The news came in a series of reports posted online by the PPHO at 8:44pm last night. So far officials have yet to recognise the local transmissions. The confirmation came only through the reports.
According to the reports, the first high risk contact in Phuket confirmed as infected with Omicron was Case 33, an Israeli male confirmed on Dec 20.
While all cases listed before the Israeli were marked as confirmed at Phuket International Airport, the Israeli was confirmed at the “Phuket Medical Sciences Centre”, seven days ago.
The next confirmed case came the next day, Dec 21, when the first Thai national marked as a high risk contact infected with Omicron was reported as confirmed at Mission Hospital Phuket. The date the swab test sample was taken from the woman was not reported.
Of note, of the 92 people infected with Omicron listed in the PPHO reports, four had no dates marked to indicate when the swab test was taken, indicating that officials at this stage either do not want to report it or they do not know.
Other than the two high risk contacts included in the PPHO reports, all other confirmed cases were marked as “Test & Go” ‒ except one Iranian male who marked as “tourist” confirmed on Day 0 of his stay. He was confirmed as infected by Vachira Phuket Hospital on Dec 21.
The Phuket Info Center, operated by the Phuket office of the Ministry of Interior, at 11:07pm, less than three hours after the PPHO reports were posted, reported four more Thais ‒ all high risk contacts ‒ confirmed as infected with Omicron in Phuket.
The confirmation came in a report marked “extra” while maintaining the exact same format as the reports issued by the PPHO.
On Dec 23, two Thai women and one Thai male were all marked as confirmed as infected at Mission Hospital Phuket. On Dec 24, one Thai male was also confirmed at Mission Hospital Phuket, said the report posted by the Phuket Info Center.
The PPHO has yet to post the updated confirmed cases in its own reports.
All reports posted by the PPHO noted that confirmation of test results took sevendays, repeating the explanation given by PPHO Chief Dr Kusak Kukiattikoon on Tuesday.
However, the report posted by the Phuket Info Center last night also included confirmation of eight more people in Phuket infected with Omicron, as of Dec 26, four days ago.
The report by the Phuket Info Center brought the total number of people in Phuket recorded as infected with Omicron to 104 ‒ without including the five cases already confirmed after infected arrivals landed on the island before Dec 15.
Despite the first cases being detected on Dec 13, leading officials, including PPHO Chief Dr Kusak, on Dec 20 assured there were no local infections of Omicron at that time.