Covid-19 declared a dangerous contagious disease
The National Communicable Disease Committee (NCDC) has declared Covid-19 a dangerous contagious disease, but added that Thailand has not yet reached the third phase of the epidemic.
Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said after a meeting of the National Communicable Disease Committee this afternoon (February 24) that the committee declared this disease as a dangerous contagious disease.
“This declaration will facilitate officers to work more effectively,” he said. “It does not mean the country has entered the third phase of the epidemic. It is just to delay or extend the present situation from escalating to the third phase.”
Thailand had announced 13 dangerous contagious diseases in the past – plague, smallpox, Congo Haemorrhaegic Fever, West Nile Fever, Yellow Fever, Lassa Fever, Nipah virus disease, Marburg virus disease, Ebola, Hendra virus infection, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle Eastern Respiratory Disease (MERS), and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB)
The Covid-19 disease, after approval by the committee, has become the 14th dangerous contagious disease.
According to the Communicable Disease Act, 2015 BE, chapter 6, article 35, in the event of an urgent necessity to prevent the spread of a dangerous contagious disease, the NCDC has the authority to close various locations temporarily, order patients or suspected patients to temporarily cease working, and deny patients or suspects access to certain places. According to this Act, violators will be punished with imprisonment of not more than two years or a fine of not over Bt500,000, or both.
