Thailand Has a Sudden Spike in COVID-19 Cases As a Group Shared Drinks & Cigarettes

By
George Yang
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It’s never hygienic to share anything during this COVID-19 outbreak.

Reader Bao: You mean sharing your article on Facebook is unhygienic?

Oh, crap, kids nowadays interpret the word “share” differently. Let me rephrase: it’s never hygienic to share drinks or cigarettes, or almost anything tangible, during this COVID-19 outbreak.

If need to, prepare a hand sanitizer because you never know who’s been infected.

But a group of young adults in Thailand did not get the memo, and they single-handedly created the biggest daily jump in new cases in the country through their irresponsible actions.

Thailand Has a Spike in COVID-19 Cases As a Group Shared Drinks & Cigarettes

On 11 March 2020, Thailand has a total of 59 confirmed cases. So far, most of their cases are imported and they had a few new cases daily, much like how Singapore was like in late January and early February.

But yesterday, all of a sudden, there’s a spike of 11 new cases, and all of them were Thai nationals.

So what happened?

Apparently, one Thai national had been infected by a tourist who had gone back to Hong Kong, and like any COVID-19 stories you’d have heard countless times, he or she wasn’t aware that he or she has been infected.

Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai, director-general of the Disease Control Department, said, “The first patient was infected from a tourist from a dangerous communicable disease area. After that, the person had two social activities with close friends.”

And the social activities mentioned aren’t just chit-chatting.

This group of friends, comprising Thai nationals in their 20s and 30s, had shared drinks and cigarettes.

That could have been normal last year, but during this period, it’s led to consequences—Thailand recorded its highest number of cases in a day, and it now stands at 70 confirmed cases.

And needless to say, community spread has therefore technically begun.

More Measures to Stop Imported Cases

With this, Thailand officials aren’t taking any chances: people coming from six “designated dangerous communicable disease areas”, which comprise South Korea, China, Macao, Hong Kong, Italy and Iran, must now “present medical certificates before they can obtain boarding passes. They must be prepared for a full state quarantine when they arrive.”

In the meantime, Singapore has just imposed new travel restrictions and compulsory SHNs for travellers who had symptoms, even if they come from a COVID-19 region like Mars or Jupiter.

Let’s just say that the world’s now a tad different.

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]