Stricter Covid-19 rules for Bangkok area construction sites

The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has set out instructions to large construction companies and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to implement stricter regulations to curb Covid-19 in worker housing facilities. The decree comes after clusters of outbreaks were found at housing facilities at construction sites in the Wattana and Laksi districts. The CCSA spokesmen cited cramped living conditions and a mix of nationalities and culture as contributing factors that make Covid-19 infection spread easily in worker housing sites.

Construction companies specifically in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, and Samut Prakan were requested to tighten up safety measures. The decree affects some 400 construction sites within Bangkok and its three neighbouring provinces. The BMA estimates as many as 34,600 foreign migrant workers, generally Burmese and Cambodian, living in these facilities along with about 24,600 Thai employees.

The CCSA says the proximity and living conditions in the staff housing facilities are causing Covid-19 to spread at a much higher rate. While Suan Luang district had an 8.85% infection rate, construction housing in Wattana was found to have a rate of infection of around 14.25%.

Staff housing at construction sites, markets, and factories have often been the site of major Covid-19 clusters and Coronavirus spread. At the height of the second wave of Covid-19 in Thailand at the beginning of the year, the Central Shrimp Market in Samut Sakhon had such a large outbreak throughout the Burmese migrant workers there, that the staff dorms and the market were completely sealed off. The entrances and exits were barricaded and locked up, with nobody allowed in and those inside not permitted to leave.

The CCSA hinted that if these new tougher restrictions and safety measures don’t curb new Covid-19 outbreaks and any more Coronavirus spread, a similar lock-in may be implemented in the Bangkok area construction site.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World