Rawai sea gypsy village under lockdown
THE SEA GYPSY VILLAGE in Rawai has been placed under 14-day lockdown, Rawai Mayor Aroon Solos has announced late last Thursday afternoon (Sept 9).
At the time, an officer at Rawai Municipality, who asked not to be named, said that Mayor Aroon and all other high-ranking officials at Rawai Municipality were unavailable as they were in a meeting about the lockdown.
As of Monday (Sept 13), no details of the lockdown or the number of people infected in the village had been revealed.
The officer declined to answer any questions as to why the lockdown was brought into effect on Sept 9, since mass testing of sea gypsies in the village was conducted on Aug 31 and health workers conducted a mass sanitising of homes and public areas in the village on Sept 5.
The mass testing on Aug 31 saw 465 villagers tested for COVID-19 by staff from Chalong Hospital using antigen test kits (ATKs).
However, Phuket health chief Dr Kusak Kukiattikoon on Sept 1 reported that, in comparison, of the 248 sea gypsies tested in Baan Sapam, Rassada, during the ‘proactive screening’ of sea gypsies in Phuket, 100 of those tested positive.