PHICHIT: Hundreds of people who visited two entertainment places in this northern province rushed to a hospital to seek Covid-19 tests after learning an infected returnee went to the places during the same period.
Since Wednesday evening, about 500 visitors to Bird Bar and Crocodile Rock Pub in Muang district have flocked to the hospital for the tests. They had been to both places during Nov 28-30, the period when a Phichit native who had sneaked back from Tachileik border town of Myanmar with Covid-19 had been.
The rush followed an announcement of the Covid-19 case in Phichit on Wednesday.
Staff of Phichit Hospital were mobilised to conduct the tests and collect information from the at-risk people.
Apart from the testing rush, the case in Phichit also reduced by 80% the number of tourists at the province's Street Food festival set in Phichit municipality for Dec 1-10. Most people also disappeared from the Thesaban 2 market in the municipality.
The Phichit case is a 25-year-old native who had been at 1G1 Hotel in Tachilek during Nov 17-27, together with her close friend from Bangkok.
She sneaked back to Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai on Nov 28, took a flight to Bangkok and another one to Phitsanulok before travelling to Phichit.
On the same day she went to Bird Bar with four friends without wearing a face mask. On the next two days, she revisited Bird Bar and also went to Crocodile Rock Pub. She tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday.
She is among 10 Covid-infected Thai women who sneaked back from work in Tachilek late last month.
