BANGKOK, July 27 (TNA) — Thailand logged four new COVID-19 patients and its schools are likely to resume their full-scale services without students alternating days, according to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration.
CCSA spokesman Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin said the four new COVID-19 cases raised the total to 3,295, 3,111 of whom recovered and 126 remained at hospitals. There were no new deaths and the death toll was unchanged at 58.
New patients were returnees. Three of them arrived from the United States. One is a female tourist aged 44. She arrived on July 20 and was quarantined in Chon Buri province. She tested positive on July 25 while being asymptomatic.
Two others are male student, 25, and female student aged 21. They arrived on July 25. The man had a sore throat and fever. The woman had a fever and lost her sense of smell. Their infection showed in their repeated tests.
The other new case is a male factory worker aged 30 who returned on July 21. He was quarantined in Bangkok and tested positive on July 25 when he had diarrhea.
For the resumption of full-scale services at schools, the CCSA spokesman said young students posed low risks of infection because their nasal cavities were smaller than adults’ and there were no COVID-19 infections among young students over the past month.
Alternate school days for students at about 4,500 packed schools affected their learning and social skills as well as the work of their parents, Dr Taweesin said.
For the full-scale service resumption, the management of the schools must place desks as far as possible from one another, open the windows of their air-conditioned classrooms during breaks and record respiratory illnesses. Local educational and health officials would supervise the schools, Dr Taweesin said.
The Health Department found that 99.4% of schools applied such measures and the number of ill students dropped to only 687 who coughed and had a fever, runny nose and sore throat without COVID-19 infection, he said. (TNA)
