BANGKOK, Jan 21 (TNA) – Thai health officials have stepped up measures to screen Chinese visitors who are arriving for the Lunar New Year festival as China confirms its new coronavirus can be transmitted from person to person.
Dr Tanarak Plipat, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control, said countries were intensifying their disease control after Chinese authorities officially confirmed that the 2019 novel coronavirus was already transmitted among persons.
Stricter screening was implemented at immigration checkpoints where Chinese people were arriving as infected people were found in more Chinese cities including Beijing and Shenzhen. The screening was applied at the checkpoints receiving visitors from those cities in addition to Wuhan, Dr Tanarak said.
According to him, about 16,000 Chinese people visit Thailand daily and about 30 people have been quarantined for suspected infection of the novel coronavirus this month.
CNN reported that the novel coronavirus killed three people and about 220 people were infected with it. At least two people contracted the virus from other people. They were in Guangdong province and received the disease from their family members who had visited Wuhan city. Some medical personnel were also infected. (TNA)
