The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) on Monday admitted negligence in its reporting of a confirmed Covid-19 case, which negatively affected the business of a restaurant erroneously included in the timeline.
Panruedi: Error due to rush
Panruedi Manomaiphibun, director of the BMA's Health Office, blamed the error on the rush to report the timeline and inform the public.
"As a result, the BMA is now reviewing its process of reporting the Covid-19 timeline and would next have to check with every confirmed Covid-19 patient one last time before publishing it," she said.
One recent mistake had been the incorrect reporting of a visit by a confirmed Covid-19 patient to a branch of Rongsi Pochana restaurant, she said.
It was mistakenly mentioned in a publicly shared timeline that the patient visited the Lumpini branch in Sathon, although it was actually the Rongsi Pochana branch in Pathumwan district, she said.
"Aside from the rush to warn the public, the BMA's Covid-19 infection investigation team was also to blame for not familiarising themselves with the locations, she said.
Last Friday, Atchara Burarak, founder of the iBerry Group of restaurants and ice cream shops, posted on her Facebook page to complain about the BMA's repeated mistake in reporting of the timeline of the 632nd Covid-19 patient.
She said the BMA had earlier announced two days before that this particular patient had visited the Lumpini branch of the Rongsi Pochana restaurant, which resulted in severe disruption at the branch.
As a result, the company had to shut two restaurants for cleaning and had to test almost 50 staff members for Covid-19, she said.
The BMA had also failed to pick up the phone when she had tried to make contact to find out more information, she said.
It wasn't until later that it was revealed that the timeline had been incorrect, by which time her business had already suffered, she said, before imploring the BMA to improve the veracity of its Covid-19 tracing protocol.
