AIT Campus Bulletin

2) Positive Cases and Updates from the AIT COVID-19 Task Force

Email from the Director, Office of Academic administration on 31 July 2021

Dear AIT Family,

This is a long and important COVID-19 email.  Please take some time to read it and absorb the information. 

Positive Cases among students on Campus – We would like to report two new cases of two of our recently graduated students on campus who have tested positive for COVID-19.  The students completed their studies in July 2021 and were planning to fly back home, and in the process needed to take a pre-flight RT-PCR test on 30 July 2021.  The students received the test results on 31 July 2021 indicating that they were positive for COVID-19.  One student  resides in Student Village III (SV60A) with another student, and the other lives in N206 alone.  Our thoughts are with these students, and we wish them a speedy recovery.

The following immediate actions have been taken:

• The concerned students along with the other student from the same floor have been moved to our newly designated community OQ.  The close contact student will be tested for COVID-19.
• Students residing on the second floor in SV60B will be moved to a different accommodation unit on campus to allow for deep cleaning and sanitization of the whole building.
• Based on contact tracing of these students, the identified contacts have now been required to undergo Self-Isolation (SI) in their own rooms if living alone; while those who stayed in shared units will be moved to the newly designated community SI dorm.  Rapid tests for COVID-19 will be performed for these contacts.

Please find below the timeline of our students, and if any member of the AIT community has been to the places listed, please be careful and closely self-monitor yourselves for seven days for any symptoms.  OFAM will perform thorough cleaning of these areas in the next two days and will discuss with those responsible for those areas so that they can take the necessary follow-up precautionary measures.  

o   18 July – Central Vaccination Center at Bangsue Grand Station

o   20 July 7am to 1pm – SET room 223 [10am – Grocery shop]

o   23 July – GRU, Registry and Student Accommodation Office

o   26 July – Student Accommodation Office

o   27 July – Pathumthani Immigration Office

o   28 July – Medical Clinic

o   30 July – Registry and Student Accommodation Office; TU Mall

o   some evenings – around the football ground

o   sometimes – UFM and pond area

Positive cases among our contractors – Two of our AITCC contractor employees tested positive on 28 July 2021,  and had their last day on campus on 20 July.  We have since closed AITCC main entrance and lobby, and access to the dining room will be through the side door of AITCC.  These contractor employees were infected by their respective spouses—who tested positive for COVID-19 on 21 July—and are all undergoing treatment at their home off campus as home isolation patients until their hospital pick up.  Our thoughts are with these contractor staff, and we wish them a speedy recovery.

Emergency Plan for Contractor Services and Concessionaires – With a steady stream of our contractor staff getting infected with COVID-19 through their families--who are residing and working in high-risk areas--an emergency plan has now been put in place to reduce the number of contractor staff on campus, as well as daytime helpers and concessionaires who are coming to the campus daily from those high-risk areas, and subsequently reduce services.  Please refer to the OFAM Director’s 30 July 2021 message to the AIT community on “Limited OFAM Maintenance, Pest Control, Lawn Mowing and Janitorial services for August 2021”.

Contractors, concessionaires, private daytime maids (4), as well as their family members, living in high-risk areas have not been allowed to come on campus since 9 July, and they are required to stay safe in their respective homes off campus, while being compensated, until the end of August.  Their eventual return will be subject to reassessment and negative rapid antigen (free) / antibody test results.

Please note that there will be no reduction on the monthly service fee for contactors during this period.  Similarly, the rental for affected concessionaires were reduced by 50% for the months of June and July, and fully waived for August 2021.  Service fee was also waived for Cafeteria and Snack Bar vendors for the period from June to August 2021.

As reported earlier, we have also facilitated the vaccination of our contractor and concessionaire staff – more than 74% have already been vaccinated and more than 19% booked for vaccination, while the rest still cannot be vaccinated for various reasons.

