Dear Editor,
COVID‐19 is a new emerging coranvirus infection that can cause febrile illness and severe lung disorder. This disease caused a big outbreak in 2020 in China. The infection has already transferred from China to other countries. 1 Thailand is a tropical country that got the disease from China, and local transmission already occurred. 2 At present, the immigration screening is strictly done in Thailand for prevention of disease. Also, there are additional screenings at hotels in all eight international resort towns of Thailand.
Here, the authors would like to share observation on COVID‐19 in Thailand with special focus on COVID‐19 in rural non‐resort town: observation from Thailand. At present (16 March 2020), there are accumulated 114 patients with COVID‐19. All except two patients are detected in Bangkok metropolitan (capital of Thailand) or main resort towns. The rate of COVID‐19 existence in rural non‐resort town is 1.75% (95% confidence interval = 0.44%‐6.93%). This observation is interesting and can imply that the disease already exists in a rural area which is not an international tourist destination. The screening for disease during outbreak is necessary for everywhere including to remote rural community.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
None.
REFERENCES
- 1. Hsia W. Emerging new coronavirus infection in Wuhan, China: Situation in early 2020. Case Study Case Rep. 2020;10(1):8‐9. [Google Scholar]
- 2. Sookaromdee P, Wiwanitkit V. Imported cases of 2019‐novel coronavirus (2019‐nCoV) infections in Thailand: Mathematical modelling of the outbreak. Asian Pac J Trop Med. 2020;13:139‐144. [Google Scholar]