Immigration Police join efforts at airports to prevent spread of Wuhan virus

By THE NATION

 

 

Immigration Police are working with the Department of Disease Control and Airports of Thailand Pcl (AOT) in monitoring major airports to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

 

Pol Colonel Cherngron Rimphadee, deputy spokesman of Immigration Police, said: “We have assigned separate bays for planes arriving from Wuhan and Guangzhou to screen infected travellers at Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket and Chiang Mai international airports,” he said.

 

“Furthermore, to ensure the safety of immigration staff who have to be in contact with over 60,000 passengers daily, we have come up with measures to prevent the spreading of germs and viruses.”

 

 

The measures announced by Immigration Police are as follows:

 

➤ Enforce an hourly cleanup of passenger screening areas, including the passport checking booths, form filling counters, as well as equipments that have direct contact with passengers, with disinfectant and alcohol spray.

 

➤ All immigration police and airport staff must wear masks and gloves while working or communicating with passengers.

 

➤ Disinfectant dispensers will be provided at passport checking booths and passengers will be encouraged to clean their hands before entering the booths.

 

 

➤ Passengers’ behaviour will be closely monitored and those who display flu symptoms, such as frequent sneezing and coughing, will be separated from the public. The Department of Disease Control staff will be asked to check their condition.

 

➤ Managers and commanders must monitor their subordinates’ condition and alert medical staff immediately if they display abnormality.

 

Furthermore, the AOT has installed thermo-scanners at screening points of passengers from cities on the watch list as per International Civil Aviation Organization standards, the deputy spokesman added.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30381113

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-01-27

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How about just temporarily banning flights from Mainland China, Hongkong and Taiwan to lessen the risks?

Most of the above sound like reasonable steps.... if they really do what they're promising to do, which is always a question here.

 

But when they talk about separate "bays" for planes arriving from heavily impacted areas in China, I wonder what that means exactly...

 

Are they going to segregate the at-risk Chinese arrivals into a totally separate area for Immigration processing, or are they just talking about them lining up at their own queues in the same big Immigration hall areas along with everyone else?

 

Maybe they can make some kind of shields of all the old vinylboards?

 

And speaking about recycling, why not put Big Joke in the front, he dodged the bullets and will surely resist those viruses as well.

Wasting their time.

 

It's contagious when signs of symptoms are not showing. 

Wuhan airport is closed, so basically they’re  only checking passengers from Guangzhou. Anyone with symptoms and is from another Chinese province just sail through. There might be many Chinese nationals trying to flee China out of fear, Thailand could be an easy option.

13 minutes ago, webfact said:

Pol Colonel Cherngron Rimphadee, deputy spokesman of Immigration Police, said: “We have assigned separate bays for planes arriving from Wuhan and Guangzhou to screen infected travellers at Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket and Chiang Mai international airports,” he said.

I don't get it

should be an out dated news or?

My understanding was Wuhan airports was already closed and no plane 

could take off from this area,particularly for tourist purpose?

13 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Most of the above sound like reasonable steps...

It's better than nothing

but unfortunately pretty useless

the virus can be undetected on someone during few days

and still the person is contagious. The only way is to ban all the

arrivals from China. but they are afraid of the financial losses

16 minutes ago, VYCM said:

Wasting their time.

 

It's contagious when signs of symptoms are not showing. 

Exactly. 

They don't get it at all.

3 minutes ago, kingofthemountain said:

It's better than nothing

but unfortunately pretty useless

the virus can be undetected on someone during few days

and still the person is contagious. The only way is to ban all the

arrivals from China. but they are afraid of the financial losses

Absolutely. This should have happened last week. By the time they are forced to do it, it will be too late.

And  those  lovely disease spreading fingerprint  scanners?

a lot of virus can change hands (throats) in that 'hour' timeframe! 

 

 

dump the IO cameras, and install the scanners in their place! 

 

 

in pix: most IOs and BIB using cheap 20 baht paper masks!

