“We had a 78-year-old woman as one dead case in the past week,” Dr Kusak said, during the morning briefing, chaired by Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew.
“She had received treatment in hospital for almost two months. She suffered from pneumonia and senility [sic], and died a few days ago,” he added.
Dr Kusak provided no other details of the woman’s death.
“So far, we have in total 712 infected cases on the island since April 3, 671 cases have been discharged from hospital, and 43 cases are still receiving medical treatment,” Dr Kusak continued.
“Yesterday, we had three new infected cases, including two Thai women and one Myanmar national worker. In the past week, we have had three to five cases per day,” he said.
“Right now, there are 294 high-risk people staying in local quarantine (LQ) venues where we have only 299 rooms, so yesterday we just added 73 hotel rooms to be LQ accommodation,” he added.
“I also heard a rumor that some children were infected from school, I would like to confirm that we have not had any new case that is a child,” Dr Kusak said.
Of note, the PPHO last Saturday (June 19) released the timeline of Case 690, a 7-month old baby of Myanmar nationality that is now under medical care at Vachira Hospital Phuket for treatment of COVID-19.
The baby lived with its mother and father at their rented home in Moo 3, Rassada, said the report.
The mother was confirmed infected on June 15, and the baby was confirmed infected on June 16.
Both mother and child are now receiving medical care at Vachira Hospital, the report noted.
“We have only a child who had close contact with his infected grandfather and are staying at an LQ venue,” Dr Kusak said.
“We have already ordered to close the classroom where the child attended classes for cleaning, not the whole school,” he added, without naming which school was involved.
“We found four infected cases which were related to markets, so we need to temporarily close the markets to prevent local people from a big cluster,” Dr Kusak continued, without providing more details of which markets and how many people were deemed at risk.
The Phuket News notes that Rawai Municipality on Monday announced to close two markets in their area: Soi Namjai market and Bang Chang market.
“At this stage, we have three children who just came from Yala and tested positive [for the virus,” Dr Kusak said.
“They all are receiving treatment in a hospital. High-risk people who had contact with these children are staying at LQ venues and tested negative in the first test,” he said.
Dr Kusak gave no further details of the Yala infections reaching Phuket, but Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong on Monday announced that all arrivals from the four deep south provinces Songkhla, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat must face 14 days quarantine at an LQ venue regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or even tested negative for COVID in the seven days before arriving.
The policy change followed a student being allowed onto the island while returning home to Phuket after leaving a school in Yala that has been shut down due to COVID infections of the Beta variant, first identified in South Africa.
The school has become the epicentre of an Beta variant outbreak that is now sweeping through the southernmost provinces, with at 402 infections spreading to at least 12 provinces.
* Correction: The woman was 78 years old, not 73 as originally reported.