Eight students from Muslim school pick up Beta variant

Eight students from Muslim school pick up Beta variant

The Nakhon Si Thammarat Public Health Office said eight students who returned from a Muslim school in Yala province contracted the Beta variant, which was first detected in South Africa.

The office reported the students returned from the Margaz Tabligh preaching centre -- which is considered a cluster -- in Yala's Muang district, and they will be examined at a laboratory at the Department of Medical Sciences for further confirmation.

The students are considered to be the first group in Nakhon Si Thammarat to have contracted the variant. The province has ordered returnees from four high-infection-risk southern provinces to enter quarantine for at least 21 days.

The Beta variant has a 14–15-day incubation period, longer than the original coronavirus strain, so the province tracked down 11 more returnees from four southern provinces who have not reported themselves to healthcare officers and 16 returnees in Nakhon Si Thammarat's Mueang, Tha Sala, Phrom Khiri and Hua Sai districts.

Now the province has 11 patients attributed to the new cluster: the eight students who returned and three people who contracted the virus from the returnees.

Yesterday, volunteers and healthcare officers closed the entrance gate of a Muslim community in Nakhon Si Thammarat's Muang district after the returnees tested positive for the coronavirus.

People in the community are asked to quarantine themselves, while outsiders are prohibited from entering. A mosque will be closed until today.

Narong Ananthakhal, imam of the mosque, said villagers are complying with the health measures and the community will impose a 21-day quarantine period to maintain safety and sanitation.

Infections stemming from the preaching centre cluster have affected 402 people across 12 southern provinces, including 111 in Narathiwat, 102 in Yala, 46 in Satun, 46 in Pattani, 36 in Songkhla, 18 in Krabi and 13 in Phatthalung.

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