PHETCHABUN: A public hospital in Bung Sam Phan district has announced it is accepting only emergency cases until Sept 9 after the number of staff infected with Covid-19 rose to 27.
Chaiwat Thongmai, chief of the Phetchabun public health office, said on Saturday that most of the infected personnel were frontline nurses. Twelve of the 27 have almost completed their 14-day quarantine. Most of them showed no symptoms.
Fifteen more medical staff later tested positive. Of this group, all but one recently received the Pfizer vaccine as a booster shot. The one who had not been vaccinated was not a frontline worker, said Dr Chaiwat.
He added that all of them were asymptomatic and were in quarantine in a hospital facility.
Dr Chaiwat said the hospital would conduct mass testing on all hospital personnel over the weekend.
The state-run hospital with 60 beds is taking only emergency cases during the temporary closure. Non-emergency cases will be referred to nearby hospitals. For those who had appointments for medications, the hospital would deliver them to their homes.
Bung Sam Phan is also home to a large chicken processing plant where nearly 3,500 workers tested positive for Covid-19 last month.
The factory of Golden Line Business, a subsidiary of Saha Farms Group, was cleared to resume operations on Saturday after all of the workers tested negative for the virus following their 28-day quarantine at a field hospital on the premises.
