The government on Thursday reported 18 new cases of novel coronavirus infection, another nurse infected locally in Bangkok and 17 quarantined arrivals, raising the total to 4,169.

Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) spokesman Thaweesilp Visanuyothin said the new locally transmitted Covid-19 infection was a nurse at BNH Hospital. This raised the number of infected nurses in Bangkok to six.

Health officials had tested 851 people close to them, and all 745 results so far were negative, Dr Thaweesilp said

He said the first of the six was infected after failing to wear her protective gear properly while handling arrivals at an alternative state quarantine facility. She later transmitted the disease to the other nurses during meals.

Dr Sophon Iamsirithaworn, director of general communicable diseases, said that on Dec 2 the first infected nurse boarded an MRT train from 10am to 10.10am and travelled to Thon Buri for a job interview at a hospital.

She took a BTS train back from 2pm-2.10pm to Silom. People on board the same trains at the same periods had a low risk of infection because the nurse wore a face mask while travelling, he said.

Seventeen more infected people have arrived from 10 countries, the CCSA reported.

There were four From Switzerland, two Thai women, aged 53 and 56, and two Swiss men, aged 53 and 64. They arrived on the same flight as 11 previously confirmed cases.

The two cases from Sweden were Thai women, 16 and 63, who took the same flight as three previously confirmed cases.

Two cases from the Philippines were an American man, 65, and a Philippine woman, 28.

Two cases from the United Kingdom were an Italian woman, 23, and an American man, 23. There were also two from Italy, a Thai man, 22, and a Thai woman, 30.

There is one case from Nepal, a Nepalese woman student, 20, who took the same flight as one previously confirmed case.

One case is from Kenya, a Kenyan male teacher, 35, who was on the same flight as two previously confirmed cases.

There is one case from Russia, a Thai masseuse, 53, one from the United States, an American man, 56, and one from Libya, a Thai man aged 52.

Of the total 4,169 cases in the country, 3,888 (93.26%) recovered including eight discharged over the past 24 hours and 221 were at hospitals. The death toll remained unchanged at 60.

Global Covid-19 cases soared by 643,472 to 69.23 million. The worldwide death toll was up by 12,260 to 1.57 million. The US had the most cases at 15.82 million, up 225,441.

 

 

Bangkok Post