BANGKOK, Feb 20 (TNA) – Thailand is considering listing
covid-19 as a dangerous communicable disease that will provide officials legal
tools to control the disease.
Dr Sophon Iam-sirithavorn, Director of the Bureau of General
Communicable Diseases, said the government would decide to list Covid-19 as a
new and dangerous communicable disease in a meeting on Monday, February 24.
He revealed that public health and disease control officials
discussed the plan in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on
Thursday morning.
Listing the disease would give officials legal tools to
improve their response to the epidemic, he said.
Currently, Thailand’s situation is in the second stage with
local transmission. The officials
discussed necessary preparations just in case that Thailand enters the third
stage, referring to uncontrollable infections.
“If there are more
patients, we will have the legal means to facilitate our work with full
resources for medical response.
Violating health instructions will be punishable,” he said.
The government has also laid out plans to ensure sufficient
supply of facemasks.
During the briefing, the Public Health Ministry also reported
that the number of covid-19 patients remained unchanged at 35. Seventeen of
them had already been discharged.
Two of the 18 patients in hospitals are in serious
conditions.
Until Thursday, a total of 1,052 people are being
monitored. Of these patients, 191
remained in hospitals while 861 of them had been discharged.(TNA)
