BANGKOK – Thailand is considering listing covid-19 as a dangerous communicable disease that will provide officials legal tools to control the disease.
Dr Sophon Iam-sirithavorn, Director of the Bureau of General Communicable Diseases, said the government would decide to list Covid-19 as a new and dangerous communicable disease in a meeting on Monday, February 24.
He revealed that public health and disease control officials discussed the plan in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Thursday morning.
Listing the disease would give officials legal tools to improve their response to the epidemic, he said.
Currently, Thailand’s situation is in the second stage with local transmission. The officials discussed necessary preparations just in case that Thailand enters the third stage, referring to uncontrollable infections.
“If there are more patients, we will have the legal means to facilitate our work with full resources for medical response. Violating health instructions will be punishable,” he said.
The government has also laid out plans to ensure sufficient supply of facemasks.
During the briefing, the Public Health Ministry also reported that the number of covid-19 patients remained unchanged at 35. Seventeen of them had already been discharged.
Two of the 18 patients in hospitals are in serious conditions.
Until Thursday, a total of 1,052 people is being monitored. Of these patients, 191 remained in hospitals while 861 of them had been discharged.
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