The Myanmar Government is providing rations to Myanmar migrant workers at the vicinity of a seafood market in Samut Sakhon Province in Thailand, which is currently under travel restrictions due to surge in COVID-19 cases. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on January 25 that the Myanmar migrant workers in the area were facing difficulties due to the travel restriction since December 19, 2020 following the resurgence of Covid-19 in the Kingdom. U Myo Myint Than, Myanmar Ambassador in Thailand, and his team donated rice, oil, beans, eggs, canned food and drinking water to about 1,350 migrant workers around prawn market and 360 workers near the Talay Thai fish market. The Myanmar Embassy also contacted with Ministry of Labor (Thailand) and local authorities in Samut Sakhon Province, to ensure the Myanmar workers affected by the travel restriction would be provided with the necessary support. Until January 25, 2021, there were 13,687 COVID-19 cases and 75 deaths in Thailand.
Several factories and workshops in the Samut Sakhon Province will be temporarily converted into makeshift hospitals to quarantine migrant workers and 3,000 beds have been prepared, Thai authorities said. On January 25, Thailand confirmed a record 914 new cases of the coronavirus, all in Samut Sakhon province near Bangkok where a major outbreak began in December. The new cases shot the national total past 14,000. The previous high was on Jan. 4, when 745 cases were reported, mostly in Samut Sakhon among migrant workers from Myanmar. The province is a center for fishing and industry. The first case reported in the recent surge was detected there in mid-December at a major seafood market, which has been closed. Samut Sakhon Governor Veerasak Vijitsaengsri was hospitalized with the coronavirus before the New Year, and remains in critical condition with severe lung damage, according to the Bangkok hospital where he was admitted.