Thailand Tightens Airport Security as New Virus Hopped Off the Track
Keeping a Watchful Eye on the Incoming Chinese Crowd
With Lunar New Year’s fireworks on the horizon, Thai health officials are up to their ears in airport inspections—yes, literally at the gates. They’re sniffing out a brand‑new mystery coronavirus that’s been sniffing its way from China’s Wuhan to Bangkok and beyond. All this while tourists from China are scheduled to stampede into Thailand, with a whopping 800,000 visitors expected to pass through the country over the holiday.
Four Main Airports, A Whole Lot of Caution
The Public Health Ministry has handed out extra job‑shifts to four key airports that see daily flights from Wuhan—Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueng, Chiang Mai, and Phuket—and will also keep a keen eye on any charter flights headed for the city.
- At Samyang, each of the 1,200‑plus arrivals from Wuhan is now given extra scrutiny.
- During the Chinese New Year rush, the numbers could swell to 1,500–1,600, prompting a boost in staffing.
- Three 8‑hour shifts have been lined up, each consisting of five‑to‑six hour bursts of monitoring.
- Infrared thermal scanners are now running—two are actively used and two are lying in wait.
Why the Fuss? A New Face on the Virus Menu
Yesterday, a Chinese woman found herself in Thailand’s quarantine center, the first non‑Chinese case of what is being dubbed a “mystery patch” of coronavirus. The first wave of the disease had already been a lower‑case variant of so‑called “SARS,” a kind of “acronym fairytale” of previous outbreaks. The World Health Organization suggests the new coronavirus could have been getting its own family-to-family spreads, a worrying sign.
Wuhan’s Own Insight
In Wuhan, authorities confirmed that a married couple was part of 41 pneumonia patients suspected of the new strain. According to Chinese state media, the infections could stem from a novel coronavirus. Though some fresh deaths have been reported, the last updates say no more of the 41 are added to the death toll—at least for now.
People across Asia still remember the 2002–2003 SARS outbreak that killed about 800 people worldwide. So, it’s no wonder the Thai authorities are on their toes, making sure no new “ghosts” of the past hitch a ride aboard the cruise of Lunar New Year travelers.
