Despite a giant foul up that could have resulted in the spread of coronavirus in Rayong involving an Egyptian military officer, the Thai government will, this week, press forward with more military drills involving US and Japanese soldiers.
A delegation of Egyptian soldiers were allowed to enter Rayong province earlier in mid July without going through state quarantine on their way to a military drill in China. One of the soldiers later tested positive for coronavirus. He had been seen in the city and at shopping malls. Subsequent tests fund no spread of the virus in the province.
In related news, nine Thai soldiers tested positive for the virus after returning from a military exercise in Hawaii, Reuters reported on Sunday. The Thai army said it would suspend the sending of its troops overseas for drills after the news was reported.
But in defiance of the two earlier events, the government said this week that military drills involving US and Japanese soldiers in Thailand would go ahead as planned.
Over 100 military personnel from Japan and the United States will arrive this week to take part in those exercise including 100 that arrived on Monday and two dozen due to arrive in Thailand on Tuesday.
Analysts have questioned how important the exercises were that the government should risk its citizens.
“Are we in a state of war, if we do not participate in these exercises will be conquered,” asked Thai political analyst Arun Saronchai.
“After their screw up in Rayong and Hawaii, the government clearly doesn’t have a grasp on this and yet they bow down to the army and go ahead with these drills anyways putting the hard work we’ve done on the virus at risk,” he told Thai Enquirer.
The government has said that arriving military personnel will undergo stringent virus checks and be forced to go through state quarantine.
