74 of 80 quarantine dodgers from S Korea report
Seventy-four of the 80 illegal workers who returned from South Korea reported to health officials in their respective home provinces on Saturday, Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha said yesterday.
He added that none of them were found to be infected with Covid-19.
Yesterday was the end of the threeday deadline for the returnees who dodged quarantine to report. Those who failed to report will face up to a year in prison and a fine of 200,000 baht under the Communicable Disease
Control Act.
The minister admitted quarantine centres had many limitations compared to the one at the Sattahip naval base in Chon Buri.
However, since the Sattahip centre did not have enough space to accommodate all the returnees, it was necessary to send some to other centres, Mr Sathit said. He added that other places are being considered as quarantine centres, including a military camp in Nakhon Pathom.
Digital Economy and Society Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta said yesterday he was in talks with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission and mobile phone carriers about their cooperation in tracking travellers from Covid19 affected countries. This would also apply to the illegal Thai workers returning from South Korea, he said.
Upon arrival, these target groups will be asked to sign a consent form to allow their mobile phone signals to be tracked for at least 21 days so authorities can monitor their health. If they do not develop any symptoms during that period, the tracking would automatically stop, he said.
A total of 1,716 illegal Thai migrant workers have returned from South Korea over the past week, and 357 of them were sent to quarantine centres, while the remainder were put under self-quarantine for 14 days, the Immigration Bureau said.
Of the 75 people found to have a fever, 58 were cleared of the virus, while 17 awaited test results, the bureau added.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s statecontrolled ZTN News reported that a 26-year-old man from Thailand had fled a hospital in the Zimbabwean capital Harare as staff were getting ready to test him for coronavirus.
Initial reports did not clarify whether the man was a Thai national or had merely arrived from Thailand. The patient fled the hospital while waiting to be tested. He was the fourth person sent to the hospital for coronavirus testing. Two others tested negative, as did a woman of Chinese origin who died before she reached the hospital.