Thailand's morgue workers are battling exhaustion as the kingdom's latest Covid-19 wave hits new highs and the death toll mounts.

The daily total of new cases broke the 20,000 threshold for the first time on Wednesday, a feat repeated on Thursday. Authorities announced 160 more deaths on Thursday, taking the total to 5,663 since the pandemic began.

At Thammasat University Hospital, north of Bangkok, staff have had to rent a special container to store bodies after the morgue filled up.

“It's very exhausting. We may not be the exact frontline workers who have to deal with newly infected patients every day, but we're the final stage, and we have to help them however we can,” forensic scientist Thanitchet Khetkham told AFP.