Medical experts see Covid-19 risk for Thailand from foreigners

The risk of Covid-19 spreading has increased, especially due to labourers coming into Thailand from other countries, Dr Yong Poovorawan, an expert virologist at Chulalongkorn University, said on Thursday.
He said that the total cases in Myanmar had passed Thailand to more than 4,000, with Yangon city being the epicentre of the outbreak. 
“Covid-19 could enter Thailand when someone comes into the country. Both countries have a long border and many natural channels. We need to control  migration to prevent the outbreak,” said Dr Yong.
Chulalongkorn University professor of medicine Dr Thira Woratanarat also warned about the sharp jump in global infections.
“It took 43 days from 10 million cases to 20 million cases [June 27 to August 9],  then took 38 days to 30 million [August 9 to September 16]. Yesterday [Thursday],  new Covid-19 cases had increased dramatically by 325,840 with 5,708 deaths," Dr Thira said.
He added that the virus stiuation in Europe was getting worse: Spain and France have more than 10,000 new cases, while UK, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, as well as Iran Bangladesh, Philippines, Indonesia and Canada have got more than a thousand per day.
“Recently, Myanmar reported 222 new cases, totalling 4,043 cases with more than 60 deaths. The 14-day quarantine measure is great, but as more people return from abroad, the chance of asymptomatic patients are there. I would like to asked all quarantined people to avoid going out too much. Another 14-day home quarantine is highly recommended.”
Allowing foreginers entry is risky for Thailand and it might be better to follow the sufficiency economy philosophy to lower dependence on foreigners until the virus situation can be contained globally,” said Dr Thira