Eight boys rescued after spending weeks in a flooded cave in northern Thailand have yet to be reunited with their parents.
The boys, whose names have not been confirmed by officials, were among a group of 12 who went missing on June 23 after deciding to explore the cave Tham Luang Nang Non with their 25-year-old coach. Officials pulled four boys from the cave Sunday and four more on Monday.
A Thai official told a local TV station Sunday that officials weren't releasing the names of the freed boys "because of concerns the psychological impact on those whose children were still inside would be too great," according to The Australian.
"They're afraid it will affect the parents of kids who still remain inside," the official said, according to The Guardian.
Doctors are keeping the boys pulled from the cave in quarantine, ABC News reported. Citing the head of the country's health department, the news network reported that the boys were undergoing a battery of tests to check for diseases and infections that they might have contracted while trapped in the cave. A health official told Thailand's Kom Chad Luek news site that there would be "no hugging or touching" of the boys until doctors got back results from their blood work.
A medic, who was not identified, told Reuters on Saturday that a section of the Chang Rai hospital was set aside to care for the boys.
“What we’re most concerned with is infections,” the medic said. “There are all kinds of diseases in the cave, from bats, from dirty water. Everything in there is very dirty.”
Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn told reporters Monday that hospital officials were working on finding a way to allow the rescued boys to see their parents "at a distance through glass," ABC News reported.
Thailand's Health Secretary Dr. Jessada Chokedamrongsook said the boys would have to be kept in quarantine away from their parents for one or two days after their rescues, CNN reported. The boys would then likely be under evaluation for five to seven days.
A relative of one of the boys who was trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non told CNN that families have chosen to stay at the cave to await the rescue of all 12 boys and their coach instead of reuniting with their children.
Rescue efforts aimed at freeing the four boys who remain in the cave and their coach are expected to continue Tuesday.
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