The confirmation was announced at a meeting of the Phuket Communicable Disease Committee at Phuket Provincial Hall yesterday afternoon (Jan 3).
Present at the meeting were all three Vice Governors Pichet Panaphong, Vikrom Jakthee and Piyaphong Chuwong along with relevant officers and representatives from agencies and the private sector.
Governor Narong explained that at this stage, all people entering Phuket must be screened to prevent the spread of the virus.
However, in an order posted online over the weekend, he also only “asked” people returning from risk areas to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving on the island.
All relevant agencies and other organisations, including stores and businesses across the island were also urged to ramp up their COVID-protection measures.
“Every person has to follow the ‘D-M-H-T-T’ measure: D- Social Distancing, M- Mask wearing, H-Hand washing, T-Temperature checking, and T- Thai Chana scanning,” Governor Narong said.
Walking street markets must remain closed until Jan 20, while department stores are asked to make sure more hand sanitiser is available for customers.
Schools, gyms, fitness centers are allowed to remain open, but must follow the provincial government order issued on Dec 24, Gov Narong confirmed. (See original order in Thai here.)
Further, the Phuket office of the Department of Land Transport will not provide services that require an applicant to visit the office in person, he added.
Following the Samut Sakhon shrimp truck scare last week, Governor Narong at the meeting also confirmed that the 106 migrant workers who recently traveled to Samut Sakhon to extend their work permits were tested for the virus. All 106 tested negative, he said.
The Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket) yesterday also publicly posted an order issued by Governor Narong on Dec 30, ordering all officials to take appropriate action to prevent any risk of COVID in their areas
The order also specifically asked, “For those who did travel to the high risk areas, please quarantine yourselves for 14 days and see a doctor as soon as possible if having symptoms.”
The full order, addressed to all officials on the island, mandated the following:
- Search for people potentially infected people in risk areas, groups of risk people, and at risk events and activities
- Set the opening and closing times for establishments that pose a risk of virus spreading
- Search and charge for those who gather to conduct illegal actions which pose a risk of the virus spreading
- Set measures to control the movement of migrant workers into and out of the province
- Avoid holding any events that lead to the gathering of crowds.
- Set up teams to inspect establishments and charge those who gather to conduct illegal actions
- Be alert for any people who have illegally entered the county and remind operators to not hire illegal workers.
- Press charges against those who facilitate migrants to enter the country illegally
- Ask for cooperation to avoid inter-provincial travel during the New Year holidays.
- Ask for cooperation from officials and the private sector not to hold the New Year and Children’s Day events and consider holding events online instead
- Ask for cooperation from officials and the private sector to work from home, in order to decrease the risk of infection during traveling.
- For those who did travel to the high risk areas, please quarantine yourselves for 14 days and see a doctor as soon as possible if having symptoms.
- Use the administrative and public health measure like XXXXXXXX โครงข่ายรังผึ้ง
- ‘D-M-H-T-T’ measure: D- Social Distancing, M- Mask wearing, H-Hand washing, T-Temperature checking, and T- Thai Chana scanning
While strict COVID protection measures were brought into effect in 28 "high risk" provinces today, Phuket with currently only three confirmed cases on the island remains classified as a “Yellow zone”. As such, Phuket is among the remaining 38 provinces which are classified as “areas under high surveillance”.
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