Passengers wait with their luggage at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on February 1, 2022, as Thailand resumes its quarantine free-travel scheme for vaccinated travelers. (JACK TAYLOR / AFP)
BANGKOK / RIYADH / HANOI – Total COVID-19 cases in Thailand topped 3 million on Saturday, driven primarily by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which resulted in recent soaring infections.
The daily case tally has been over 20,000 for 11 days in a row. With 22,818 new infections registered over the last 24 hours, Thailand's total tally stood at 3,004,814, according to the country's health ministry.
Reaching a record high of new infections for three consecutive days in late February, the spread of the Omicron variant in Thailand seemed faster than it was during the peak of last fall's Delta wave.
Reaching a record high of new infections for three consecutive days in late February, the spread of the Omicron variant in Thailand seemed faster than it was during the peak of last fall's Delta wave
However, the country hasn't yet seen a similarly steep rise in cases as seen in some other countries, partly because of the high vaccination rate nationwide, according to the World Health Organization Thailand office.
ALSO READ: Thailand welcomes vaccinated travelers without quarantine
The official data also showed that the daily death toll remained low compared to the record of 312 fatalities set last August. The cumulative death in the Southeast Asian country rose by 52 to 23,176 on Saturday.
To date, around 71.7 percent of the country's nearly 70 million population had been fully vaccinated, while 30.1 percent had received booster shots.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia announced on Saturday the lifting of most precautionary measures against COVID-19, citing the improved pandemic situation in the country.
The Interior Ministry decided that social distancing would be canceled but people still have to wear masks indoors, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Moreover, inbound passengers no longer need to provide a PCR or rapid antigen test, and they are not required to undergo mandatory COVID-19 quarantine upon arrival, the ministry added.
A man passes walks past a billboard on the coronavirus in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec 4, 2021. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
Daily COVID-19 tally in Vietnam surged to a new high of 131,817 cases on Saturday, up 6,230 cases from the previous record on Friday, according to its ministry of health.
The new infections, logged in 63 localities nationwide, included 131,780 domestically transmitted and 37 imported.
Vietnamese capital Hanoi remained the epidemic hot spot with 25,013 cases on Saturday, also its new daily record, followed by northern Bac Ninh province with 7,161 cases, and central Nghe An province with 6,460 cases.
On the same day, health authorities also documented 41,441 COVID-19 cases detected earlier in the northern provinces of Phu Tho and Thai Nguyen.
The infections brought the total tally to 4,232,520 with 40,726 deaths. Nationwide, as many as 2,616,002 COVID-19 patients, or 62 percent of the infections, have so far recovered.
ALSO READ: Vietnam's COVID-19 cases hit 3 million with about 40,000 deaths
Nearly 197.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the country, including 180.3 million shots on people aged 18 and above, said the ministry.
Vietnam has by far gone through four coronavirus waves of increasing scale, complication and infectivity. As of Saturday, it has registered over 4.2 million locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave in April 2021, said the health ministry.