Three border camps, for 70,000 displaced people from Myanmar, locked down

 

A man has his temperature taken as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus at the Ministry of Transport at the border crossing over the second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Mae Sot in Tak province.

 

About 70,000 displaced people from Myanmar, who have taken refuge in three border camps in Thailand’s northwestern province of Tak, have been barred from leaving after one of them was found to be infected with COVID-19, after having left the camp to visit Myanmar, returning to the camp recently.

 

The 48-year-old had a fever and was diagnosed with COVID-19 when he returned to the Ban Oompium camp in Kirirat subdistrict, in Phob Phra district, last week.  He was later admitted to a hospital in Mae Sot district.

 

The Tak provincial administration has now ordered a lockdown of the border camps, namely Oompiuam, Ban Mae La in Tha Song Yang district and Ban Nupho in Umphang district, and has banned all 70,000 inhabitants of the three camps from leaving, as health officials trace those who were in close contact with the infected man.

 

Source: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/three-border-camps-for-70000-displaced-people-from-myanmar-locked-down/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2020-11-23

 

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Locking down those camps is the right thing to do, and Thailand might not want to let anyone from Myanmar enter the country as cases there are high. No doubt in my mind there are cases of covid floating around Thailand due to Burmese, or others crossing in from that country.