Chiang Rai News
Two Thai Woman With Covid-19 Cross Border Illegally into Chiang Rai
Chiang Rai has recorded two new covid-19 cases both women who crossed the border illegally and worked with a Chiang Mai woman feared to be a super-spreader in Chiang Mai.
All three women worked at the same entertainment venue on the Myanmar side of the border.
Chiang Rai public health chief Thossathep Boonthong said on Monday the women, 26 and 23, illegally entered Mai Sai district from Tachilek town in Myanmar on Thursday night.
Both worked at the same entertainment venue in Tachilek as the 29-year-old Covid-19 positive woman who sneaked across the border last Tuesday, caught a bus to Chiang Mai and visited a shopping mall and a bar while showing symptoms of the disease.
All three went to work in the Myanmar border town last month, but decided to return to Thailand after Myanmar authorities imposed a curfew from midnight to 4am in a bid to contain an outbreak of Covid-19.
Unlike the woman now being treated at a hospital in Chiang Mai, the new cases in Chiang Rai did not go to public places, instead staying in a local hotel and ordering food from delivery apps, Dr Thossathep said.
The 26-year-old woman decided to seek a virus test on Saturday after hearing that her colleague now in Chiang Mai had contracted the disease. Two tests confirmed she was Covid-positive on Sunday.
High risk of contracting covid-19
Public health officials on Sunday ordered her 23-year-old friend, who was also staying in Mae Sai, to get tested. She was also confirmed to have the virus.
The Chiang Rai public health office has identified four people as being at high risk of contracting covid-19, and at least another 22 in a low-risk category.
Dr Thossathep said officials will try to test all of them on Monday.
The new cases have prompted security authorities to tighten security measures along the border with Myanmar as they expected more Thais working in Tachilek to return home.
“Many Thais working across the border are returning with the virus and those who are ill want to come back for treatment in Thailand,” the Chiang Rai governor said.
21 New Covid-19 Cases in Thailand
Meanwhile, Thailand on Monday added 21 new imported coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 3,998.
Seventeen of the 21 new cases were Thais, including two women who sneaked into Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai late on Thursday night.
Other Thais included a man returning from India via the United Arab Emirates on Nov 15, a woman arriving on Nov 21 from Italy via Qatar and two women arriving from Germany via Qatar on Nov 21 and 26.
Two women returned from Switzerland on a Nov 22 flight via Germany, and three women arrived from Japan on Wednesday.
A woman flew in from the United Kingdom on Nov 23, the same day that two women returned from Russia and Denmark.
A woman returned from the Netherlands on Saturday, while one woman and one man arrived from Switzerland and the United States via Taiwan respectively on Nov 22.
The foreigners were a Japanese man arriving on Nov 22, a French man on Nov 23 via Germany and a Russian man on the same day. The last foreigner was a man from Oman who arrived on Thursday the Bangkok Post reported.
