Over 60% of all prisoners have contracted COVID-19 in Chiang Mai. At Bangkok Remand Prison, two out of three inmates in state care have fallen ill.
The horrible extent to which the virus has ravaged Thailand’s prisons is just coming to light through piecemeal disclosures such as yesterday’s announcement by the Corrections Department that another 7,000 inmates had contracted the virus on top of the nearly 3,000 disclosed last week.
And that only accounts for 10 of the nation’s 143 correctional facilities. The outbreaks at two provincial prisons where alarms were first raised – in Surat Thani and Narathiwat – have yet to be made public.
Sunday’s disclosure of 6,853 stricken inmates at eight facilities led Thailand to officially add nearly 10,000 to the books today, the most ever in a single day. Twenty-five deaths were recorded nationwide as well.
