Samut Sakhon field hospital ‘necessary’, insists minister
Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda said on Friday that a field hospital must be set up in Samut Sakhon’s Muang district, a hotspot of new Covid-19 cases, to separate infected patients from those who are still under investigation.
Anupong spoke after local residents gathered to protest the plan, over fears that the hospital will increase the infection risk in their communities. On Thursday hundreds of locals showed up at the Thailand National Sports University Samut Sakhon campus to block efforts to turn the campus into a field hospital for Covid-19 patients.
“Public health officials have performed Covid-19 tests on many migrant workers in Samut Sakhon, but this small city has limited facilities to safely separate those who are infected from those who still need further monitoring or testing to confirm their status,” said the minister.
“If we don’t isolate them [in the hospital], these workers could return to their community and spread the virus to others, meaning our efforts would be wasted.”
Anupong revealed that the Labour Ministry will next week ask the Cabinet to approve temporary mandatory registration of migrant workers.
“In the meantime, authorities have ordered employers to report the number of migrant workers they have hired and not to move them out of the area without permission,” he added.
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