BANGKOK — Thailand’s Public Health Ministry is to ramp up vaccination in four southern provinces – Yala, Pattani Songkhla, and Narathiwat – to contain the surge in COVID-19 cases.

Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said the ministry will to distribute 1 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to the four provinces this month.

“A total of 400,000 doses of vaccine is scheduled to be delivered next week while another 600,000 doses by end of the month,” he told reporters in Pattani today.

Anutin is on working visit to the four southern provinces to following a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases. He also visited a vaccination centre in Pattani today.

Meanwhile, Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) assistant spokesperson Dr Apisamai Srirangsan said the infection and fatality rate in four southern provinces remain high.

“Over the last 24 hours, a total of 2,510 new COVID-19 cases and 21 fatalities have been recorded in these four southern provinces,” she said at press conference here today.

Yala topped the list with highest number of cases in four southern provinces at 767 followed by Pattani 644, Songkhla (605) and Narathiwat (494).

Apisamai said the COVID-19 outbreak in the southern provinces started in small cluster at worker’s camps and factories spread to families and communities.

Over the last 24 hours, Thailand recorded 10,486 new COVID-19 cases and 94 fatalities, bringing the total infections in the kingdom to 1,762,190 and 18, 123 deaths to date.