CityNews – 25th January 2020, a 38 years old female Chinese tourist to Thailand from Wuhan was the seventh suspect to the kingdom to be suspected of contracting the new coronavirus. She was here in Chiang Mai when she fell ill and went to McCormick Hospital for a checkup. Later, she was sent to Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai to be treated specifically, while germ and blood samplings from her are being further examined.
As for the sixth suspected case of a boy patient, previously officially announced by Dr. Jatuchai Maneerat, public health doctor and Dr. Sumet Ongwandee, director of Chiang Mai disease control department to confirm to be affected by the new virus, after further investigation, it was found that he was in fact not affected by the virus.
Meanwhile, Chiang Mai airport has cancelled all direct flights of Air China Limited from and to Wuhan between 24th January to 4th February. Passengers who were to fly back to Wuhan on 26th January would board other flights to other cities in China (e.g. Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing.)
Quarantine checkpoints at the airport were also ordered to closely monitor all Chinese tourists, specifically from Guangzhou, and a new thermo-scan has been installed for this purpose as of the 25th January. If a passenger with fever over 38 Celsius is found, he/she would be screened and placed in a restricted area. Every Chinese tourist is given a Health Beware Card. Travelling companies, tour leaders and tour guides are asked to help cooperate in monitoring too.
As for measures to assist tourists, there are officially placed in tourist assistance centres in CNX and service points in Central Festival and Central Airport shopping malls. Hotline 1422 of department of disease control can be contacted anytime if a person with suspect symptoms is found.
Yet at this point none of the seven have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus in Chiang Mai. Previous announcement were made to Citylife from Chiang Mai Public Health Office. Today we phoned headquarter of Public Health Office in Bangkok and has an update that there are three tourist patients really affected by the virus in central part of Thailand, now under quarantine treatment.