Health Scare In Rayong, Visiting Egyptian Delegate Had Covid-19

[Udon Map]

Health scanning at U-Tapao airport was lax

From: The Bangkok Post

The Egyption delegation, including the soldier found to be infected with the coronavirus, arrived in Thailand at U-Tapao airport in Rayong, with stop-offs in the UAE and Pakistan, on Wednesday. (Bangkok Post file photo)

Health authorities are checking all venues visited by an Egyptian soldier and other members of his delegation during their stay in Rayong, after he tested positive for the coronavirus.

The visit has also revealed lax screening procedures at U-tapao airport in Rayong.

The visitors stayed here en route to a one-day trip to China, where they had unexplained military business, and again on the way back.

They were allowed to go outside the hotel where they were staying during their visit. The group did not need state quarantine because they were here less than 14 days, but they were required to undergo a virus test.

The places they went to included a shopping centre, which has not been identified.

Taweesilp Visanuyothin, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration spokesman, said on Monday officials from Bangkok will join local staff in the eastern province in checking for coronavirus contagion at all places they went to, and people who were in close contact.

The health scare follows a positive result returned from the lab on Sunday after tests on a swab taken from the 43-year-old soldier. It showed he was infected with the Covid-19 virus.

He was one of the three new confirmed cases announced by the CCSA on Monday. The other two were Thais returning from working in Kuwait and Bahrain.

The soldier and 30 others, including crew of their aircraft, departed Egypt on July 6 and went to the United Arab Emirates. They went on to Pakistan the following day, Tuesday, and arrived at U-tapao airport in Rayong on Wednesday.

The UAE, Pakistan and Egypt are all hotspots for Covid-19 infections found in Thais returning home from overseas.

The information posted on the CCSA Facebook page said the group stayed at a hotel in the province.

The team left U-tapao for Chengdu, China, on Thursday. They returned shortly before midnight the same day, and went to stay at the same hotel.

Dr Taweesilp said health officials tested them on Friday, and there were unconfirmed signs that the soldier might have caught the virus.

The group returned to Egypt on Saturday. The test result confirming the infection came back from the lab on Sunday.

The spokesman said the hotel where he and other members of the delegation stayed was being cleaned . They visited other places during their stay in the province, including a shopping centre, he said. He would not name the places.

"We will examine all the places where they visited," the CCSA spokesman said.

Authorities would also improve the scanning process at the airport in Rayong, which was not as strictly enforced as it was at Suvarnabhumi airport, he said. "We will reconsider all practices," he said.

All were allowed to enter the country as they were defined as air crew under the conditions set by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand, according to the centre.

It remained unclear why they were allowed to go outside the hotel during their stay in Rayong. The CCSA did not go into details how many of the group were soldiers or civilians.


Courtesy of The Bangkok Post
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... e#cxrecs_s

[Udon Map]

Hotel Floors Shut After Egyptian Tests Positive For Virus

2 hotel staff isolated for quarantine

From The Bangkok Post

Rayong governor Surasak Charoensirichote ordered two floors of the hotel where the Egyptian stayed to close for sanitising. (Photo: Rayong Province Facebook account)

Two floors of a hotel in Rayong where an Egyptian delegation stayed have been ordered closed for sanitising after one of them was found to have been infected with the coronavirus.

Rayong governor Surasak Charoensirichote said on Monday he ordered the top two floors of the hotel sealed off a to prevent any spread of the virus after one of the guests, an Egyptian soldier, tested positive for Covid-19.

Two hotel staff in close contact with the patient were also placed in quarantine. They delivered room-service food to the group on Wednesday, he said. More staff could be put in state quarantine if they were found to have been at risk of contagion, he said.

The governor is de facto director of the provincial Communicable Disease Committee

The Egyptian and 30 other members stayed at the hotel in Rayong from Wednesday to Saturday. Some went outside to a shopping centre during their stay.

All returned to Egypt on Saturday and the test result coming out on Sunday showed a 43-year-old soldier with the delegation was infected with the virus.

The governor and Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration refuse to name the places where they visited.

Mr Surasak said health authorities were checking CCTVs to track their activities in the province and people they contacted.

Holiday Inn and Suites City Centre Hotel in Rayong posted a Facebook message saying they group had not stayed there. "No guests from Egypt or a military crew has stayed in our hotel since last year," it said.

