11 new COVID-19 cases, including three in Chiang Rai linked to Thachilek
People line up to have their temperatures taken as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus at the Ministry of Transport at the border crossing over the second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Mae Sot in Tak province on October 29, 2020. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)
Thailand recorded 11 new COVID-19 cases today (Friday), including three Thais returning from Myanmar’s Thachilek border township and in local quarantine in the northern province of Chiang Rai.
CCSA spokesman Dr. Taweesin Wissanuyothin said that thesethree new infections, two of them women working at an entertainment venue in Thachilek, have raised the total number linked to Thachilek to 49; 37 in Chiang Rai, 5 in Chiang Mai, 3 in Bangkok and one each in Phayao, Phichit, Ratchaburi and Sing Buri provinces.
The 49 cases include 17 illegal returnees, who snuck back into Thailand’s Mae Sai district from Thachilek, 30 who returned through immigration checkpoints and two locally transmitted cases.
Dr. Taweesin dismissed as untrue a report that a person, who illegally entered Mae Sot district in Tak province from Myanmar and travelled to the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom by public van, was infected.
He said that the man was temporarily detained by police for alleged illegal entry and subjected to a COVID test, which returned a negative result, adding that the man was isolated in quarantine and will face a charge of illegal entry.
Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of Disease Control Department, meanwhile, assured that the COVID-19 situation in Chiang Rai province is under control.
From December 2nd to 9th, 4,469 people were tested, with 3,688 of them cleared of the disease. Results of the remaining 781 cases are still pending.
The other eight cases today are two Thai women returning from Saudi Arabia, a Swede from Sweden, an American from the US, a Thai woman returning from Portugal, a Korean from South Korea and two Thai women returning from Bahrain.
Cumulative infections in Thailand, to date, are 4,180, with 3,903 recoveries. 217 others are still being treated in hospitals.
In Chiang Saen district of Chiang Rai, which borders Laos and Myanmar, security has been beefed up as troops, police and local officials increase road checks, patrols on the Mekong River and random checks of businesses for illegal migrant workers, all as part of the efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from Myanmar and Laos.
Similar security measures are also reported in the southern province of Songkhla, which shares a border with Malaysia.
