Nine women of 16 returnees from Myanmar test positive for Covid-19
Chiang Rai has found nine new cases of Covid-19 linked to the 1G1 Hotel in Myanmar, provincial officials said.
All the nine were women aged 20-44 years, who had travelled through legal channels.
Chiang Rai administration officials held a press conference on Sunday regarding the Covid-19 situation in the province.
They said the nine women had travelled across the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge and entered the quarantine process as soon as they had returned to the country without being exposed to the community at all.
In total, there are 20 cases in Chiang Rai in the last two weeks, 14 of whom were found during quarantine in the state local quarantine facility, five had sneaked in through a natural channel, and one local was infected from a patient who had entered illegally.
Chiang Rai Governor Prachon Pratsakul said that the infections were all linked to 1G1 Hotel in the Tachilek district of Myanmar. He said the new nine cases were not unexpected, as they all worked and lived together. The province is still open to receiving Thai people who want to return, he said.
So far, 171 people have returned from Tachileik province and the positive cases are all admitted to Chiang Rai Prachanukerah Hospital.
“He urged those who had sneaked in earlier to report to public health officials as soon as possible.
"I believe the situation can be controlled because most of the cases found in the state local quarantine have limited contact groups, so I believe that after 14-25 days, Chiang Rai would be safe as a New Year 2021 gift to people and tourists who want to continue visiting,” said the governor.
Dr Tosthep Boonthong, from Chiang Rai Public Health, said all the nine patients had travelled together in a group of 16. The remaining seven are not found to be infected.
As for the case of one infected local person found in the Muang district of Chiang Rai province, the authorities detected 22 high-risk people because they had visited Singha Park and many other entertainment venues. There were around 200 people at risk, but all test results showed that the risk group was negative.
Dr Chaiwetch Thanapaisal, director of Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital, said the hospital had room to accommodate up to 30 beds. The first patient from this new group of patients will complete the scheduled treatment on December 8.
