Tracing Website Now Includes Info of 5 Million People

A customer at Siam Paragon mall checks in via a government website on May 17, 2020, the first day malls are allowed to reopen.

BANGKOK — A Thai chef in state quarantine after returning from Bahrain tested positive for the coronavirus, the spokesman for the government’s pandemic response team said Wednesday.

Taweesin Visanuyothin identified him as a 45-year-old male Thai chef in state quarantine in Bangkok, who tested positive in the state quarantine – continuing the single-digit increase in coronavirus infections since May 6. Taweesin also said 5 million people have given their details to the government tracing website so far.

The man returned from Bahrain on May 15 and was found with the coronavirus on May 18. He brings the total number of infected to 3,034 in Thailand.

Singer Prinyar Narksiri, who was previously marooned in Bahrain with dozens of Thai nationals, posted on his Facebook welcoming Thais back from Bahrain.

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After pleading on social media for the government to allow him and others to fly home, the singer returned to Thailand on April 19.

“The second group of Thais in Bahrain have just returned and are in state quarantine. Welcome home,” Prinyar wrote Friday.

No additional deaths were reported Wednesday, and 31 people recovered.The total number of infected is 3,034, with 2,888 recovered and 56 dead. Currently 90 people are being treated for the virus at hospitals.

Since Sunday, when the government started requiring business customers to register their info with the Thai Chana website, a total of 67,904 shops have registered with the system so far, Taweesin said.

Up to 5,077,978 people have used the website to check in more than 8.5 million times, though check out only took place 6.5 million times.

Taweesin said that the website collected people’s phone number data for 60 days to be able to catch clusters of infections if they broke out.

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Graphic: COVID-19 Situation Administration
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