Thailand's Corrections Department launched a project to provide healthcare training for 50 inmates so they can help doctors and nurses care for ailing inmates should they come down with China's coronavirus.
Director-general of the department Naras Savestanan said the inmates recruited from prisons nationwide would undergo the eight-day course at the Bangkok Remand Prison.
They would then return to their prisons to help care for ailing prisoners, Bangkok Post reported.
Naras stressed that the project was initiated to help deal with a shortage of medical staff in 143 prisons nationwide which are currently housing more than 380,000 prisoners.
As a result of overcrowding, when prisoners have to stay in close proximity to each other in crowded places, infections to the upper respiratory tract can spread easily.
"There are currently 314 Chinese inmates being detained in prisons nationwide and 14 who have just arrived. As far as we know they do not have the coronavirus but training inmates will help in the event of an outbreak," he noted.
The course will carry on until authorities have achieved a ratio of one volunteer carer to 50 inmates.
Inmates to be trained in Thailand to counter coronavirus spread
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