foreigners who refused to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus should be “kicked out of the country.”
“These foreign tourists, this is something to tell the embassies as well as the Thai people they’re refusing to wear face masks,” Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters on Friday using a racially charged term to refer to western foreigners.
His comments were made after he handed out face masks to the public in Bangkok.
“When we hand them out, they don’t take them. With behaviour like this, they need to be kicked out of Thailand,’’ he said.
“They’re showing no concern towards the situation. Chinese people, Asians, they’re all accepting them (the handed-out face masks).’’
“But the Europeans, they’re unbelievable. How do they know they’re not the ones spreading the virus.
If we find these types of people we should kick them out,’’ the minister of public health said.
Anutin later apologized for his outburst in a statement on his Facebook page.
“I’m sorry that today I lost my temper at some European foreigners who acted repulsed by Thais wearing face masks.
They did not cooperate with wearing them while we were advocating to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Thailand,’’ he said in the Friday posting.
The Thai government has repeatedly suggested that surgical masks are an effective measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Source:- Vanguardngr