The communicable disease committee, in Thailand’s central province of Ayutthaya, has ordered the 7 day closure of a medical equipment production plant in Sena district for major disinfection and cleanup, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

About 5,000 workers at the plant have been placed in quarantine, after 51 were found to be infected, according to Dr. Phira Areerat, the provincial health chief.

Governor Panu Yamsri said that, according to an initial investigation, about 3,400 of some 5,000 workers at the plant are at high risk, because they were in close and regular contact with those already infected.

A field hospital is to be set up in the factory compound to accommodate the infected employees, the number of whom is likely to increase as active screening is under way.

Cumulative infections in the province, since April 1st, have risen to 892, including 490 who have already recovered and 394 still being treated in hospitals. The provincial COVID-19 death toll is 8 in the same period.