This morning, a “big cleaning” operation began at the Central Shrimp Market in Samut Sakhon province, with a large number of migrant workers helping out.

The timing of the reopening of the market, however, remains unclear, as 118 more migrant workers were found to be infected with COVID-19 over the weekend. All of them have been sent to field hospitals for treatment.

Today also saw the start of the proactive screening of 10,000 people per day.

The COVID-19 centre of Samut Sakhon province aims to screen 63,126 people within 7 days. This includes 41,000 workers in 15 large factories, 1,200 workers in five medium-sized factories, 1,008 workers in 13 smaller factories, as well as 7,500 people in 15 communities, 600 people in three markets and 10,900 people in the high-risk group. It is expected that over 4,400 new infections will be discovered, or about 7% of those being screened.

At the same time, medical personnel from various hospitals have been helping with the proactive screening of high-risk groups in different communities of Samut Sakhon. For example, medical personnel from Siriraj Hospital helped the screening at Mahachai Villa Market, although the market is still open for business as usual.