COVID-positive Russians on the run
Police are looking for several Russian tourists reported missing from their hotels after they had been informed that they had tested positive for COVID-19, presumably to avoid having to observe the mandatory 10-day Hotel Isolation, during which they must remain in their hotel rooms.
Officers at Kamala Police Station were notified on Jan 14 that Anton Tikhomirov, 29, from Moscow, had left the Sunwing Kamala Beach resort that morning, and had not returned.
Mr Tikhomirov checked into the hotel on Jan 3 after arriving on the island under the Phuket Sandbox scheme.
He tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan 8 and was to stay in hotel isolation at least three more nights.
Staff at the Sunwing Kamala resort The Phuket News confirmed to that as of Jan 15 Mr Tikhomirov still had not returned to the resort, where his room was a studio with a balcony facing the pool.
Police urged people who have seen Mr Tikhomirov to immediately report his whereabouts by calling 098-010-8322 or calling the Kamala Police Station main contact number 076-385310 (24 hours).
Police were also alerted to husband-and-wife Russian couple Olga Tribshtok, 35, and Sergei Iaroshenko, 35, checking out of their hotel in Patong early in order to avoid staying in Hotel Isolation for 10 days after the wife tested positive for COVID-19.
Patong Police reported that the couple left their hotel, the Holiday Inn Express on Haad Patong Rd, before midday on Jan 15, the day they were already booked to check out.
However, officers visited the hotel, where they were told that Ms Tribshtok had tested positive for COVID-19 the day before.
The couple went to Bangkok Hospital Siriroj to be tested on Jan 14, hotel staff told police. A copy of Ms Tribshtok’s positive test results was provided.
On Jan 15, both Ms Tribshtok and her husband checked out of the hotel before noon. Hotel staff have no idea where the couple might now be staying, said the report.
The hotel was unaware that Ms Tribshtok had tested positive until staff at the hospital contacted the hotel to inform them at 1:38pm on Jan 15, the report added.
Standard practice is for hospital staff to inform the person being tested immediately of the initial test results, but conduct a second test to confirm the results and inform the couple ‒ and the hotel ‒ later.
Police are now looking for the couple.
Another Russian tourist, a 25-yearold man, was reported to the 191 police hotline on Jan 13 for “disappearing from his room” at a hotel in Patong after testing positive for COVID-19.
However, he was later found safe and sound, at his hotel room in Patong.
The man had tested positive on Jan 10.
Maj Boonyarit Inthakarn of the Patong Tourist Police Patrol said that the man was feeling stressed, and went to get some fresh air on Patong Beach.