BANGKOK (REUTERS) – Thailand confirmed 745 new coronavirus infections and one new death on Monday (Jan 4), taking the total number of cases to 8,439 and deaths to 65 since its first case in January.

The majority of the new cases were detected in Samut Sakhon, a province near Bangkok, where the current outbreak started in the middle of December, the government’s Covid-19 task force said.

Thailand’s government held off from ordering new nationwide business shutdowns on Sunday but empowered some provincial governors to set their own restrictions and pleaded with the public not to travel.

Thailand, which had largely controlled the virus by mid-2020, saw a second wave of outbreaks beginning in December.

On Sunday, it confirmed 315 new coronavirus cases, the majority of which are local transmission, bringing its total to 7,694 cases and 64 deaths since its first case last January.

The country also reported its first known case of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus called B.1.1.7 on Sunday, Dr Yong Poovorawan, a senior virologist from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said in a post on his official Facebook page.

The variant was found in a family of four who were in quarantine after arriving in Thailand from Britain, and Dr Yong said there is no risk of that variant being spread in Thailand.

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