200 arrivals from South Korea sent to navy base for coronavirus screening
>>Two hundred passengers who arrived from South Korea yesterday were directed to the navy base in Chonburi’s Sattahip district where they will be screened and sent home by statearranged transport to avoid unnecessary contact with others.
Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha said the strict measure is based on the government’s guidelines on handling Thai workers returning from coronavirus-afflicted South Korea where Covid-19 infections have risen past 7,000.
According to the guidelines, returnees from South Korea’s Daegu and North Gyeongsang, which are worst hit by the outbreak, must be quarantined for 14 days at government-designated venues.
He said all passengers are initially screened upon arrival at airports before they are bused out to the navy facility. Those coming from Daegu and North Gyeongsang will be quarantined at the navy facility. Others will be sent home if they are cleared.
“All passengers including foreigners must go to the navy facility if they don’t have flu symptoms. Those from Daegu and North Gyeongsang will be quarantined at Sattahip for 14 days while the others will be sent home for selfquarantine,” he said.
Navy-run accommodation which was used to quarantine 138 returnees from China’s Wuhan last month is being prepared to quarantine the workers upon their arrival from coronavirushit South Korea, Defence Ministry spokesman Lt Gen Kongcheep Tantravanich said, adding the proposed use of three military beach residences in Prachuap Khiri Khan and Phetchaburi has been dropped.
According to Mr Sathit, passengers from elsewhere in South Korea will be taken by bus to major provinces in each region where public health officials will arrange buses to pick them up and send them home. During 14 days of selfquarantine at home they would have to submit a daily health report.
The measure will be applied to all flights from South Korea, he said, adding the 200 air passengers from South Korea that arrived yesterday would undergo this strict screening.
This follows yesterday’s meeting on logistic arrangements for Thai workers returning from South Korea which was attended by the Public Health Ministry, the Transport Ministry and the police.
Thanarak Plipat, deputy chief of the Department of Disease Control, said the ministry is developing a health report application for use by all the returnees from four countries — China and its two territories Macau and Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy and Iran.
“The online health report application is expected to be complete in the next few days. If available, they could stay home yet still have contact with public health officers,” he said.
Lee Wook Heon, ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Thailand, told the Bangkok Post: “We are concerned about measures to be taken by the Thai authorities against travellers coming from Korea. It’s not clear what kind of measures the government will take in coming days. Anyway, we believe that even self-quarantine controlled daily by police or medical personnel has the same effect as a shutdown. Nobody will come here to just stay in a hotel for 14 days,” he said.
“We fully understand the safety of people has primordial importance. But Korea is considered as one of the best countries that has responded effectively to this Covid-19 crisis. The large number of confirmed cases shows paradoxically a high-standard capability. And the death toll is relatively low in Korea.”
Nobody will come here to just stay in a hotel for 14 days.
AMBASSADOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA TO THAILAND, LEE WOOK HEON
>>Two Thai men who returned from Italy have been diagnosed with Covid19, bringing the total number of local novel coronavirus infections to 50, according to the Public Health Ministry.
Sukhum Karnchanapimai, public health permanent-secretary, said the two new cases are among six members of a group that travelled to Italy, which now has the highest number of coronavirus deaths outside China.
Among the other group members, one of them was diagnosed earlier with Covid-19 as the country’s 45th recorded case. The other three remain under surveillance by the Disease Control Department but lab tests have not yet detected coronavirus.
Case 49 developed a fever on March 5 and went to a private hospital before he was transferred to Rajavithi Hospital. Four people in his family tested negative for the virus. Case 50 had a fever and went to the Institute for Urban Disease Control and Prevention and he is being treated at Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital.
“They are all from the same group as our previous patient who is a 42-year old man returning from Italy on March 2. Half of the group has been confirmed for the novel coronavirus 2019 infection,” the doctor said.
He also said that a 30-year old Thai worker, who arrived back from South Korea and was found to have a high fever after screening at Suvarnabhumi airport on Thursday, remains under surveillance. Results of two lab tests have not detected a coronavirus infection, he said.
Of the 50 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases, 31 people have recovered and been discharged. One has died and 18 remain in hospital.
Dr Sukhum reiterated the ministry’s advice that people returning from six high-risk countries and territories — China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Iran and Italy — quarantine themselves pending further screening for the virus.
The main focus of concern at the moment is the return of illegal Thai workers known as phi noi from South Korea, especially from the hard-hit Daegu area. Reports on social media suggest some of them have not voluntarily quarantined themselves as authorities had suggested.
Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul yesterday tried to boost public confidence in the outbreak control, saying the low number of infections in Thailand has proven the efficiency of medical staff.
“What we need is now strong cooperation from the public and all stakeholders working together,” he said. “The public is now concerned about phi noi. We have been doing our best.”