 6,929 new COVID-19 cases including 209 imported cases and 13 fatalities, bringing the total infections in the kingdom to 2,331,414 and 21,938 deaths, to date.
Meanwhile, frontline health workers in the resort island of Phuket have started receiving their fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine from last week.
Vachira Phuket Hospital deputy director Withita Jaeng-iam said high-risk group including those with underlying health conditions as well as those aged 60 and above to receive their fourth COVID-19 shot.
“From the database, about 60,000 have registered for the fourth shot,” she said, quoted Bangkok Post.
To date, Thailand has administered 109,542,145 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including 51,809,191 first dose since its vaccination drive kicked off on February 28. - Bernama
