The readily transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant, which was first confirmed in Thailand in mid-May in a Thai mother and her 4-year son arriving from Pakistan, has now spread through 74 of Thailand’s 77 provinces, accounting for 78.2% of new infections in the country.

Director-general of the Medical Sciences Department Dr. Supakit Sirilak said today (Wednesday) that the department and its network of laboratories had conducted random checks on 2,547 COVID-19 infected people around the country, between July 24^th and 30^th, and found that 1,993, or 78.2% were infected with the Delta variant. 538, or 21.2% were infected with the Alpha variant and the remaining 0.6% with the Beta strain.

A breakdown of the findings between Bangkok and the rest of the country is as follows:

• Bangkok: Of 1,229 samples tested, 86.2% were infected with Delta variant, 13.8% with the Alpha variant. No Beta variant infections were found in this group.
• In other provinces: Of 1,318 samples tested, 70.9% were infected with the Delta strain, 27.9% with the Alpha variant and 1.2% with Beta variant.

Dr. Supakit said, however, that the Lambda variant, a variant of interest as defined by the World Health Organization which is spreading in South America, has not yet been detected in Thailand.