Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Numbers go up: 38 local Covid-19 cases now related to Myanmar border town

Published

Monday, December 7, 2020 17:56

PHOTO: Wikimedia

So far, 38 local Covid-19 cases are related to Myanmar’s border town Tachileik. A second hospital in Chiang Rai is now prepared to treat patients for the coronavirus as 6 more returnees in quarantine tested have positive for the virus and more cases are expected.

Many of the cases are linked to the now-infamous 1G1-7 Hotel in Tachileik. The venue has been closed since November 24 due to the outbreak.

The entertainment complex is about 1.5 kilometres from the Thai border. According to the Bangkok Post, the complex is backed by foreign investors and has “pubs, young girls, drinks, karaoke and a casino.” A Tachileik resident claims the Thai women worked as prostitutes and the coronavirus spread through sex.

Out of the 38 cases related to Tachilek, 26 of the cases were detected in Chiang Rai. The first 10 cases were Thai women who returned from Tachileik illegally, evading the immigration screening and the mandatory quarantine. Some travelled to other provinces, like Chiang Mai and Bangkok, before testing positive for Covid-19.

There have been only a handful of local transmissions since then. The majority of recent cases related to Tachileik have been detected in quarantine. Chiang Rai officials have been encouraging Thais in Myanmar to return through the second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, the official border crossing.

Out of the 6 new cases detected in quarantine today, 4 are women who worked at the 1G1-7 Hotel, according to public health chief Thossathep Boonthong. The other 2 women worked at the Hollywood nightclub and karaoke bar in Myanmar.

With an outbreak in Tachileik, Chiang Rai officials expect more Thais to flee the area. Hundreds of Thais work in the border town, according to director of the Communicable Diseases Division, Sophon Iamsirithaworn.

Covid-19 patients are being treated at the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital. If the hospital reaches capacity, the Mae Fah Luang Medical Centre at Mae Fah Luang University in Muang district will start treating coronavirus patients.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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17 Comments

Issan John

Monday, December 7, 2020 at 6:14 pm

Looks like the track and test system works after all …

Reply
- Ian
  
  Monday, December 7, 2020 at 6:46 pm
  
  How many have got through with covid already undetected and are spreading it as we speak and not just from Myanmar ??? God help Thailand if it spreads in Bangkok again .
  
  Reply
Jack Sombra

Monday, December 7, 2020 at 6:39 pm

‘ A Tachileik resident claims the Thai women worked as prostitutes and the coronavirus spread through sex.”

Why would you add that general misinformation to the article? Its not in the posts version. Sure it can be transmitted via intercourse but far far more likly it was transmitted via normal methods, you know,just being around infected people.

Reply
- Issan John
  
  Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 3:10 pm
  
  Are you “sure it can be transmitted via intercourse”, unless it’s indirectly?
  
  I’ve never seen anything to suggest it can (not that that means anything).
  
  Reply
Peter

Monday, December 7, 2020 at 6:41 pm

You better hope so buddy or you and your ex bar girl wife are in a world of trouble.

Reply
Pattaya Paul

Monday, December 7, 2020 at 6:50 pm

How many customers of prostitutes do you think left real contact details.

Reply
- Issan John
  
  Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 3:12 pm
  
  Their customers at 1G1 are probably of little concern to Thailand.
  
  Reply
Glenn

Monday, December 7, 2020 at 7:07 pm

are these 38 sick with significant symptoms?
are they asymptomatic?
how many CT (cycles) were the PCR test run at?
how many have died?
if these people are sent to hospital, what is the treatment if asymptomatic?

Reply
- 14cycles
  
  Monday, December 7, 2020 at 9:14 pm
  
  Anything more than 14 cycles and its bull. The fact they are not reporting this is criminal as testing and cases are easily inflated this way. A PCR positive test does not indicate infection either.
  
  Reply
- Toby Andrews
  
  Monday, December 7, 2020 at 10:07 pm
  
  I agree.
  If these contagious persons do not infect others, were they really infectious?
  Or were Thais complicit in a scam to admit healthy Thais to hospital to collect kickbacks from the hospital?
  I smell rats – Thai rats.
  
  Reply
  - Issan John
    
    Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 3:17 pm
    
    How exactly would this “scam” you’re so keen on work?
    
    Who would actually be paying who, and from what?
    
    Where would the “kickbacks” come from?
    
    Just asking …..
    
    Reply
  - Issan John
    
    Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 3:35 pm
    
    “If these contagious persons do not infect others, were they really infectious?”
    
    By definition, ‘yes’.
    
    It’s impossible for it to be otherwise, since all contagious diseases are infectious while not all infectious diseases are contagious. Tetanus and malaria are examples of infectious diseases that aren’t contagious, while Covid-19 is an infectious disease that is contagious – ‘spread through direct, bodily contact with an infected person, their discharges, or an object or surface they’ve contaminated’.
    
    Reply
Maag

Monday, December 7, 2020 at 8:18 pm

Can do better !

Reply
Gosport

Monday, December 7, 2020 at 8:32 pm

Lock up all fleeing locals

Reply
Whiro

Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 12:24 am

Keep thinking. lol

Reply
Antifascist

Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 3:21 am

I think there is a good chance of having half the population of America dead

TheThaiger
You don’t see any xenophobia in the message Mark M Hummel

Reply
EdwardV

Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 3:49 am

“return through the second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge” – Nothing like a little friendship between neighbors.

Reply

Caitlin Ashworth

Caitlin Ashworth is a writer from the United States who has lived in Thailand since 2018. She graduated from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and media studies in 2016. She was a reporter for the Daily Hampshire Gazette In Massachusetts. She also interned at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia and Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida.

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