Fifty-nine students and staff of Khon Kaen University have been quarantined at their lodgings for observation for 14 days after two of them were found to have a high fever after their return from South Korea.

The university administration said the two students were tested for COVID-19 infection at the Srinakharin Hospital in the campus, but their results were negative.

The administration added that, for safety’s sake, all 59 of them were told to take leave at their lodgings and to remain there for the 14-day mandatory period.

The administration has also banned its staff and students from visiting China, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Germany Italy and Iran.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s public health permanent secretary Dr. Sukhum Kanchanapimai disclosed today two new COVID-19 cases, bringing to 37 the number of confirmed cases in Thailand, with 22 of them having already returned home, leaving 15 still in hospitals.

The new cases are a 31-year housewife, who is currently being treated at Rajavithi Hospital, and a 29-year old man, a driver working for a foreigner, who is being treated at Bamrasnaradura Institute of Infectious Diseases in Nonthaburi province.

Dr. Sukhum said that the Public Health Ministry will begin trials of the Fah Talai Jone herb (Andrographis paniculata) in the treatment of COVID-19 infection, after laboratory tests in China showed encouraging results that an extract from the herb, Andrographolide, is effective in curbing virus intrusion into human cells.

The trial will involve ten strong and healthy volunteers, with their blood being tested every 5-7 days to assess the extract’s efficacy in curbing viral activity.