Cautious optimism as Thailand’s COVID-19 outbreak appears to level off

Seventy-two new cases of locally transmitted coronavirus infections have been found, 37 of which were detected in provinces throughout Thailand. 

Thirty-five of 81 new cases were found in the outbreak cluster of migrant workers, over 90% of which were asymptomatic, Taweesilp Wissanuyothin of the Disease Control Department announced today. Nine were found in state-managed quarantine facilities.

Though hundreds of new cases were found as recently as Tuesday as the extent of the Mahachai outbreak became known and thousands were tested, they have since tapered off. Though dozens of cases have been found in a growing number of provinces – the outbreak’s reached nearly half of them – today’s new case count was not much more than Thursday’s 67, of which 55 were migrant workers. 

“The current situation is still controllable,” Taweesilp said. “Yet if things…