Army scrambles to revamp quarantine plan for its troops
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Soldiers returning home next week from a military exercise in Hawaii will be placed in state quarantine at a hotel in Bangkok, not in Nakhon Ratchasima as earlier planned, provincial governor Wichian Chantaranothai said yesterday.
The soldiers are participating in a joint exercise with US forces, codenamed Lightning Forge 2020, at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii from July 1-21. They will return to Thailand the following day.
Mr Wichian originally approved a request from the 3rd Infantry Division to place 151 soldiers in quarantine at the Sripattana Hotel, Suranaree Road in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The venue was being readied for a 14-day “organisational quarantine” from July 22-Aug 6.
In an abrupt change, however, Maj Gen Sawarat Saengpol, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division of the 2nd Army, sent the governor an urgent letter on Tuesday, informing him the plan had been cancelled.
Lt Gen Tanya Kiatisan, the 2nd Army commander, said the 151 soldiers would instead undergo health screening and 14-day state quarantine at a hotel arranged by the army in Bangkok.
Before flying back to Thailand the soldiers would also have to undergo a Covid-19 screening test, plus another one on their arrival in Bangkok. He added they would then have to go directly to a pre-arranged quarantine facility in the capital.
The change in the Covid-19 quarantine site follows the furore surrounding the recent short stay of an Egyptian military delegation in Rayong.
The group included a soldier later found to be infected with Covid-19 and which was found to have ignored instructions to self-quarantine and visited several locations, including shopping malls, in the eastern province. it has sparked fears of a second wave of infections.
The incident has prompted the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) to review conditions allowing people with special exemptions to enter the country.