The store had never closed for any period during normal trading hours and no person confirmed as infected with COVID-19 has entered the premises, a member of the management team at the store, who asked not to be named, told The Phuket News.
“Not person infected with COVID-19 has entered Tesco Lotus in Thalang, and the store never closed [during normal operating hours] during the past week, or even the past month,” the management personnel member said.
“All this talk is just rumor,” she said, before declining to comment further on the issue.
“For more details, go to ask Tesco Lotus headquarters [in Bangkok]. Thank You,” she said before terminating the conversation.
Thalang Police Deputy Chief Lt Col Phichai Phuprommin confirmed that a formal report about the rumour posted online was filed with police by Watchareewan Kaotan, Chief of the Thepkrasattri OrBorTor Health Division, last Wednesday (Mar 4).
Ms Watchareewan said that the rumour originated from a post uploaded to the LINE Group “Puen Thalang” (“Thalang Friends”) in Thai, Lt Col Phichai explained in his report.
The post claimed that a staffer at Tesco Thalang was infected with COVID-19. The post claimed that the information about the infected staffer came from a “Dr Ple”.
“Mrs Watchareewan confirmed that the claims in the post are not true,” Lt Col Phichai marked in his report.
“She also said that the woman who posted the claim in the LINE Group had apologised to Tesco Lotus Thalang and other people in the group. The woman explained that someone had told her that this was true and she believed it, and she posted it online,” Lt Col Phichai explained in his report.
“Mrs Watchareewan said she does not want any legal action over the incident as the woman has already apologised,” Lt Col Phichai added.
Following the rumor posted online, staff from Thalang Hospital and Thepkrasattri OrBorTor’s Health Division visited the Tesco Lotus Thalang store last Thursday (Mar 5) to explain to the 30 staff at the store measures to be taken to help prevent the disease from spreading.