Central Plaza also said the patient had not visited its shopping centre in Rayong.

Rayong Hospital director Chaisit Thepchatree said a laboratory was testing swabs health officials took from people who had been in close contact with the visitors, according to. the Provincial Public Relations Office.


Courtesy of The Bangkok Post
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... e#cxrecs_s

[Udon Map]

Covid-19 Cases Trigger Inquiry

CCSA acts after girl, soldier contract virus

From The Bangkok Post

Workers clean roads and places in the Rayong Municipality on Monday after an Egyptian soldier infected with the coronavirus stayed at a hotel and went to shopping malls in Muang district. (Photo from Rayong Municipality Facebook account)

The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) has been taking urgent measures after an Egyptian soldier confirmed to be infected with Covid-19 was found to have visited shopping malls in Rayong province.

Meanwhile, the family of a nine-year-old Thai girl infected with Covid-19 is being investigated after its members were found to not be in embassy accommodation, having stayed in a condominium.

Deputy Public Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha will visit Rayong on Tuesay while a deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control will visit a condominium in Bangkok.

The visitors from Egypt stayed in Rayong en route to a one-day trip to China, where they had military business, then returned to the province on their way home.

All were allowed to enter the country, says the CCSA, as they were defined as air crew under the conditions set by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand. They were not asked to quarantine because they were coming for less than 14 days but they were required to undergo virus tests.

The general manager of U-Tapao airport, Vice Adm Kitchpol Rienglekjamnong, said only one member of the group, a soldier, sneaked out to visit shopping centres.

Echoing many social media users who spread the hashtag #Covid19 (in Thai), the Drama-addict Facebook page, which has more than 2 million followers, urged authorities to reveal exactly which locations had been visited by the infected man.

The page said people had the right to know in order to protect themselves. The centre had at that stage only published the vaguest information, by identifying Rayong as the province visited.

Mr Sathit said later on Monday he would visit Rayong and check locations including Central department store, Laem Thong shopping mall and D Varee Diva Central Rayong Hotel.

Central on Monday announced it had checked and no Covid-19-infected patients visited the mall while the hotel said it had been informed by the Egyptian embassy that the group had passed Covid screening.

CCSA spokesman Taweesilp Visanuyothin said officials from Bangkok would join local staff in the province to check for coronavirus contagion at every place visited by members of the delegation, as well as everyone they came into contact with.

The health scare follows a positive result returned from the lab on Sunday after tests on a swab taken from the 43-year-old soldier. He was one of three new confirmed cases announced by the CCSA on Monday. The other two were Thais returning from working in Kuwait and Bahrain.

The soldier and 30 others, including crew of their aircraft, departed Egypt on July 6 and went to the United Arab Emirates. They then travelled to Pakistan the next day, Tuesday, and arrived at U-tapao airport in Rayong on Wednesday.

The UAE, Pakistan and Egypt are all hot spots for Covid-19 infections found in Thais returning home from overseas.

The information posted on the CCSA Facebook page said the group stayed at a hotel in the province.

The team left U-tapao for Chengdu, China, last Thursday and returned shortly before midnight the same day, staying at the same hotel.

Dr Taweesilp said health officials tested them on Friday and there were unconfirmed signs that the soldier might have caught the virus.

The group returned to Egypt on Saturday, the day before the lab confirmed the positive result.

The spokesman said the hotel where the soldier and other members of the delegation stayed was being cleaned. The group visited other places during their stay in the province, including a shopping centre, he said, but he would not name the locations.

"We will examine all the places they visited," said the CCSA spokesman.

Authorities would also improve the scanning at the airport in Rayong, which was not as strictly enforced as it was at Suvarnabhumi airport. "We will reconsider all practices," he said.

Officials from the Disease Control Department would be sent to conduct tests on everyone who visited the two premises, Mr Sathit said.

On Saturday, the CCSA also reported that a nine-year-old Thai girl who returned home from Sudan with her family had tested positive.

Dr Taweesilp said on Monday she had been hospitalised but the other four family members had not been quarantined because they were the family of a diplomat. They has reportedly self-isolated at a condominium in Bangkok, which the CCSA did not name.

The mother took everyone to get tested in Sudan last Tuesday before they left home, said Dr Taweesilp, and all tested negative.

