Six Tourists Infected with Novel Coronavirus Found Days After Leaving Quarantined Hotel in Thailand

On 8 January local time, the Police in Elephant Island, Darat Province, Thailand, reported that six foreign tourists infected with novel Coronavirus had gone missing since leaving Elephant Island hotel on 5 January. After searching for them, all of them were found on the same day. All of the six tourists said they had not been notified of the Novel Coronavirus test results, did not know they were infected and did not deliberately escape the hotel to spread the virus.

According to local police, the six foreign tourists from France, Poland, Switzerland, Norway and other countries entered Thailand through the quarantine exemption process from December 26 to 29 last year and stayed at hotels in Elephant Island. They were tested negative for novel Coronavirus nucleic acid tests as required and left the hotel to travel to Elephant Island. On 4 January, they underwent a second novel Coronavirus nucleic acid test and continued to travel to Elephant Island while awaiting the test results. On July 7, the hotel received a notice that the six people tested positive for the virus, but they had left the hotel and disappeared. The hotel contacted relevant departments and alerted the police, who initially confirmed that none of them had left Elephant Island.

Elephant Island explained that the delay in the notification of test results was due to the large number of tourists visiting the island during the New Year holiday, and there was only one facility that could conduct nucleic acid tests, which lengthened the waiting time for test results. (Media reporter Li Min)