Mr Anutin said the 61-year-old woman was recovering at Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute in Nonthaburi province.
She now had no fever or any respiratory symptoms. If doctors gave her a clearance she would be allowed to go home in a few days, said Mr Anutin.
Sixteen other people who were close to the woman on the same flight were examined, and the results were negative, he said.
Mr Anutin said 59 people in China have been confirmed infected with the new strain of the coronavirus, which has been linked to a sudden outbreak of pneumonia in central China. One of them died. All had attended big markets selling animals and seafood in Wuhan city. They were either workers or buyers. There had not been any human-to-human transmission of the virus.
The ill Chinese woman was the first person detected with the virus outside China. Her discovery and successful treatment was indicative of the efficiency and effectiveness of health services in Thailand, Mr Anutin said.
Health officials have been checking passengers from Wuhan arriving at Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket and Chiang Mai airports since Jan 3. They had found 12 ill passengers who justified being quarantined. Eight had so far been treated and discharged from hospital.
The Chinese woman was being was treated in an isolation ward. Her infection with the new coronavirus was confirmed yesterday, Mr Anutin said.
The Public Health Ministry had not found anyone else infected with it, he said.
One of Wuhan’s largest meat and seafood markets was pinpointed as the centre of the mysterious pneumonia outbreak and was shut down on Jan. 1. The man who died had been a customer at that market.
Chinese scientists identified the new virus strain last week.
Scientists in Hong Kong’s Department of Health on Saturday said that genetic sequencing of the virus found in one of the Wuhan patients and published online by a Chinese expert indicated it was 80% similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) found in bats.
Speaking at a news conference in Hong Kong, they said it was too early to conclude definitively that it was a strain of SARS, adding that the city needed to stay vigilant. (See story here.)
Coronaviruses are not necessarily life-threatening but have been the underlying cause of public health crises, including SARS, which killed hundreds of people after an outbreak in southern China in 2002 and 2003.
The Wuhan viral outbreak seems to be less virulent and less transmittable, according to the World Health Organisation.
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