Outbreak in Samut Sakhon rises above 1,200 cases
Health authorities on Wednesday announced that more than 1,200 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Samut Sakhon, after an outbreak in the seaside province last week.
The Department of Disease Control (DDC) said 1,202 infections had been confirmed in migrant workers and locals living around the Central Shrimp Market and other risk areas in the province since testing began last Thursday. Almost one in five (19 per cent) of the total 6,314 samples taken had so far come back positive for Covid-19, said Dr Sophon Iamsirithaworn, director-general of the DDC’s Communicable Diseases Division.
Tests conducted on 2,052 people in a 2-kilometre radius around the Central Shrimp Market found 901 “positives” or an infection rate of 44 per cent. Of the 653 samples taken around the Talay Thai market, 137 came back positive (14 per cent). Meanwhile of the 2,074 samples taken in the nearby Soi Setthakit 13 community, 134 came back positive (6.5 per cent). Two infections were confirmed from 491 tests around the Saphan Pla market (0.4 per cent) and 18 of 449 tests in the nearby Tha Chin community were positive (4 per cent).
Cases were divided into three groups: cases self-admitted to hospital, cases detected by community testing and now confined at local hospitals and quarantine facilities, and cases staying in dormitories overseen by health officials.
The Public Health Ministry and local officials are now seeking ways to prevent crowding in worker dormitories that risks further spread of the virus.
Samut Sakhon’s border is till open but checkpoints are being set up to provide temperature checks and other disease controls.