Cabinet considers closing computer game shops, tuition schools to contain virus

BANGKOK, July 8 (TNA) – Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Wednesday that there is ”no need to close down the country” to halt the spread of the influenza A(H1N1) virus, and announced that the Cabinet will consider more stringent containment measures in public areas when it meets Thursday, in order to contain the virus.
 
Mr. Abhisit told journalists after seeing Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai on the flu situation that the Cabinet will decide Thursday whether to close tuition schools and computer game centres, now considered the biggest threat to public health, and whether owners will cooperate with the government in fighting the disease.
 
He said cooperation with operators of cinemas, shopping malls and densely-populated communities had been sought earlier.
 
More education campaigns are needed to inform the public that they should see doctors immediately if they do not feel well, Mr. Abhisit said.
 
A special task force unit may be established to look after patients seriously suffering from the disease, he said.
 
The premier, however, accepted that the number of H1N1 patients may be higher than those officially confirmed by lab tests, but affirmed that the government is not hiding the situation or withholding information.
 
‘What we are doing is that when the H1N1 flu spreads, we closely monitor the situation and keep patients under close observation to save their lives,’ the prime minister said.
 
Thailand’s death toll of H1N1 patients stays at 0.4 per cent of those who were diagnosed of having contracted the disease. The World Health Organization advises that a country be ‘closed’ and travel suspended if the death toll reaches 1.5-2 per cent.
 
Although Thailand has low rate of H1N1 deaths, Mr. Abhisit vowed that his government expanding its response to contain the H1N1 outbreak and to bring a halt to the rising death toll. (TNA)