BANGKOK: Thailand has given the go-ahead for home isolation of coronavirus patients with mild symptoms and use of home self-test kits, as a stubborn coronavirus outbreak puts pressure on its capital’s health care and testing capacity.
Thailand has so far been predominantly using RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) tests but long queues at testing facilities in Bangkok, the epicenter, have caused a rethink of measures to track infections.
The rapid antigen test kits, the approval of which was announced in the official Royal Gazette on Tuesday, should be available in stores next week.
A Food and Drug Administration official said efforts were being made to keep the price of the kits, which are less accurate than RT-PCR tests, at around 100 baht ($3.06).
Authorities also approved home and community isolation for asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic coronavirus cases, as daily infections of more than 9,000 stretch resources.
Thailand recorded 8,685 infections and 56 deaths on Tuesday, among the 353,712 cases and 2,847 fatalities overall, most of which have been since early April.
The outbreak was initially fueled by the Alpha variant but 57 percent of recent cases in Bangkok have been the highly contagious Delta variant, officials say.
Thailand has also reported seven cases of suspected mixed infection with the two variants at a Bangkok construction site.
Thailand approves self-tests, self-isolation as COVID-19 cases climb
https://arab.news/4qk4j
Thailand approves self-tests, self-isolation as COVID-19 cases climb
- Thailand has so far been predominantly using RT-PCR
- Thailand recorded 8,685 infections and 56 deaths on Tuesday
UK child killer Ian Huntley dies after prison attack: police
- Huntley murdered 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in eastern England in 2002
- He suffered serious injuries when he was assaulted at Frankland maximum security prison in the northeastern English city of Durham on Feb. 26
LONDON: One of Britain’s most notorious child killers, Ian Huntley, died on Saturday following an attack in prison where he was serving a life sentence, police said.
Huntley murdered 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in eastern England in 2002, in a case that horrified the country.
Fifty-two-year-old Huntley suffered serious injuries when he was assaulted at Frankland maximum security prison in the northeastern English city of Durham on Feb. 26.
He “died in hospital this morning,” a spokesperson for the local police force said in a statement emailed to AFP.
A spokesperson for the government’s justice ministry said the double murder of Holly and Jessica “remains one of the most shocking and devastating cases in our nation’s history, and our thoughts are with their families.”
Huntley killed the two best friends after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets in the village of Soham, Cambridgeshire, on Aug. 4 2002.
Their disappearance sparked a massive search involving hundreds of police officers and appeals for help.
A photograph of the two girls wearing matching Manchester United football tops became instantly recognizable to many Britons.
Their bodies were found almost two weeks later, dumped in a ditch several miles away.
Huntley, then a 28-year-old school caretaker, aroused the suspicion of police after he gave media interviews claiming to be concerned for the girls’ welfare.
He denied murdering them but was convicted at trial in 2003.
His girlfriend at the time, Maxine Carr a teaching assistant at the girls’ school, gave Huntley a false alibi and was jailed for perverting the course of justice. She now lives under a new identity.
Revelations that Huntley had been the subject of prior rape and sexual assault complaints led to the establishment of criminal checks for anyone working with children.
He had been attacked before in prison, most seriously in 2005 and 2010.
“A police investigation into the circumstances of the incident is ongoing,” the spokesperson said, adding that prosecutors would consider bringing charges against his assailant.