Our contractor and concessionaire staff are continuously being reminded to strictly comply with safety rules and regulations, i.e., wearing of masks, no gathering during lunch, only attend to their work while on campus (no wandering around) and directly return home after their duties.  They are required to immediately report any positive case along with movement and contact timeline, last working day in AIT, and possible source of the infection.  They have been advised to avoid going to high-risk places, and to seek medical help and stay home if feeling unwell and while waiting for test results or diagnosis.

We are confident that together we can curtail possible transmission of infections within our AIT community.  But AIT community must be vigilant that whether or not you have had two doses or one dose of vaccines, or you have not been vaccinated at all, you must be careful and practice all the required precautions. 

Home-Isolation – With the recent surge in cases, there is a shortage of testing facilities and hospital beds to treat infected persons throughout the country.  The Thai Government has now permitted COVID-19 patients with no symptoms or mild symptoms to recover and do Home-Isolation. In line with this recommendation, AIT has designated Special OQ dorms for members of the AIT community who test positive.  If an AIT campus resident tests positive for COVID-19 and is either asymptomatic or only has mild symptoms, that person will be relocated to the designated OQ dorm where they can undergo home-isolation.  If they reside in a separate house or family unit, they will be allowed to undergo home-isolation in their own units.  We are pleased that Thammasat University Hospital (TUH) has agreed to assist us with our Home-Isolation operations through virtual consultations and provision of equipment, medicines, etc.  

The Home-Isolation Guidelines developed by the Department of Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health are Intranet-published at the link below and strict rules must be adhered to such as staying in the room at all times and not allowing other people to visit their residence or designated unit during the isolation period.  The patient is required to closely observe oneself, by measuring body temperature and oxygen saturation daily.  Similar to the OQ rules, Home-Isolation starts from the date of confirmed detection as Day 0 and will take 14 days of symptoms observation. If on Day 15 symptoms go away completely, with no fever and no coughs, it is upon the doctor's discretion to confirm whether the patient has fully recovered and is allowed to return home and live normally.  If during Day 1-14 symptoms turn severe, the patient must be admitted in the hospital, and stay in the hospital for 10 days and return to Home Isolation for 4 more days, so that it totals 14 days.  If symptoms totally recover and disappear for more than 24 hours, it then depends on the doctor’s discretion to confirm the patient’s full recovery so that he or she can go home and live normally.

Home Isolation Guidelines

Vaccination – Thanks to the help of several government departments and Thammasat University Hospital, other than some Thai continuing students who will receive a specific vaccination date any day now, almost all AIT employees and dependents and continuing students will have been vaccinated by the date of this message.  AIT has also managed to arrange vaccines for the contractor staff and around 120 of our AIT contractors successfully received their vaccines on 23 July. 

We are glad to share with you another vaccination opportunity for COVID-19, specifically for foreign residents aged 60 and over (ONLY born in 1961 or earlier) residing in Bangkok and neighboring provinces (Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakarn, Samut Sakhon).  This vaccination opportunity can be useful to AIT non-Thai employees who are aged 60 and over and to their elderly family members who have not yet received any COVID-19 vaccination, either through AIT facilitated opportunities or any other channels.  This opportunity is jointly provided by the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The vaccination will take place at the Central Vaccination Center at Bangsue Grand Station.  Registered individuals will be notified of appointment details directly by the Central Vaccination Center at Bangsue Grand Station via sms/email.  If you are interested in this vaccination opportunity, you can register for your first dose of AstraZeneca by filling in the form and register through the link provided below:

Registration vaccination for foreign residents aged 60 and over

 In addition, starting from Thursday 29 July, at 9am, the general public who are 18+ will be able to register for vaccination at the Central Vaccination Center at Bang Sue Grand Station. It is not known yet if foreigners can take part in this.  Follow this thread for details:

Vaccination for general public aged 18+

Please check with the Task Force if you have any queries and also visit the Intranet page where all COVID-19 related information and updates from the Task Force are available. 

Thank you for your cooperation.

AIT COVID-19 Task Force