Thailand Covid-19 unit says 17 people positive for virus in quarantine

THAILAND’S Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on December 13 reported 17 new cases in state quarantine facilities and a border area checkpoint over a 24-hour period.

All the cases were Thais and foreigners inbound from other countries.

They included a Thai woman, 69, and an Indian woman, 72, coming from the US via Taiwan; a Thai woman, 54, and a Swiss man, 57, from Switzerland; a Pakistani man, 45, and a British man, 71, from their home countries; a Thai man, 22, from Japan; a Thai businesswoman, 20, from Bahrain (a re-active case after testing positive on November 21); four Thai women aged 19-30 working at an entertainment venue and returning from Myanmar who tested positive at a local quarantine facility.

Meanwhile, five women, 2235, who worked at an entertainment venue met Person Under Investigation (PUI) criteria for Covid-19 when they were passing through a border checkpoint and were taken to a hospital where they later tested positive.

In recent days, eight patients have recovered and been discharged.

The total number of confirmed cases in Thailand increased to 4,209 (1,216 in state quarantine), while 226 are in hospital and 3,923 have recovered and been discharged. To date, 60 people in Thailand have died.

According to Worldometer, as of 2pm on December 14, the total number of confirmed cases had reached 72.65 million globally, with 50.87 million having recovered and 20.16 million cases still active (106,182 of those are in severe condition). A total of 1.62 million people have died.

Thailand ranks 151st for most cases in the world, while the US ranks first with 16.74 million cases, followed by India at 9.88 million, Brazil at 6.90 million, Russia at 2.65 million and France at 2.38 million.

Disease Control Department director-general Opas Karnkawinpong urged all Thai people to continue wearing masks and inform officers about illegal entry of people and any suspected infections. Many cases were caught quickly, which prevented further spreading.