‘Thais in Wuhan to return home before Feb 4’

Speaking during verbal interpellation by opposition MPs about the coronavirus crisis, Satit said the government had formed an ad hoc centre since January 3.
The deputy minister confirmed that the total number of infected people in Thailand was now 14 -- 13 Chinese and one Thai who had returned from Wuhan. Three of the Chinese patients are still recovering in Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute while the others have returned home. He assured that all hospitals are ready to deal with suspected cases if the number did not exceed 10,000. The latest case is that of a Chinese person who had travelled from Myanmar but no trace of the virus has been found so far.
“We will be able to control the situation in Thailand. Recently, we contacted Chinese authorities to help us evacuate all Thais in Wuhan. They said they would allow that on February 4. However, we have to wait for official confirmation,” said Satit.
Future Forward Party MP Wayo Assawarungruang asked about the coronavirus situation and urged the government to deal with the problems. He claimed that the 14th patient was a Thai taxi driver who had got the virus from a Chinese passenger. However, the Public Health Ministry announced that all the recent cases were Chinese. He also added that the death rate is 2-3 per cent with the youngest victim around 36 years old.
Satit said the 14th patient is currently under observation for symptoms. He said the monitoring of information by many parties had led to delays. He said detecting an infected person generally takes 5-6 hours for confirmation. However, because of the technology in the labs, the confirmation process using two labs takes 3 hours, less than the original 5 hours. He added that he was confident that if all parties cooperated, Thailand would survive the epidemic.
“There is a lot of fake news on social networks such as ‘‘skin contact will lead to virus infection’. I asked an expert and they confirmed that it’s not true unless there is a wound on the skin; another rumour doing the rounds is that all infected patients will die. Facts show that the symptoms of the disease are not severe enough to cause death. The majority of deaths are of elderly people, patients who have had chronic illnesses, lung diseases and respiratory diseases,” Satit explained.