Thailand recorded three new COVID-19 cases today (Friday), all among arrivals from Sudan on the same flight as a Sudanese diplomat’s family member, who had tested positive for the virus.

CCSA spokesman Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin said that 12 of the passengers on this flight are infected.

The three new cases are in state quarantine and are all women, aged 22, 23 and 28. Two are asymptomatic and the third has a fever and a cough.

Cumulative infections in Thailand, to date, are 3,239 with 3,096 recoveries and 58 deaths.

Dr. Taweesin said that the CCSA subcommittee, headed by the secretary-general of the National Security Council, has decided that, from now on, all foreign diplomats and their families entering Thailand will be subjected to 14-day quarantine at state facilities, without exemption.

The lifting of the exemptions follows the transgression of regulations by an Egyptian military mission, who went shopping during their brief stay at a hotel in Rayong, and the stay at a Bangkok condominium by a Sudanese diplomatic family member who tested positive for COVID-19.

Dr. Taweesin said that the CCSA subcommittee also discussed other related issues, such as permission for foreigners to enter Thailand to hold trade exhibitions, shoot movies, the travel bubble tourism program and allowing migrant workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia to return to Thailand, to ease the labour shortage.

Regarding the Royong incident, he said everyone who has come forward for swab tests has been cleared of the disease, insisting that there are only 12 people who are regarded as being at “high risk”.

For the Sudanese diplomat family’s case, only seven were regarded as being at “high risk”.  None of them, or 28 “low risk” people, tested positive for COVID-19, nor have 97 other people who were also tested.