17 Thais Returnees from Middle East Found With COVID-19

Thai returnees from India leave a state quarantine facility on June 1, 2020.

BANGKOK — Seventeen Thais who recently returned from the Middle East were found with the coronavirus – the highest number of infections in recent weeks.

Thirteen Thais returning from Kuwait, two from Qatar, and two from Saudi Arabia tested positive while they were held in state quarantine, Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman of the government’s Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration said Thursday.

“This is the importance of having state quarantines,” Taweesin said. “Some people are saying, can we not let them in, since our country is clean? No. It is every Thai’s right. We must receive Thai people home.”

No new deaths were reported.

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The total infected in Thailand is at 3,101. Most of the new infections in the past month involve “imported cases” among returnees from a range of countries, from Russia to U.S.A. and India.

In April, a surge of infections was also linked to a Muslim pilgrimage returning from Indonesia. 

A state committee on Hajj pilgrimages today said that of the total of 8,454 Thais who had registered to go on the Hajj in 2020, 5,773 postponed it to next year and 1,016 cancelled the trips altogether, while 1,665 said they would still go ahead with the journey within this year.