Thai cabinet meetings are to be held in tourist destinations across the country to boost confidence among tourists that SARS has not affected the Thai public.
Speaking on his weekly radio address to the nation, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said that Cabinet meetings would be held in all major tourist destinations to clearly demonstrate that Thailand was not at risk from the spread of SARS, adding that the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Public Health were working together closely and had both declared Thailand a SARS-free zone.
While admitting that there had been a number of SARS cases in Thailand, the prime minister pointed out that all of these were people who had contracted the disease abroad, and said that only two people in Thailand had died of the disease, while the remaining 7 had been successfully treated.
Thaksin also promised that the government would continue to take stringent measures to control the spread of SARS, saying that students returning from countries declared by the WHO to be at risk of SARS for the start of the school term would be ordered to remain away from school for ten days.
(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2003)
