PHUKET: Health authorities have assured the public that measures to fight the coronavirus are adequate after two more tourists tested positive after arriving on the island.
Provincial public health chief Kusak Kukiatkul on Saturday called for calm and stressed the need for strict social distancing measures to battle the pandemic after two young tourists from Myanmar were found to be infected.
The provincial public health office reported on Saturday the second tests conducted on the two visitors, aged eight and nine, were positive. The two were being treated at a hospital and their families observing 14-day quarantine.
The two youngsters were accompanied by two families on the same flight. Authorities did not provide flight details and the date of their arrival.
Dr Kusak said officials were tracking their timeline to alert people who might have come into contact with the groups.
The two Myanmar visitors took the tally of infections imported by tourists during the Sandbox scheme to three since the island reopened for inoculated international arrivals on July 1.
The first case was a man from the United Arab Emirates, who was found to be infected during testing at Phuket airport on Tuesday. On Saturday, 13 other passengers on the same flight with him returned to their country.
Phuket reported 11 new local cases on Sunday, bringing provincial accumulated infections to 785 -- five of them foreigners based on the island -- since the outbreak last year. It recorded seven fatalities.
The island has received 3,287 overseas visitors since the reopening on July 1.