Panel to mull closing all entertainment outlets after pub outbreak

Public Health Minister Auntin Charnvirakul favours closure of all entertainment venues nationwide in the wake of cluster infections involving people drinking together in a pub. (Photo by Yutthapong Kumnondnae)

Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul says he will ask a Covid-19 outbreak management committee to close all entertainment venues nationwide in the wake of cluster infections involving people drinking together in a pub.

The proposal is among measures which he will present to the committee tomorrow, Mr Anutin said. Other measures include declaring additional communicable disease areas, and banning various activities involving mass gatherings, he said, adding the measures will be implemented under the Communicable Disease Act and the National Administration Act.

Foreign travellers from Covid-19-hit countries will be quarantined for 14 days and if they have no medical certificates, they will be sent back to their countries, Mr Anutin said, adding that about 60 foreign travellers, most of them from Europe, have already been sent back. The minister also said Thailand has not yet entered Stage 3 of the virus outbreak thanks to current strict control measures.

Meanwhile, Sukhum Kanchanapimai, permanent secretary for public health, said the Public Health Ministry will investigate whether a private hospital complied with public health standards after it let actor and singer Matthew Deane Chanthavanij, who has been infected with Covid-19, go home.

The 41-year-old actor said he was diagnosed with the virus after being checked at a private hospital and the hospital then let him go back home. Arkhom Praditsuwan, deputy director-general of the Department of Health Support, said the ministry has issued an order requiring all hospitals to isolate Covid-19 patients for treatment, and the patients must not be allowed to go home until they test negative. Hospitals which breach the order will face legal action, Dr Arkhom said.

Seven new local cases of the coronavirus were reported yesterday, including four from the same family and actor Matthew Deane Chanthavanij, lifting the total number of cases to 82. Of the seven new cases, one was the 63-year-old mother of one of the 11 people diagnosed earlier with Covid-19 after they went drinking together, Dr Sukhum said.

The four family members included a 57-year-old woman who sought treatment on March 4 for fever after returning from Japan.