After frantic reporting in the Thai news yesterday, the police manhunt for a Covid-19 positive Russian tourist who allegedly escaped his Phuket Sandbox hotel is over and deemed a false alarm. Police hotline 191 received notification from the Patong Parak hotel in Phuket that the man had disappeared from his room after testing positive for Covid-19.

The man was eventually found in the last place you think you’d be looking for him – his own hotel room. The 25-year-old Russian man had been reported as a fugitive when it was discovered by staff that he was not in his hotel room, but at 5.30pm they were able to confirm he was now back at the hotel and in his room. He told police he felt stressed, possibly because of the positive Covid-19 diagnosis, and decided to go for a walk on Patong Beach to get some fresh air.

The police hotline had contacted Patong police who issued an all-points bulletin asking anyone who knew the whereabouts of the Russian man to contact police hotline 191 or Patong police directly. They circulated copies of the Russian man’s passport along with lab test results confirming that on Monday he tested positive for Covid-19 at Vachira Phuket Hospital.

Police reported that he had disappeared in the morning and had not been seen all day. They asked anyone who spotted him to report his location and warned anyone who may have come into contact with him to get tested for Covid-19.

The search was called off when he was found in his own hotel room, having returned of his own free will after taking a walk on the beach and clearing his head. Tourist police questioned the Russian man about the incident.

SOURCE: Phuket News

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