Meanwhile, Phuket officials are coordinating with embassies to repatriate some 3,000 tourists left in the island, Governor Phakaphong said at a main meeting of the Phuket Communicable Disease Committee yesterday (Apr 7).
At the meeting, Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana said that the COVID-positive Hungarian tourist who died while in hospital care had died from severe injuries from a road accident, not COVID-19, repeating the explanation given by Vachira Phuket Hospital Director Dr Chalermpong Sukontapol on Monday. (See story here),
“The Phuket provincial government has implemented COVID-19 disease prevention measures according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Public Health. We ask for people’s cooperation to maintain social distance. and please wear a face mask at all times. If you have a fever, cough, sore throat and diarrhea, please go to see a doctor and strictly follow public health [regulations],” he said.
"At this time, the medical profession is working to its fullest capacity. The Phuket province [sic] will hold a rehearsal meeting to assist the disease investigation team because the problem we have found is that people hide the truth, so we have to focus on risk groups, and will proactively implement the disease control guidelines,” he added.
At the meeting was Dr Pitakpol Boonyamalik from the Ministry of Public Health Region 11 office, who explained his area of responsibility comprised the seven Upper Southern Thailand provinces, including Phuket.
“Phuket is a difficult area to control the disease. There are many foreign tourists. This makes the investigation of the disease quite difficult, especially due to the behaviour of tourists, who conduct activities throughout [the province]. Therefore, controlling the epidemic in Phuket is considered extremely challenging,” Dr Pitakpol kept repeating.
In response, the Ministry of Public Health Region 11 office together with the Department of Disease Control is taking a proactive approach to try to curtail the spread of the virus in Phuket, an approach he said that was not being done in other provinces.
“The practice is different from other provinces in Thailand. The Phuket authorities have closed down areas. The people are now stationary. That makes it easier to proactively search for patients and find people with a history of risk who have travelled to or worked on Soi Bangla,” Dr Pitakpol said.
The proactive search for the infected is being conducted with the assistance of laboratories from Bangkok, together with budget support from the National Health Security Office (NHSO).
The campaign will be conducted in stages. Phase 1 has already started in Patong and will be expanded to other areas in Kathu District, then to Thalang and related areas, Dr Pitakpol said.
The campaign began in Patong last Thursday (Apr 2), with screening conducted from last Sunday through Tuesday this week (Apr 5-7).
“The target is to screen about 3,000 people. We have already screened 2,000 people,” he said.
Laboratory tests of people suspected of being infected will take 24 hours, Dr Pitakpol said.
“People with the initial symptoms of infection are around 3-5% of those screened,” he noted, without giving an actual number of the people identified with the initial symptoms.
“The number of people in Phuket infected with the virus will increase for some time, then the number of patients will gradually decrease,” he predicted.
The results of the campaign will be available in one to two weeks, he added.
NEW FIELD HOSPITAL
The “field hospital” set up at the still-incomplete new Phuket Provincial Hall complex currently has “more than” 20 patients, Governor Phakaphong said.
The facility can accommodate 110 patients, he added, while saying that a second field hospital is being set up at the Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus.
“This will not be open for another three to four days. It is being set up so we are prepared to handle more patients,” he said.
GETTING OUT
Governor Phakaphong told the meeting that more stringent measures were being taken to prevent people from entering or leaving the province.
“The ports have been closed completely. Land crossing measures are more stringent at the Tha Chatchai checkpoint [Phuket Check Point] and operations in each area in Phuket have integrated the setting up of checkpoints in accordance with the provincial announcement to lock down the Patong, Karon areas, so people cannot enter or exit those areas,” he said.
The airport remains closed to all inbound international passenger flights except those granted special permission, the Governor added.
“Right now there are no new tourists arriving in Phuket,’ he said.
“As for the remaining tourists in Phuket, now there are 3,000 of them,” he added.
“The province [sic] has coordinated with consulates from each country, and tonight there will be an empty plane to pick up French people to fly back to France,” he said at the meeting yesterday.
Of note, Qatar Airways Flight QR 841 to Doha, which codeshares with British Airways (BA 7012), Spanish airline Iberia (IB 7937) and Siberia-based Airline S7 (S7 4728), is still operating through Phuket International Airport. The flight departs at 8:40ppm with 140 people on board.
Another Qatar Airways flight, Flight QR 3288 to Doha, lifted off at 9:20pm with 400 people on board.