Thermal scanners must function arou

Thermal scanners must function around the clock at all checkpoints of each airport that receives foreign visi- tors, he said, noting that Japan and South Korea operated such devices even in normal times.
"All concerned parties must closely monitor the disease's development in the next two weeks," Mr Charoen said.
"If the problem can be solved within two weeks, there will not be any serious impact on tourism".
Sisdivachr Cheewarattanporn, chair- man of tour company Quality Express Co, said that if the number of patients rose, perhaps exceeding 10, tourism would immediately suffer, especially the sensi- tive Asian market.
Mathee Supapongse, Bank of Thai land's assistant governor for the monetary policy group and secretary of the Mon- etary Policy Committee, said the impact from Mers could be limited because Thai land has experience dealing with conta- gious diseases.
"It's too early to assess the impact on Thailand's economy and tourism industry, as the one case has just been discovered, he said.
The Public Health and Tourism and Sports ministries are monitoring Mers developments, and their senior officials will discuss the situation and relevant measures on Monday.
The Tourism and Sports Ministry has ordered inbound tourism firms to report travel itineraries so that authorities will know where heir foreign clients visit and stay.
"If an outbreak occurs, we can impose immediate actions to control the dis- ease, deputy permanent secretary Kajorn Weerajai said.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has been ordered to watch the tourism impact and reactions from other countries closely.
Mr Kajorn voiced confidence the Public Health Ministry could control the disease, citing experience from dealing with Sars in 2003.
The Sars outbreak that year hurt Thai tourism, with arrivals dropping by 12% in March as the outbreak started.
International visitor arrivals at Don Mueang airport plunged 41% to 241,351 from April 1-21, 2003.
During that period, arrivals from China fell by 58%, Singapore by 72%, Japan by 36% and Hong Kong by 58% Overall arrivals that year fell by 7.2% to 10.1 million.
Siam Commercial Bank Research Centre said the Mers virus was unlikely to spread like Sars, as countries had reacted quickly to control the disease and no one was hiding information like in the past.