Thailand today (Monday) recorded one new COVID-19 case in state quarantine, but no new fatalities or recoveries.
According to CCSA spokesman, Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin, the new case is a 52-year old Thai electrician, who arrived in Thailand from Singapore on July 6th, on the same flight as another infected passenger.
The man was given the first swab test on the fourth day of his isolation in state quarantine, which cleared him of any infection. The second test, which was conducted a week later, was positive for COVID-19.
Dr. Taweesin disclosed that, so far, 1,618 Thais have returned from Singapore and only 5 of them were found to be infected, adding that, altogether, there have been 43,121 Thai returnees from abroad and 313 have tested positive for the virus.
He reminded everyone not to expect Thailand to be able to maintain zero local infections, as there are still many Thais abroad who are returning home, at a rate of about 600 a day.
Foreign arrivals, through land borders, are still not permitted, but the CCSA is due to meet on Wednesday to consider the sixth phase of lockdown easing, which could allow migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos to enter the country, to ease the shortage of unskilled labour in the construction, industrial and service sectors.
Dr. Taweesin said that the tourism industry worldwide has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, because tourists are not confident enough to travel yet and host countries are not sure the tourists will not spread the disease, hence, the need to work out a new normal way of promoting tourism.
