Thailand on Sunday raised its influenza A/H1N1 preventive measures to "maximum", with all visitors even dignitaries entering the country subjected to thermal scanners, as Asia has found flu-infected cases in China's Hong Kong and South Korea, Xinhua reported according to Thai media.
"From now on everyone who enters Thailand, no matter how senior they are, will have to pass through a scanner," The Nation's website quoted Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Nopamornbodee as saying, adding "even a minister or the prime minister himself."
The heat-detecting devices will be installed at airports and border checkpoints as part of stepped-up surveillance for the influenza A/H1N1. Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kajornprasart and Manit on Saturday inspected the quarantine center at Suvarnabhumi airport where six scanners have been installed.
Sanan, who chairs a special panel that monitors the situation and supervises influenza A/H1N1 prevention measures, will ask Tuesday's cabinet meeting to approve the purchase of 10 infra-red thermal scanners worth 150 million baht.
The scanners have checked more than 180,000 arriving passengers in the past five days, and 31 were found with high body temperature, but most suspected case were later cleared up, according to the newspaper's website.
Deputy permanent secretary for public health Paijit Warachit said that tomorrow one more ambulance would be sent to the Suvarnabhumi airport so that two would be available.
"After the outbreak (in Asia), we think it's better to do more rather than less," said Manit on Saturday, after Hong Kong reported the first case of influenza A/H1N1 in the region, and hours later South Korea confirmed another case.
Health officials are gearing up for the arrival of a group of 14 Thai students and volunteers from Mexico, where the influenza A/ H1N1 broke out, said Deputy Prime Minister Sanan. The group, the first to come from Mexico since the outbreak, will undergo a thorough health examination at the airport.
There are two patients under health quarantine -- a 42-year-old woman and 46-year-old man -- at state hospitals. Health officials said initial test results showed the woman was free of the influenza A/H1N1, but more tests were under way.