Parents rush to fly kids home from stricken US

Parents are rushing to bring Thai students back home from the United States after the country overtook China and Italy to record the highest number of infections worldwide with more than 142,000.

“I pray that my son will fly back tomorrow [today] and the flight isn’t abruptly cancelled,” said Pudit Assanamanee, the father of a 16-year-old student on a 10-month Global Intercultural Exchange in the town of Blythewood in South Carolina which was due to end in June.

Mr Pudit told the Bangkok Post that the rate of infection in the city where his son is staying is quite low compared to other cities, but he fears that he won’t be able to bring his son back home if the US goes into full lockdown.

Mr Pudit said local pharmacies are running very low on hand sanitiser and face masks and those who use them are treated with scepticism, referring to cases of discrimination against maskclad Asians.

“I worry that he will not receive medical treatment if he contracts the coronavirus. He has health insurance, but I think the US may not give as much priority to foreign students as its own citizens. Also, I don’t want to put a burden on the host family during the crisis,” he added.

Similarly, Panorjit Anantaporn, another parent of a 16-year-old student on an Overseas Ed Group exchange in the country, said her son had flown home from Kansas on March 28.

“I decided to bring him back after his school closed first for two weeks and then until the next semester. Fortunately, he was able to obtain a fit-to-fly certificate and a letter from the embassy before boarding the flight,” she said.

According to an earlier media report, the parents of 200 students under the American Field Service exchange programme plan to ask Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to send an aircraft to bring their children back to Thailand.

Meanwhile, 34 Thai students studying in Pakistan have returned to Yala in the far South.

The students landed at Suvarnabhumi airport before travelling to Yala in two chartered buses, arriving back in the southern province about 8am yesterday.

After passing the checkpoint at Ban Klong Sai in tambon Yupo, Muang district, the returnees were taken to the public health development centre for the southern border provinces run by the Public Health Ministry.

Dr Songkran Maichum, the provincial health chief, said the students would be quarantined at the centre for 14 days.

JINAKUL APICHIT Shoppers crowd around a ‘grocery shop on wheels’ or ‘rot phumpuang’ in Pathum Thani which sells fresh produce to people outside their homes. The service is popular with people in the neighbourhood including the growing number working from home due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

ARNUN CHONMAHATRAKOOL A homeless man without the means to afford a face mask sleeps at Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong railway station.

APICHIT JINAKUL A doctor tests out gloves at the National Health Security Office, which received a donation of 4,000 protective items and 25,000 N95 face masks.

WICHAN CHAROENKIATPAKUL A monk hands out food in Klong Toey. The temple cooks large amounts of food daily to be given free to those affected by the coronavirus.

PATTARAPONG CHATPATTARASILL Staff and students of Chulalongkorn Universirty queue up for a Covid-19 strip test developed by the university.