Five international travellers who arrived in the kingdom in the past two weeks tested positive for Covid-19, while 300-400 departing travellers, including Thais, were infected with the virus, according to health authorities.

In the second week of this month, following the arrival of the first travellers from China on Jan 9, three foreign travellers were found to have the Covid-19 virus. Last week another two infections, one of them from China, were discovered among international arrivals, according to the Department of Disease Control's Tares Krassanairawiwong.

From Jan 16-21, 627 people nationwide, or about 90 a day on average, were admitted to hospitals for Covid-19 treatment. In total, 44 people died from or as a result of the virus during this period, he added.

International travellers have arrived in droves since the reopening of borders in the latter half of last year. The latest arrival influx was from China.

Dr Tares said health authorities were on alert and conducting random tests, which showed infections among international arrivals not to be high.

Meanwhile, the Department of Medical Sciences said yesterday that 300-400 people departing the country, including Thais, tested positive for Covid-19 during the past two weeks. Only about 4% of them were from China.

Their infections were confirmed by the result of a pre-departure RT-PCR test they had as part of the requirements for returning to or entering some countries such as China and India.