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People queue to get tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus at a seafood market in Samut Sakhon on December 19, 2020 after some cases of local infections were detected and linked to a vendor in the market. (Photo by Jack TAYLOR / AFP)
Thailand will screen more than 10,000 people for the coronavirus after an outbreak related to its largest seafood market, officials said Sunday.
Nearly 700 new infections have been linked to the Mahachai market and port since a 67-year-old shrimp seller tested positive on Thursday, most of them among Myanmar workers working hard in the kingdom’s multi-billion dollar fishing industry.
The authorities ordered Myanmar workers around the market not to leave their residences.
“We are blocking them and forbidding them to move,” Permanent Secretary of the Health Ministry Kietphgum Wongit said on Sunday, adding that the authorities would provide them with food and water.
By Sunday, authorities had confirmed 689 cases related to Mahachai.
“The (Department of Disease Control) will be actively tracking various communities of approximately 10,300 people,” said Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesperson for Thailand’s COVID-19 task force.
The tests would be free for migrant workers and would continue through Wednesday, he said.
Before the outbreak, Thailand had just over 4,000 cases and 60 deaths, a low number considering it was the first country outside of China to register an infection.
It shares porous borders with four countries, including Myanmar, which sees more than 1,000 new cases a day.
Images shared by Thai media on Sunday showed crowds of masked workers lined up shoulder to shoulder as they waited to get tested.
“It’s impossible to socially distance yourself here,” said Kyaw Zay Yar, a Myanmar worker who helps a local foundation coordinate the tests.
He said anti-Myanmar sentiment had been shared on social media, with Thais accusing workers of importing the highly infectious disease.
“The migrants from Myanmar are also uncomfortable … we are just trying to calm each other down,” he said.
“The situation is likely to get worse in the coming days.”
Human rights groups say Mahachai’s shrimp and fishing industry is driven by a poorly paid migrant workforce, subject to poor working conditions and overcrowding.
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