“Talad Thai”, Thailand’s largest fruit and vegetable market, in Bangkok’s neighbouring province of Pathum Thani, has been declared a maximum controlled and restricted zone.
Pathum Thani’s Governor Chaiwat Chuenkosum yesterday issued an order placing the market under tighter control, after new clusters of infection, in the province and elsewhere, were traced back to the market.
233 people were found to be infected yesterday, including 200 workers at a poultry processing factory in Lam Luk Ka district, most of them migrant workers from Myanmar and Cambodia.The following new measures have been imposed on the market:
-All traders and workers who enter the market are required to undergo an antigen test every week or must show to the officials a doctor’s certificate, confirming that they tested negative in the past seven days.
–Customers and residents living around the market must show evidence to officials at the entry point that they have undergone an antigen test every seven days or evidence that they tested negative within the past seven days.
-The market’s management must arrange an antigen test facility and staff for active screening at the market.
–People who are fully inoculated and with no symptoms can enter the market without the need to undergo COVID-19testing.
–A field hospital must be set up in the compound of the market to accommodate infected people so they are isolated in the zone.
-The market must be disinfected on a daily basis, while the public service areas and points of contact are to be cleaned with disinfectant every hour.
-To reduce human-to-human contact in the market, a drop in drop out sale practice is recommended.
Meanwhile, the Wang Somboon Hospital, in the eastern province of Sa Kaeo, was closed on Thursday for three days,after two of the four doctors there were found to be infected with COVID-19.
The closure of the hospital was ordered by Sa Kaeo Governor Kiatisak Chanthra, as requested by Dr. Yutthapong Srimongkol, director of the hospital.
Dr. Yutthapong said that all the medical personnel at the hospital were required to undergo swab tests and the hospital is to be entirely disinfected during the three-day closure, adding that all the medics who were already fully inoculated will be given a third booster shot with AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Wang Somboon Hospital is, currently, being turned into a field hospital for local COVID-19 infections with mild or no symptoms, before being sent to the district hospital if their condition deteriorates. Currently, 40 patients are being treated at the hospital.