Three days later, they were tested on arrival and the results were negative but more comprehensive tests showed the girl was infected.

Officials were continuing to investigate the case.


Courtesy of The Bangkok Post
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... e#cxrecs_s

[Udon Map]

Rayong Tourism Industry Dismayed By Egyptian Saga

From The Bangkok Post

An airport official in protective gear sprays disinfectant on passengers' luggage at Suvarnabhumi airport as more Thais who had been stranded overseas and selected groups of foreigners continued to arrive in Thailand on Monday. (Photo: Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)

The tourism sector in Rayong has expressed concerns that the case of an Egyptian soldier who tested positive for Covid-19 will further damage their businesses and are urging authorities to help restore public confidence.

Chayut Chaitrakulthong, chairman of the tourism business operators in the eastern province, said he feared the fresh case would drive tourists away just as local businesses were starting to recover after the easing of lockdown measures on July 1.

However, he said exactly how much people's confidence was affected depended on how the provincial authorities handled the issue which some observers say has exposed lax health screening.

Mr Chayut was speaking after the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) reported the movements of an Egyptian soldier who stayed in Rayong and then tested positive for the coronavirus.

The soldier visited a number of places, including shopping centres, during his stay in the province and also took a one-day trip to China. He returned to Egypt on Saturday and a test result confirming the infection came back from the lab on Sunday.

Mr Chayut said tourism operators in the province had only recently launched a new advertising campaign and they were shocked by the news.

"We are bracing for the impact," he said. "Businesses had just started picking up and were seeing solid bookings. We don't expect the business to fully recover in the 'new normal' but we are hoping the province will resolve the situation before the next long weekend."

Mr Chayut said Rayong had had no local cases for almost two months and he doubted people were paying serious attention to the Thai Chana app, which is being promoted as part of the measures to prevent a fresh outbreak, despite the government's efforts.

Rayong governor Surasak Charoensirichote said on Monday the hotel in question had been ordered to shut. Its 12 hotel staff had been quarantined and would be tested for Covid-19.

He said health authorities were also checking all venues visited by the Egyptian soldier and others in his delegation during their stay in Rayong and necessary appropriate steps would be taken.

Chaisit Thepchatree, director of Rayong Hospital, admitted that the public was anxious about a new outbreak of the virus following the report about the Egyptian solider.

While it has not been confirmed which malls the Egyptian soldier visited, Rayong public health office late on Monday announced that a free, royally sponsored Covid-19 test would be available at Central Rayong and Passione Shopping Destination shopping centres from 11am to 3pm on Tuesday.


Courtesy of The Bangkok Post
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/19 ... ptian-saga

[Udon Map]

This can't bode well for reopening the country to outside tourists.

[maaka]

Agree....open the airports to planes, and the aircrew bring it in..and they are supposed to be following strict CAAT guidelines...close the border till next year methinks

[Doodoo]

And ,will this happen again in the future??

SURE WILL!!

[pipoz4444]

And ,will this happen again in the future??

SURE WILL!!

I think the Egyptian individual or E Delegation should be made to pay (reimbure business and others) for the cost of the incovenince that he/they have caused. There are to many acts/breach of quarantine, where individuals or groups with total disregard for anyone other than themselve, are putting others and businesses at risk and costing them potential or aactual income. In this case businesses suffered direct financial loss and the Thai G had to pay for a clean up.

Plus, what it do to impactin on or delaying the restart of Thai tourism

Wth Covid 19, people need to be held finanially accountable for their deliberate breaches

pipoz4444

[newtovillagelife]

And ,will this happen again in the future??

SURE WILL!!

I think the Egyptian individual or E Delegation should be made to pay (reimbure business and others) for the cost of the incovenince that he/they have caused. There are to many acts/breach of quarantine, where individuals or groups with total disregard for anyone other than themselve, are putting others and businesses at risk and costing them potential or aactual income. In this case businesses suffered direct financial loss and the Thai G had to pay for a clean up.

Plus, what it do to impactin on or delaying the restart of Thai tourism

Wth Covid 19, people need to be held finanially accountable for their deliberate breaches

pipoz4444

Er....maybe Thailand doesn't need to go into unreasonable panic mode either!! Other countries are out of control, things are more than ok here...no need to get your knickers in a twist.


Thailand should learn how to live with a few daily Covid cases, because policies aimed at eradicating the virus completely are having a high economic cost.

