An eight patient infected with the mysterious new coronavirus was found but Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul reported on Sunday (January 26) that the overall situation was still under control.

The latest case found in Thailand was a Chinese tourist. Of the eight cases, seven were Chinese visitors and one a Thai. Five have already recovered while three are still being closely monitored.

There are 84 suspected cases awaiting confirmation; 24 found at the airport while 60 came to hospitals on their own. Of the suspected cases, 15 were found to have seasonal flu and allowed to return home while 39 were accommodated in separate rooms.

The global coronavirus outbreak from January 5 to 25 has caused at least 41 deaths with 1,303 cases of infections.

The operational report on the screening via Thermoscan during January 3-25 in five international airports were as follows: Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Krabi scanned 21,522 passengers. On January 25, the checkpoint scanned 11 flights from Guangzhou and 1,556 people including flight operators all received health beware card to contact the immigration office or the disease control office in case of an emergency

The minister added that on Tuesday (January 28), he will propose guidelines to the Cabinet to create a national committee focusing on the coronavirus situation. This would ensure that all the airports were ready to control the situation with cooperation from tour agencies and hotels to monitor suspected cases and immediately send them to the hospital.

“I can assure everyone that no human-to-human transmission has been found in Thailand. All the patients had a history of visiting the risk area [Wuhan city]. According to the current situation, there is no need to shut down any city Thailand,” Anutin said.

Department of Disease Control chief Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoenchai revealed all three Chinese patients being monitored were female. The sixth patient is at Rajavithi hospital, the seventh at Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute, and the eighth in Hua Hin.