CAIRO — A Thai national has died from the coronavirus in Egypt, officials said Wednesday.
The Royal Thai embassy in Cairo identified the victim as a 26-year-old university student. The student, who was not named, was admitted with severe symptoms to a local hospital on Friday. He reportedly died on Tuesday.
This is the first death of a Thai person in Egypt, out of a total of 127 Thai infections there: 100 are currently being treated and 26 have recovered.
Thais in Cairo wishing to return have to rely on flights arranged by the embassy as no commercial flights are available. The embassy said on Monday they screened 325 people who were flying or in queue to fly back to Thailand on Wednesday, and found that six people were ineligible to fly due to health risks.
Egypt has had a total of 92,947 coronavirus cases and 4,691 deaths.
Thais stranded overseas are facing health and financial risks after the government shut its doors to all travelers from overseas in late March, including its own citizens – a move that potentially violates the Constitution. A Thai YouTuber in the UK died from the virus in April.
Thailand has had zero local transmissions for more than two months, even after a virus scare caused by an infected Egyptian airman who was allowed to leave his hotel room and visited public venues in Rayong city from July 8 to 11.
Although thousands in the province tested negative for the virus, the scare effectively tanked local tourism.
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