Health investigators have found COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) on the surface of a piece fitness equipment in the gym of a hotel in Samut Prakan province, where an infected French woman was quarantined, said Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong, Acting Director-General of the Disease Control Department, today.

He also said that health officials had conducted swab tests on 67 people in the hotel and all were cleared of infection, adding that seven specimens from the environment in the hotel were examined and the virus was found in one of them.

He pointed out that there was a risk of quarantined people spreading the virus in a gym or in other areas of the hotel.

Due to this incident, the Disease Control Department and the Department of Health Service Support have decided to tighten up preventive measures at hotels used as quarantine facilities.

Regarding the infected woman, Dr. Opas said that the latest blood test showed no sign of antibodies, but a lot of genetic substance, while her husband, son and a friend who picked her up at Samui airport have, so far, been cleared of the contagion.

All ten passengers on the same flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui, and two cabin crew, have been tested, with negative results and all have been isolated and are under observation.