About 3.7 percent of Pattaya residents tested positive for Covid-19 during ten days of active case finding, Mayor Sonthaya Kunplome said.
Speaking to reporters Aug. 21, the mayor said 5,196 coronavirus tests had been performed since Aug. 10 with rapid antigen test kits. Results showed 192 people tested positive.
If that positivity rate accurately reflects the coronavirus infection level across the city, that’s good news for Pattaya. The World Health Organization recommends that the positivity rate remains below 5 percent for at least two weeks before governments consider easing restrictions.
However, while antigen tests rarely return false positives, they are prone to false negatives. Yet, for some reason, Pattaya sent those with negative tests home and re-confirmed positive cases with RT-PCR tests.
All those who tested positive were given medication to treat symptoms and either placed in converted hotels (“hospitels”) or home isolation. If one member of a larger family tested positive while relatives, Pattaya Hospital teams were sent to that person’s home to test relatives, Sonthaya said.
The mayor said the city would continue to test as many people as possible to break the infection cycle in the city by finding infected people and isolating them from family members or the general public.
Pattaya on Sunday reported another 198 new cases with Chonburi, as a whole, recording 1,092 infections and two deaths.
 |
 |
 |
