Thai market locked down after outbreak
THAILAND’S largest seafood market and the surrounding area were locked down December 19 to contain a coronavirus outbreak, after the country’s largest spike in cases since the pandemic began.
Despite being the first place to register an infection outside China, the kingdom had been mostly unscathed by the pandemic, with just over 4,000 cases and 60 deaths so far.
But on December 19 night, authorities announced 548 positive cases connected to a seafood market in Mahachai, Samut Sakhon province, about 40 minutes southwest of Bangkok.
Provincial governor Veerasak Vijitsaengsri said: “We have announced the shrimp market is a severe disease control area.”
A strict lockdown and curfew were introduced around the market until early January, affecting schools, sports stadiums, playgrounds and shopping malls.
However, December 20’s local elections were expected to go ahead as planned, as long as voters wore masks.
Foreign workers have been banned from leaving the province.
Department of Disease Control director-general Opas Kankavinwong said: “The total number is 548 and 90 per cent [of cases] have no sign of sickness and most of them are foreign workers.”
Moe Kyaw Thu from the Raks Thai Foundation, which is coordinating testing, said it aimed to screen 4,000 people over the weekend.
“The population in Mahachai is roughly 70 per cent Thai and 30 per cent migrant workers, which means the source of the virus spreading could come from migrant workers, particularly Myanmese workers,” he said, using a demonym for people from Myanmar.
Myanmar has had more than 115,000 cases of coronavirus and Thai authorities have been ramping up border controls over recent months.