Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has acknowledged having been infected with the coronavirus but said he is now fully recovered.
“I was discharged from the hospital more than 20 days ago. I am fine now,” he told BBC Thai and denied reports that other people close to him had been infected.
Some other local media outlets reported that Thaksin had Covid-19 and was still in hospital.
The former prime minister said his symptoms first showed up in mid-August and his first test was positive. He was treated at a hospital in Dubai and later at the Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi, according to BBC Thai.
Thaksin, 71, said he was allowed to go home on Sept 13 after seven tests taken to follow up on his treatment confirmed he was safe.
Thaksin fled Thailand in 2008 just before the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions sentenced him to two years in jail for conflict of interest. Now based in Dubai, he has always insisted that the case against him was politically motivated.
The Pheu Thai Party, the latest incarnation of the political party he founded two decades ago, this week named a new executive board, featuring more people close to the Shinawatra family. The move was seen in some quarters as a sign that Thaksin himself wants to steer the opposition party in a new direction.
