First domestic coronavirus infection recorded in Thailand after a 100-day absence of local transmission

The first domestic coronavirus transmission in Thailand has been reported on Thursday, officials said. This new case breaks Thailand’s record of more than 100 days without any transmission. It is reported that a man who was recently imprisoned failed a routine test at a Bangkok jail.

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The man was arrested for drug abuse on August 26, according to the Associated Press.

The Department of Corrections said in a statement that the 37 years old man tested positive on Wednesday during a scheduled weekly testing, adding that he had not traveled abroad or been in close contact with a known positive case.

Authorities moved quickly to locate and isolate people in contact with him and trace his movements over the past two weeks, including three places where he had worked, the jail and the court at which he had appeared.

"We may go further back but we will examine this first," said Walailak Chaifu, Director of the country's Bureau of Epidemiology.

The new case will be a setback for Thailand, which has been credited with keeping the highly contagious virus under control, while maintaining months of immigration curbs that have devastated its tourism-reliant economy. It has removed most of its internal coronavirus restrictions. The last person recorded to test positive of coronavirus was on May 24.

Thailand is the second country in Southeast Asia to see community transmission resume following a lengthy containment period, after the virus resurfaced in Vietnam in late July, also after a 100-day absence.

Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai, director-general of the health ministry's disease control department, stressed that the infected man had been kept in a small group of quarantined inmates in a standard procedure to limit the possible spread of the virus. 

The authorities will test five close contacts in his family and 20 people including lawyers who were in court with him, and the inmates who were quarantined with him will also be tested for COVID-19 again.

This case confirms what we try to say all along. We can’t keep the number of cases to zero but what we can do is to detect the cases quickly and limit transmission, 

Suwannachai said at a news conference.

At this time, we are ready in terms of medical supplies, medical staff and hospital beds. We must be aware of the existing cases but we must not be scared.

Officials sought to downplay the prospect of a second wave of cases and said more laboratory results were needed to be certain that the infection was recent.

"We've identified an infection, but in terms of an outbreak, we are investigating," said Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoen, director-general of the Department of Disease Control.

"If we all help each other, then it will not lead to an outbreak," he added.