Thailand’s largest fruit and vegetable market, Simummuang, located in Pathum Thani province, has imposed new restrictions on its traders and workers, effective today for seasoned and imported vegetable sections, and this Friday (May 21st) for the rest of the market, according to the market’s Facebook page.
The new measures require Thai nationals to show their ID cards and foreign migrant workers to show their passports, as well as a COVID19-free health certificate, issued after May 7th. Blood test certificates, or tests conducted before May 7th, are not accepted.
These restrictions are not being applied to customers, who are free to enter the market around the clock, provided that they wear face masks all the time, wash their hands with sanitation gel and maintain strict social distancing.
Meanwhile, the Pathum Thani provincial health office reported 146 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, raising the total in the province, since April 1st, to 3,061. Of those, 1,749 are still being treated in hospitals and 1,293 have recovered. The provincial death toll is 19.
Of the new infections yesterday, 109 were detected during active screening and 37 are under observation and treatment.
The provincial health office is urging customers, who visited the seasoned and imported vegetable sections of the market between April 20th and May 10th, to assess their risk and to visit their nearest hospital for COVID-19 testing. The sections were closed last week after some vendors and workers tested positive.
A field hospital has been set up in Pathum Thani’s Lam Luk Ka district, to accommodate those testing positive for the disease.
