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BANGKOK: Thai authorities called for calm on Tuesday (December 1) as they rush to track down a possible coronavirus outbreak after at least four women tested positive upon returning from neighboring Myanmar.
Since detecting the first case outside of China in January, Thailand has managed to keep COVID-19 infections low, at just over 4,000 cases, in part by imposing strict entry rules.
But it shares an extremely porous 2,400 km border with Myanmar, where the virus is rampant, with more than 1,000 new cases a day in recent months.
Four Thai women who worked in Myanmar’s famous border town of Tachilek and returned to Thailand have now tested positive, health officials said Tuesday.
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Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said more than 100 people with whom the women may have come into contact have been tested so far, and officials are tracking more.
Authorities have not confirmed where the women worked in Tachilek, but Thai media reported that they were employed at an “entertainment center,” a euphemism that can include bars, karaoke parlors and brothels.
“Only these women, who work in this kind of place, where they socialize with a lot of people … have tested positive,” Prayut said Tuesday.
“There is no need to panic about this.”
Since the pandemic, border patrols have stepped up vigilance to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing into the kingdom.
Upon returning to Thailand, the first woman traveled to the northern city of Chiang Mai, where she went to a karaoke bar and a shopping mall, possibly coming into contact with hundreds of people.
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The city went on high alert and authorities sprayed disinfectant in the areas where the woman was located.
His three other colleagues stayed in Chiang Rai, just an hour across the border from Tachilek, and isolated themselves in hotels before taking the test.
Long plagued with a seedy reputation, Tachilek serves as a conduit for the lucrative Golden Triangle drug trade and is home to numerous casinos and brothels.
Myanmar currently has more than 90,000 cases, with parts of the northern state of Rakhine and the commercial capital Yangon under lockdown.
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