While no cases of the Chinese coronavirus have been reported in Pattaya, Bangkok Hospital Pattaya remains on high alert.
The hospital on Jan. 27 began a sophisticated screening process for all visitors to the Sukhumvit Road facility running a fever, as determined by body-temperature scanners installed at the entrances.
While people running fevers at a hospital is quite common, anyone whose temperature rises above 37.5 degrees Celsius will be quarantined and tested for the influenza A, H1N1, influenza B and RSV viruses.
If all those flu tests come back negative, the patient will have blood taken and the sample sent to the government science center to check if contains the nCoV-2019 virus now sweeping China.
Not all fever patients are tested for the coronavirus as test kits remain in relatively short supply.