Major Quarantine Center in Savannakhet will Accommodate 10,000 People

A new quarantine center in Savannakhet Province can accommodate 10,000 people.

Savannakhet authorities are scrambling to construct quarantine centers to accommodate the flood of migrant workers returning from Thailand.

A building in Nonsaard Village, Kaysone Phomvihane District, has been converted into a new quarantine center that can accommodate 10,000 people.

Deputy Governor of Savannakhet province, Mrs. Lingthong Sengtavan, says over 300 Lao laborers return to the province every day via the Savannakhet-Mukdahan Friendship Bridge.

Some 30 to 45 percent of returnees have tested positive for Covid-19, and require treatment at hospitals in the province, according to the deputy governor.

“Despite the fact that we have over ten quarantine centers to accept returnees from the province, we are struggling to maintain social distancing and worry about the possibility of community spread,” said Mrs. Lingthong.

Deputy Governor Lingthong Sengtavan speaks to reporters.

“The new quarantine center has improved facilities and is large enough to accommodate thousands of laborers returning to the province,” Mrs. Lingthong added.

There are currently nine quarantine facilities in Kaysone Phomvihane, and three quarantine centers have been built in the districts of Outhoumphone, Champhone, and Songkhone of Savannakhet Province.

Savannakhet Province saw its second death as a result of Covid-19 yesterday when a 23-year-old woman succumbed to the virus at a field hospital.

A 45-year-old man died at a field hospital in the province on 17 July.

Laos has so far recorded six deaths from Covid-19, while some 9,154 people remain in quarantine across the country.