The Thai taxi driver, who was Thailand’s first case of person-to-person transmission of the novel coronavirus, has been discharged from hospital and has offered moral support to besieged Wuhan residents by asking them not to feel desperate, but to “fight on like me.”
The unidentified cabbie was invited to join a news conference today, with Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, at the Ministry of Public Health.
Offering his thanks to the medical team at Bamrasnaradura Infectious Disease Institute involved in his treatment, the taxi driver told the media that, after his admission to the institute, he was offered moral support by the director, who called him every day to advise him to relax, eat and sleep to strengthen his immune system.
He said that he feels fine today and could jog around the Ministry of Public Health adding that, although he contracted the virus from Chinese tourists through his occupation as a taxi driver, he did not hold any grudge “because we are all brothers and sisters in the same family and, frankly speaking, my rice bowl is (filled by) the tourists.”
Giving advice to his follow cabbies, he said that, once a person experiences flu-like symptoms, he or she should immediately see a doctor and avoid contact with the other people to avoid being blamed for spreading the virus.
He also suggested that some sort of financial support should be given to taxi drivers under treatment, because they have no other source of income.
The cabbie was admitted to the Bamrasnaradura Institute on January 28th with a fever and cough and was diagnosed with novel coronavirus infection. He was given a cocktail of anti-biotics and his condition steadily improved.
Mr. Anutin praised the cabbie as a good model, because he knew he was sick and immediately saw a doctor and isolated himself from the others.
