Exported Wuhan Novel Coronavirus Infection: An Expected Rate with Reference to Main Destination of Chinese Tourist, Thailand.

Dear Editor,

Novel coronavirus 2019 infection is a new emerging coronavirus infection. This coronavirus infection was firstly reported in China in December 2019.[1] The patients who get infection usually have an acute febrile illness with respiratory tract problems.[12] The big outbreak occurs in China and becomes a serious public health problem. At present, this new disease is already imported to many countries due to international travel via an international flight. Thailand is the main destination of many Chinese tourists, therefore, it is no doubt that the first exported case of Wuhan novel coronavirus was reported from Thailand.[3]

An interesting issue is the infection exported rate, which has never been assessed. Here, the authors retrospectively assessed available data on the exported rate of Wuhan novel coronavirus infection from China to Thailand. The data on international air flight from China to Thailand during 30 December 2019 and 22 January 2020 were collected. Also, the data on the number of confirmed imported cases of Wuhan novel coronavirus infections in China to Thailand during that period were collected. Based on the studied periods, there were 26,674 Chinese traveled to Thailand from Wuhan via international flights. At the time, there were four finally confirmed imported infections among Chinese travelers. The imported rate is equal to 0.015% or 15/100,000 with expected range (95% confidence interval = 0.00563–0.03995%). This expected rate can imply the risk for any destination that there are many Chinese immigrants.

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Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.