Thailand’s largest seafood market and its surrounding areas were cordoned off on Saturday, December 19, to contain a sudden major outbreak of coronavirus there.
Thailand’s outbreak so far has not seen too large a scare, with just over 4,000 cases of infection and 60 deaths. But on Saturday night, the Thai government announced 548 cases of a large number of infections linked to the seafood market in Mahachai, a province in Saphangsakorn, about 40 minutes from the southern tip of Bangkok. The local government said it “has declared the market, where shrimp is sold, a strictly controlled area” and that a strict ban and curfew will be in place until early January 2021, affecting surrounding schools, gymnasiums, sports stadiums and shopping centers; foreign workers have also been banned from leaving the province. However, the local elections expected to be held this Sunday will go ahead as scheduled, and people will be required to wear masks.
“The total number of new infections in this outbreak is 548, 90% of which are asymptomatic, and most of them belong to foreign workers,” said the director of Thailand’s Disease Control Bureau. He also noted that “the population of Mahachai is about 70 percent Thai and 30 percent foreign workers, and the source of virus transmission is likely to be foreign workers, especially Burmese workers.” To date, there have been more than 115,000 cases of new coronavirus infections in Myanmar, and the Thai government has been tightening border controls in recent months.
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