Bad judgement is risking lives

Bad judgement is risking lives

Yet another mistake. And, again, it involves an army officer. Maj-Gen Kosol Chujai, a specialist attached to the Office of the Defence Permanent Secretary, who was assigned to help health officials with the screening of arriving passengers at Suvarnabhumi Airport, let 152 arriving Thai passengers go home on Friday night after they protested and refused to enter quarantine at state facilities.

The protesting group insisted they had not been made aware in advance of the arrival of the state quarantine requirement.

However, according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Thai overseas missions issued an announcement about state quarantine on their respective websites or Facebook pages along with the online registration form to be filled by every returnee who is required to present his or her "fit-to-fly" health certificates.

Maj-Gen Kosol's decision was bad judgement and was made despite the fact that health officials at the airport raised objections and that three of the arrivals, totalling 158, were found to have a fever after being screened and separately isolated from the rest. However, it was reported the three managed to slip out during a commotion.

Following the incident, the Office of the Defence Permanent Secretary recalled Maj-Gen Kosol from the airport and placed him under investigation to determine whether he acted beyond his authority or not.

Even if he has the authority, any decision which will compromise public safety in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, like this one, is a bad mistake.

His arbitrary decision to let the 152 Thai returnees go reflects the typical mindset of the men in green of their perceived superiority over civilians.

He overruled the objections of the health officials just as another army major-general, the manager of the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, brushed aside a warning from the Sports Authority of Thailand for him to postpone a major Muay Thai event on March 6.

More than 60 boxing fans, the stadium manager and a TV celebrity who operates a boxing gym, were later found to be infected with the virus.

It's reported that one of the fans contracted the disease from relatives who recently returned from Italy.

Thanks to the quick reaction of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), which issued a stern warning for all the returning Thais to report themselves for state quarantine or face imprisonment and a heavy fine, as I am writing this column, all the returnees have now turned themselves in.

At least three of them had a fever upon arrival. Whether they were infected or not, or whether more were infected but are yet to exhibit the symptoms, will not be known until further tests are administered.

Regarding the 152 Thai returnees who rejected the state quarantine, they have shown themselves to be irresponsible, having no regard whatsoever for the safety of their fellow Thais.

How do they know they are completely clean, having come from the United States, which ranks top in the world with the highest infections so far?

The airport incident has prompted the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) to suspend all incoming flights to Thailand for three days until today.

Why only three days? And why not until after April 15 to correspond with the request of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha for all overseas Thais to postpone their return trips until after that date?

The Foreign Ministry has also followed suit by instructing its foreign missions to stop registering applications for by overseas Thais who wish to return home until after April 15.

Practically, there will not be any Thais flying back to Thailand now until April 15.

Clearly, there are problems with coordination and making sure that all government agencies are acting coherently together.

I have no idea which sections of the CCSA are responsible for this.

And if there are any, they should wake up and do their job properly.

We all know that our health officials, from doctors and nurses to the health volunteers in the villagers who were assigned to monitor people on home quarantine, have been risking their lives, labouring for long hours each day to save lives and to prevent the deadly virus from spreading further.

Their sacrifice will be in vain if stupid mistakes keep being made over and over again.

And for members of the public like us, the repeated plea from the medical professionals is for us to just stay at home and practise social distancing.

Is that really too much to ask of us?

Veera Prateepchaikul is former editor, Bangkok Post.

Veera Prateepchaikul

Former Editor

Former Bangkok Post Editor, political commentator and a regular columnist at Post Publishing.

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