2 minutes ago, tifino said:

in pix: most IOs and BIB using cheap 20 baht paper masks!

they should be wearing eye protection / swimming goggles too

2 minutes ago, aircooledflat4 said:

7 minutes ago, tifino said:

in pix: most IOs and BIB using cheap 20 baht paper masks!

they should be wearing eye protection / swimming goggles too

 

even the money changers have  better protection

- behind glass windows

chinese are coming and going over borders also. just did a border run yesterday and saw chinese people when i never have before at phunamron, dont know if its significant or if they are just border running but a thought crossed my mind and that is that these new fingerprint machines dont get cleaned after every passenger so this stupid system could have infected much more than should have been? 

The way things stand I am pretty right up here in the sticks.......unless some one back home turns up their toes......or one of the girls who is expecting drops a premmy.  

"Boss, what are we going here?"

"Exposing ourselves to the virus in the worst possible place and then going to work tomorrow at Bangkok immigration with a two week incubation period." 

"OK. What for lunch?"

58 minutes ago, kingofthemountain said:

It's better than nothing

but unfortunately pretty useless

the virus can be undetected on someone during few days

and still the person is contagious. The only way is to ban all the

arrivals from China. but they are afraid of the financial losses

 

I tend to agree with your overall comment. But doing what they're doing is not entirely useless. They will, hopefully, catch those who are showing symptoms. But obviously, they won't catch those not yet showing symptoms...

 

So for me, the authorities doing something is better than nothing. Every one with symptoms that they do intercept is one less wandering around Thailand with the potential to spread the virus.

 

7 minutes ago, Grumpy John said:

The way things stand I am pretty right up here in the sticks.......unless some one back home turns up their toes......or one of the girls who is expecting drops a premmy.  

if it goes off (like in china) i'd expect anyone who can to escape the cities to head back to their family villages before they close them off

 

 

3 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

I don't get it

should be an out dated news or?

My understanding was Wuhan airports was already closed and no plane 

could take off from this area,particularly for tourist purpose?

Nobody told the boss of Immigration yet about Wuhun airport. The man whose job it is , on holidays.

Jesus wept

Ok the mask & gloves may protect the IO. But he'll be passing on the droplets he caught on his gloves from the passport right to the next one.

 

Only solution I can think of is wear disposable safety gear when interacting with an IO and get rid of it ASAP afterwards.  

25 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Ok the mask & gloves may protect the IO. But he'll be passing on the droplets he caught on his gloves from the passport right to the next one.

 

Only solution I can think of is wear disposable safety gear when interacting with an IO and get rid of it ASAP afterwards.  

Right, and how they can manage for taking the fingerprints?

They don't clean the glass after each traveller, it should be a huge 

transmission way for the virus

 

 

Immigration officers can wear the masks and hide behind screens but passengers have to remove masks to be photographed and have to touch a fingerprint reader touched by tens of thousands of others previously, including Chinese nationals coming directly from the country where the outbreak started...

 

Hope those billion dollar biometrics were worth it, hey, they might even be the cause of a massive pandemic.

5 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

The only way is to ban all the

arrivals from China. but they are afraid of the financial losses

This is true .

But the financial losses will be much bigger if they let them in , ( even a person in apparently good health can transmit the virus ...) , and than there is a mayor outbreak in Thailand . NOBODY will come to visit Thailand anymore .

Malaysia refuses ALL flights/transport from Wuhan, planes underway will be sent back. Mongolia closes ALL borders with China.

 

Thailand still welcomes them..????

26 minutes ago, Youlike said:

Mongolia closes ALL borders with China.

Good call from them. Will be very hard to enforce though.

20 hours ago, webfact said:

Pol Colonel Cherngron Rimphadee, deputy spokesman of Immigration Police, said: “We have assigned separate bays for planes arriving from Wuhan and Guangzhou to screen infected travellers at Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket and Chiang Mai international airports,” he said.

Profit, profit, profit profit.... take the quick buck now while you can, hat's your MO

but wait for the huge losses yet to come when this outbreak is well and truly established in Thailand.

Managers and commanders must monitor their subordinates’ condition and alert medical staff immediately if they display abnormality.

Thats normal in Thailand

21 hours ago, webfact said:

Enforce an hourly cleanup of passenger screening areas, including the passport checking booths, form filling counters, as well as equipments that have direct contact with passengers, with disinfectant and alcohol spray.

Shouldn't they have been doing this anyway?  As a standard precaution, even in non-emergencies? It appears not.