Businesses urged to delay hiring immigrant labour to avoid Covid-19 danger
The Ministry of Public Health has asked entrepreneurs to delay hiring immigrant workers from areas where Covid-19 is spreading until the situation improves.
Dr Sophon Iamsirithaworn, Department of Disease Control director of General Communicable Diseases, said recently that the Myanmar government had announced curfew hours from 9pm to 4am and allowed people to work from home after the Covid-19 pandemic spread in Rakhine state.
"However, the Covid-19 pandemic in Myanmar does not count as a second wave because it has occurred only in one state," he said.
He said as Thailand and Myanmar had a hundred kilometres long land border, local administration agencies had been instructed to keep a watch on illegal entry across the border in order to contain the spread of the disease.
Responding to a question about medical tourists coming to receive treatment in Thailand spreading the Covid-19 virus, he said the department had set up guidelines. The medical tourists must not be a patients with a contagious disease. He added that most of the medical tourists came from countries where the Covid-19 situation had been contained.
"Medical tourists must take a Covid-19 test within 72 hours of travelling to Thailand, while they must take the same test on arriving in the country to make sure that they do not spread the disease," he said.
"The Covid-19 test on all medical tourists since they were allowed to receive treatment in Thailand has been negative."
As the Covid-19 situation has escalated in several countries, such as Europe, US, Japan and South Korea, he urged Thai people to strictly follow Covid-19 preventive measures, such as wearing face mask, washing hands regularly, maintaining a physical distance with others, avoid gatherings and use the ThaiChana platform.
"Thailand has been free from Covid-19 because of the ThaiChana platform that enabled the government to monitor the situation in the country," he added.