Thailand's Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) reported three imported cases from Singapore on Sunday, Sep. 6, the Bangkok Post reported.

The three men, aged 43, 53 and 56, had tested positive upon arrival in Thailand on Sep. 4, according to Bernama.

Previously, all three contracted the virus in Singapore, but subsequently made full recoveries and received health certificates from the Thai embassy here prior to their return to Thailand, the Bangkok Post further reported.

How it works

The Thai embassy in Singapore has provided a detailed breakdown of the process for Thais here returning to Thailand.

For all Thai nationals who wish to return to Thailand on repatriation flights, they must first present a "Fit-to-Fly" certificate, and a document issued by a doctor in any clinic or hospital in Singapore showing that the person is in good health and able to fly, to the embassy, before it issues a Certificate of Entry to board such a flight.

The embassy however added that this document is not a certificate of being Covid-19 free and it is not the Covid-19 test result.

Should the Thai national be a worker who resided in purpose-built dormitories or other types of residences under the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), they will be subjected to a different procedure as they may have been exposed to a higher risk of contracting Covid-19.

As such, these Thai workers must also present additional evidence that they have followed MOM’s guidelines and are cleared and safe to be repatriated upon their registration with the embassy.

In addition, for any Thai national who is a Covid-19 recovered patient, a ‘discharge memo” issued by MOH, stating that the person has recovered from Covid-19 and is no longer infectious is also a requirement by the embassy, so as to ensure safety in the arrangement of repatriation flights back to Thailand.

What is MOH's stance regarding the discharge criteria of Covid-19 patients?

According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), Covid-19 patients can be discharged if they are assessed to be clinically well by Day 21 of the onset of illness, even if the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test returns a positive result.

This is because clinical and scientific evidence show that the viable virus was not found in Covid-19 patients after the second week of illness, said the health ministry.

"This means that COVID-19 patients are not likely to be infectious after Day 14 of illness and are not infectious by Day 21 of illness."

Thai media concludes re-infection means there is potentially no effective vaccine

All three men are currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Bangkok, Bernama further reported.

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Post speculated if the results could have been due to the tests in Singapore either returning false negatives or the tests in Thailand returning false positives.

The media outlet also raised the possibility that the men were re-infected after recovering from the disease and concluded that in this case, there is no immunity from the virus, and therefore potentially no effective vaccine.

In response to Mothership's queries, a spokesperson for the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated:

"MFA is aware of this case, and our security agencies have also been informed. Our Embassy in Bangkok will render the appropriate consular assistance to the Singaporean."

Mothership has also reached out to the Ministry of Health for more information on the matter.

Three other imported cases reported from the U.S. and UK

Apart from the three men returning from Singapore, Thailand reported three additional imported cases yesterday.

They consisted of two Thai women who travelled from the U.S. and a Frenchman who arrived from the UK.

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Top image from Suvarnabhumi Airport Facebook