COVID-19 situation and an outbreak investigation among people coming back from Bahrain, December 2020
Keywords:
coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19, Bahrain, prisonAbstract
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread globally since December 2019. Bahrain has also been affected and tended to be more serious. This could have an impact on COVID-19 situation in Thailand. On December 14, 2020, The Operation team, Department of Disease Control (DDC) was notified that 8 COVID-19 confirmed cases who were a group of travelers returning from Bahrain. The operation team then conducted an investigation to confirm the diagnosis, to describe the distribution of the outbreak, to know the risk factors, and to recommend the control measures.
Methods: The descriptive study was performed by studying the situation of the outbreak in Bahrain and characteristics of travelers from Bahrain to the Kingdom of Thailand. We also review medical records, interview the patients, actively find more COVID-19 cases and conduct contact tracing.
Results: The first case was detected in Bahrain on February 24, 2020. He was a male student bus driver. Since then, new COVID-19 cases continued to grow. At the end of 2020, the cumulative numbers of cases and deaths of COVID-19 were 92,675 and 352, respectively. From January 1 to December 31, 2020, there were 2,113 people traveling from Bahrain to Thailand; 59.2% were Thais, and 40.8% were foreigners. Seventy- five COVID-19 confirmed cases were found including 74 Thai, and 1 Bahraini. Male to female ratio was 1:17.8 and mean age was 34 years old. Only 10.7% of the cases presented with symptoms. During May–December 2020, we found only 1 COVID-19 cluster among travelers coming back from Bahrain. Before arriving in Thailand, all were arrested and sentenced in a crowded prison in Bahrain. The prison did not provide face mask, soap and alcohol gel for handwashing.
Recommendations: The results from this outbreak investigation among travelers who were in overcrowded prison with insufficient prevention and control measures can be a good lesson learned to recommend appropriate control measures of COVID-19 outbreak in the crowded place like prison in Thailand.
References
World Health Organization. Novel Coronavirus (2019- nCoV) Situation report-1 [Internet]. 2563 [updated 2020 Jan 21; cited 2021 Jan 19]. Available from: https://www.who.int/Users/Admin/Desktop/20200121-sitrep-1-2019-ncov.pdf
กรมควบคุมโรค กระทรวงสาธารณสุข. รายงานสถานการณ์โรคติด เชื้อไวรัสโคโรนา 2019 [อินเทอร์เน็ต]. 2563 [เข้าถึงเมื่อ 15 พ.ค. 2563]. เข้าถึงได้จาก: https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/file/situation/situation-no93-050463.pdf
Worldometer. Coronavirus Cases in Bahrain [Internet]. 2563 [updated 2021 Jan 18; cited 2021 Jan 19]. Available from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/bahrain
Ministry of Health Kingdom of Bahrain. Health Info: Patient with Coronavirus (COVID-1 9 ) isolated and receiving treatment. 2020 [updated 2020 Feb 24; cited 2020 Mar 18]. Available from: https://www.moh.gov.bh/News/Details/3781
กรมควบคุมโรค กระทรวงสาธารณสุข. แนวทางการเฝ้าระวัง และสอบสวนโรคติดเชื้อไวรัสโคโรนา 2019 ฉบับ 23 มีนาคม 2563. [อินเทอร์เน็ต]. 2563 [เข้าถึงเมื่อ 1 พ.ค. 2563]. เข้าถึงได้จาก: https://ddc.moph.go.th/viralpneumonia/file/g_srrt/g_srrt_250363.pdf
ประกาศกระทรวงสาธารณสุข เรื่อง ชื่อและอาการสำคัญของ โรคติดต่ออันตราย (ฉบับที่ 3) พ.ศ. 2563. ราชกิจจานุเบกษา เล่มที่ 137, ตอนพิเศษ 48 ง. หน้า 1 [อินเทอร์เน็ต]. 2563 [เข้าถึงเมื่อ 29 เม.ย. 2563]. เข้าถึงได้จาก: http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2563/E/048/T0001.PDF
กรมวิทยาศาสตร์การแพทย์ กระทรวงสาธารณสุข. คู่มือการ ตรวจวินิจฉัย โรคติดเชื้อไวรัสโคโรนา 2019 (COVID-19) ทาง ห้องปฏิบัติการ SARS-CoV-2. นนทบุรี: กรมวิทยาศาสตร์- การแพทย์ กระทรวงสาธารณสุข; 2563. หน้า 5.
กรมวิทยาศาสตร์การแพทย์ กระทรวงสาธารณสุข. Pitfall ใน การตรวจ SARS-CoV-2 ด้วยเทคนิค Real-time RT-PCR. กรุงเทพฯ: กรมวิทยาศาสตร์การแพทย์ กระทรวงสาธารณสุข; 2563. หน้า 21.
World Health Organization. Transmission of SARS-CoV- 2: implications for infection prevention precautions [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2021 Jan 3]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/transmission-of-SARS-CoV-2-implications-for-infection-prevention-precautions
Interim Clinical Guidance for Management of Patients with Confirmed Coronavirus Disease (COVID- 19) [Internet]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2021 [cited 2021 Feb 17]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/clinical-guidance-management-patients.html
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Weekly Epidemiological Surveillance Report
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Responsibility and Copyright
1. Author Responsibility and Editorial Disagreement
The content and data in all articles published in WESR are the direct opinions and responsibility of the article authors, and the Journal's Editorial Board is not necessarily in agreement with, or jointly responsible for, them.
2. Copyright and Referencing
All articles, data, content, figures, etc., published in WESR are considered the copyright of the academic journal. If any individual or entity wishes to disseminate all or any part of the published material, appropriate citation of the article is required.
