Phetchabun sugar factory closes with Covid-19 cluster

After a cluster of 90 workers was discovered to be infected with Covid-19, a factory in Phetchabun producing sugar has been instructed by government officials to close down for a week. The Thai Roong Ruang Industry Co in the Si Thep district received the orders yesterday to close from now until August 2. The provincial communicable disease committee made the announcement after discovering the outbreak in active case-finding.

Health officials in Phetchabun conducted testing on Sunday that led to the discovery of the Covid-19 infection cluster. After getting the test results, the more severely afflicted workers diagnosed as being Covid-19 positive were admitted to the local Si Thep Hospital for treatment while more minor infections were assigned self-isolation in-home quarantine.

The sugar factory was closed completely for 7 days, while the nearby village of Ban Kwae Pa Sak, Moo 9 was also restricted in the same order. The local communicable disease committee issued the order to place that village under a 2-week lockdown period, during which the village is sealed off and no one is allowed to enter or exit the area. That period began yesterday as well and will continue through August 9.

This swift closure and lockdown after this latest outbreak attempts to quickly curb any possible spread of the Covid-19 cluster outside of the sugar factory staff and immediately surrounding neighbourhood. It follows on the recent much larger cluster uncovered in a Bung Sam Phan district chicken processing facility which saw 3,481 of the factory’s 7,200 mostly Burmese workers diagnosed with Covid-19 as well as 138 people living in the neighbourhood surrounding that factory. That massive Covid-19 outbreak pushed Phetchabun beyond a “controlled area” bringing lockdowns of several surrounding neighbourhoods.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post