The Thailand government’s Covid-19 Center for Situation Management (CCSA) recently announced that the number of Covid-19 cases linked to a shrimp market in Samut Sakhon province has increased to 689 and spread to 5 provinces and cities, including the capital Bangkok.
The Covid-19 Situation Management Center urges those who have visited the seafood market in Samut Sakhon province between December 1 and 19 to contact a medical facility for a free Covid-19 test.
Previously, on December 17, the Thai Government announced the case of community infection is a woman who sells shrimp at a wholesale market selling seafood. According to epidemiological information, the woman has never left Thailand and cannot determine the source of the infection. On December 18, three people in close contact with this case, including sister, biological mother and sister-in-law, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. In the following days, new positive cases linked to this outbreak have risen sharply.
Thai officials disinfected the market, conducted extensive testing and curfew at Samut Sakhon from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day. It is expected that by mid next week, the authorities will conduct tests of more than 10,000 people related to this outbreak.
The seafood wholesale market, where the outbreak broke out, is a place with a huge community of migrant workers, most of whom are Burmese, neighboring Thailand with an outbreak. Thai health officials are investigating the source of transmission from Myanmar migrant workers.
The Thai government’s Covid-19 Center for Situation Management, Dr. Taweesilp, said that this is not the second Covid-19 wave due to being unrelated to the first wave in March. This may be called a new outbreak of migrant workers and is not related to the previous outbreak. However, he also thinks that it is likely that more cases will appear in some provinces, even across the country.