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COVID-19: THAILAND SPENDS RM2.7 MLN PER DAY ON MASS TESTING IN SAMUT SAKHON
4 FEB 2021
BANGKOK: Thailand spends about 20 million baht (RM2.7 million) per day to test about 10,000 people daily in Samut Sakhon province, in a bid to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission. Deputy spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Natapanu Nopakun said the public health authorities were conducting active case detection in Samut Sakhon, southwest of Bangkok, the epicentre of the latest outbreak in the kingdom, starting last week.
“With about 10,000 tests every day, the authorities found between 700 and 800 of those tested to be positive for COVID-19. “We are investing about 20 million baht per day to have the targeted result…We are able to identify many positive (COVID-19) cases. This exercise will continue at low-risk factories and communities,” he said at the COVID-19 daily briefing, here, today. More than 12,000 COVID-19 cases have been detected in Samut Sakhon since mid-December last year.
Meanwhile, Natapanu said Samut Sakhon’s Public Health Emergency Operations Centre sealed off seven factories which employed more than 50,000 migrant workers from Myanmar. “Following active case detection, about 9,000 positive cases have been detected in these seven factories. “Therefore, the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre of Samut Sakhon decided to seal off these factories until the end of February where the workers are not allowed to leave their factory’s compound, to contain the spread of COVID-19,” he said.
Thailand recorded 809 new COVID-19 cases and zero deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total infections in the kingdom to 22,058 cases and 79 fatalities. The Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) spokesman, Thaweesilp Wissanuyothin said of the 809 new cases, 796 were local transmissions including 751 through active case detection, 45 were those seeking treatment at hospitals while 13 were imported cases. - Bernama
