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The Chiang Rai province police have summoned Covid-19-infected returnees who crossed into Thailand illegally from Myanmar, to hear legal charges after they have recovered from the disease.
Provincial Police Region 5 Commissioner Prachuap Wongsuk said he instructed Chiang Rai police at Mae Sai Station and Mae Sai Immigration Office to summon the illegal returnees to hear the charges. The citation also includes the three women released from Nakornping Hospital in Chiang Mai on Tuesday.
Those who cross the border illegally with Covid-19 will be charged with illegal entry in violation of the Immigration Law of 1979; violate the emergency decree; and violating an order issued on March 21, 2020 by the Chiang Rai disease control committee temporarily banning crossings at permanent and other points of entry along the border.
Fines and possible jail time
Violators face a fine of up to 2,000 baht for violating the Immigration Law and up to two years in prison and a fine of up to 40,000 baht for disobeying the emergency decree. Violation of the order prohibiting border crossings carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to 100,000 baht.
Pol Lt Gen Prachuap announced the prosecution plans while visiting a health center in Chiang Mai to provide moral support to the Region 5 police undergoing a Covid-19 detection process.
On Monday, the spokesperson for the Center for the Management of the Covid-19 Situation implored Thais to return home to use the official border crossings. “We will not send you to jail. We will send them to state quarantine facilities, ”Dr. Taweesilp Visanuyothin told them.
New Covid-19 cases
Meanwhile, nine new cases were reported Tuesday, one of which was a 30-year-old pharmacist from Ethiopia who is five months pregnant.
He arrived in Thailand on November 4 and stayed in a Covid-19 quarantine facility in Bangkok until he tested positive for Covid-19 on November 18, the last day he was required to be quarantined upon arrival in Thailand, the center said in a Facebook post.
She was then transferred to a private hospital for treatment although she did not present any symptoms, according to information provided by a spokesperson for the center.
The other eight new infections also included two people from Switzerland, one from the UK, one from Romania, one from the Netherlands, two from the US and one from Qatar.