[pipoz4444]

And ,will this happen again in the future??

SURE WILL!!

I think the Egyptian individual or E Delegation should be made to pay (reimbure business and others) for the cost of the incovenince that he/they have caused. There are to many acts/breach of quarantine, where individuals or groups with total disregard for anyone other than themselve, are putting others and businesses at risk and costing them potential or aactual income. In this case businesses suffered direct financial loss and the Thai G had to pay for a clean up.

Plus, what it do to impactin on or delaying the restart of Thai tourism

Wth Covid 19, people need to be held finanially accountable for their deliberate breaches

pipoz4444

Er....maybe Thailand doesn't need to go into unreasonable panic mode either!! Other countries are out of control, things are more than ok here...no need to get your knickers in a twist.


Thailand should learn how to live with a few daily Covid cases, because policies aimed at eradicating the virus completely are having a high economic cost.

Got nothing to do with Panic Mode or eradicating the virus, its about people being held accountable for their actions (particularly stupid ones) and people having a bit of self control at this time of Covid 19, but nice to see your manipulation on the post content, as always.

It's easy to see that you have never owned or ran a business, where the income you have, is the money you actually work to earn. More likely you advocate socialism.

Then again, maybe you are just an Egyptian

Don't need to wear knickers, just let your balls hand free

pipoz4444

[pipoz4444]

Not saying the E was directly responsible for this (as alleged in today's Thai Visa article) or if the 30% of Hotel Booking cancellations, is in any way accurate, but Mr. E, certainly didn't help the situation

https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/ea ... ng-bangkok

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... -for-virus


pipoz4444

[GT93]

Over the top 4444. newtovillagelife's post was reasonable even if one disagrees with it.

Quite a few of the rule breakers won't be able to pay financial penalties. Even in farangland. I want the courts to give brief prison sentences to people breaching quarantine in NZ. Someone needs to get sentenced soon to help deter potential rule breakers.

[tamada]

And ,will this happen again in the future??

SURE WILL!!

I think the Egyptian individual or E Delegation should be made to pay (reimbure business and others) for the cost of the incovenince that he/they have caused. There are to many acts/breach of quarantine, where individuals or groups with total disregard for anyone other than themselve, are putting others and businesses at risk and costing them potential or aactual income. In this case businesses suffered direct financial loss and the Thai G had to pay for a clean up.

Plus, what it do to impactin on or delaying the restart of Thai tourism

Wth Covid 19, people need to be held finanially accountable for their deliberate breaches

pipoz4444

Nobody needs to recompense anyone here. The Thai procedures either weren't in place, weren't enforced or weren't rigorous enough. Anything else falls into the "China must pay!" receptacle of ill-conceived notions.

[tamada]

And ,will this happen again in the future??

SURE WILL!!

I think the Egyptian individual or E Delegation should be made to pay (reimbure business and others) for the cost of the incovenince that he/they have caused. There are to many acts/breach of quarantine, where individuals or groups with total disregard for anyone other than themselve, are putting others and businesses at risk and costing them potential or aactual income. In this case businesses suffered direct financial loss and the Thai G had to pay for a clean up.

Plus, what it do to impactin on or delaying the restart of Thai tourism

Wth Covid 19, people need to be held finanially accountable for their deliberate breaches

pipoz4444

Er....maybe Thailand doesn't need to go into unreasonable panic mode either!! Other countries are out of control, things are more than ok here...no need to get your knickers in a twist.


Thailand should learn how to live with a few daily Covid cases, because policies aimed at eradicating the virus completely are having a high economic cost.

Got nothing to do with Panic Mode or eradicating the virus, its about people being held accountable for their actions (particularly stupid ones) and people having a bit of self control at this time of Covid 19, but nice to see your manipulation on the post content, as always.

It's easy to see that you have never owned or ran a business, where the income you have, is the money you actually work to earn. More likely you advocate socialism.

Then again, maybe you are just an Egyptian

Don't need to wear knickers, just let your balls hand free

pipoz4444

So the U-Tapao airport director who came out right at the start all defensive and stating that the correct procedures were followed gets a free pass and the dirty Egyptians are the ones responsible?

Really?

[pipoz4444]

Each to his own,view.

Lucky, I am not sitting on the Bench

pipoz4444