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SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand: Thailand confirmed 427 new coronavirus infections and urged about 1,000 people from a quarter of the country’s provinces to be tested on Tuesday (December 22), in a bid to contain its largest COVID-19 outbreak. Until now.
The new cases include 397 migrants in the southwestern province of Samut Sakhon, where an outbreak was discovered over the weekend following positive tests for COVID-19 among hundreds of workers at a large seafood center.
Since then, more than 1,100 cases, mostly from neighboring Myanmar with no symptoms, date back to the now-closed center, where dozens of vendors often trade in widely sold shrimp and other seafood.
READ: Thailand Prime Minister Urges Calm As New COVID-19 Outbreak Sees Increase in Cases
Authorities said buyers from 22 provinces were known to have been there from Dec. 1 to Dec. 18 and should be tested.
“There are about 1,000 people across the country who went to buy products at the market,” Taweesin Wisanuyothin, spokesperson for the country’s COVID-19 task force, said in a briefing.
“But don’t panic. Anyone who is should get tested for COVID.”
Thailand had previously kept its epidemic under control, with around 4,300 confirmed cases and 60 deaths by the weekend, among the lowest figures in the world.
Its success has been due in large part to rapid contact tracing and the quarantine and stringent entry requirements that have decimated its tourism industry, a crucial sector for its economy, the second-largest in Southeast Asia.
READ: Thailand to test 10,000+ people after record rise in COVID-19
Another 16 cases were reported on Tuesday in eight different provinces, including five infections in Bangkok. Fourteen imported cases were also confirmed.
Myanmar is a key source of labor for Thailand’s fisheries sector and authorities suspect that some workers may have returned from the country since infections began to rise in August. Myanmar has reported almost 117,000 cases.
Thai authorities are setting up a field hospital in Samut Sakhon to test and treat migrant workers.
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