Thailand is stepping up coronavirus surveillance measures among tourism workers and in shopping malls as it emerged the country was visited by tens of thousands of people in January from Wuhan, in China, where the outbreak originated, and other affected Chinese cities.
A total of 14 cases of the new coronavirus have been recorded in Thailand, making it the second-hardest hit country behind China. Officials have not recorded any instances of human-to-human transmission, but said an outbreak in the country’s tourism hotspots was possible.
More than 25,000 people arrived in Thailand from China between 3 and 27 January, according to Reuters.
It was announced on Wednesday that people working in the tourism industry are to be screened for symptoms of the new coronavirus, which has infected almost 6,000 people in China. Thailand has also introduced airport screening for all passengers travelling from China.
It follows public anger at the government’s handling of the outbreak, including allegations that tourism profits were being prioritised over public health. A hashtag criticising the government trended on social media at the weekend.
Dr Tanarak Plipat, the deputy director general of the department of disease control, told the Bangkok Post that there could be an outbreak in the country’s tourism areas. “As in Japan, it will start with local transmission on a very limited scale and later grow to the provincial level,” he said.
Most of the Chinese visitors are believed to have returned home, but it is not known how many may have been stranded after China’s government banned most commercial flights to Wuhan last week. Thailand is one of the top tourist destinations for Chinese tourists, and is likely to suffer from the Chinese government’s ban on tour groups and message that citizens should rethink foreign travel.
The presence of coronavirus in Thailand is also likely to be off-putting to tourists from elsewhere. Helen Anderson, from the north-west of England, who travels regularly to Thailand to visit her husband in Bangkok, said she would go ahead with flying to the country in 10 days, but that they would be postponing plans to visit the tourism hotspots of Krabi or Phuket.
“I am planning to wear a mask onboard and will also use it in public places,” she said. “I’ve purchased some clinical wipes for the plane and will do the normal routine of washing hands.” They would also be avoiding crowded areas, she said.
Dr Clare Wenham, assistant professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics, said the risks of flying to and from Bangkok were unclear.
“We’re still learning about this virus – it’s new,” she said, adding that even epidemiologists and virologists don’t know exactly how it spreads, how virulent it is or how many people the average person infects.
Scanning at airports, she added, was unlikely to identify all cases. “All the evidence has shown that screening passengers [with] airport scanners that we saw in the UK during the Ebola outbreak, and we’re seeing again now, is limited in its effectiveness.” Passengers who have mild or no symptoms, as is possible with coronavirus, or who have taken a paracetamol on the flight, might not be spotted, she added.
Wenham also cautioned against mass flight bans or extensive quarantine measures, such as those introduced in China, saying it was better to invest resources in frontline health services.
“We know that quarantine or mass banning of flights does not mean the infection won’t spread,” she said, adding that people will always find a way to travel and that such policies risk pushing cases underground.
In tourism hotspots in Bangkok, health measures have been stepped up in an attempt to stop infections. At Paragon, one of Bangkok’s major shopping centres, customers’ temperatures were being scanned at entrances on Wednesday, hand sanitiser was on offer and glove-wearing attendants pressed the buttons in lifts to prevent customers from doing so.
“I saw on TV that the coronavirus is very dangerous now,” said Rima Kabir, 29, who was visiting Bangkok on holiday from Bangladesh and was shopping at Paragon on Wednesday. “I’ve been using hand sanitiser but now the mask and hand sanitiser are all stocked out in every shop, every pharmacy,” she said. The outbreak was frightening, she added.
Wenham said that Thailand, along with other global hubs, “will likely have a number of infections if things continue as they are”.
