CHIANG RAI: Eight new Covid-19 infections were found in this northern border province on Tuesday, all coming from Myanmar's Tachilek town opposite Mae Sai district, governor Prachon Pratsakul said.
This raised the total number of recent cases to 34.
Of the total, 23 had worked at the 1G1-7Hotel, two at the Hollywood nightclub, one at another hotel, and seven from another entertainment spot in Tachilek. Another case also was from Tachilek, and had previously been thought to be a local infection, the governor said.
Dr Tossapol Boonthong, chief of the Chiang Rai public health office, said the 27th case was a 22-year-old woman who illegally crossed back from Tachilek to Chiang Rai on Nov 29 and went to the Farm Festival that same day.
From Nov 30, she stayed with a boyfriend in Chiang Rai. On Nov 5, she went to a private hospital where she tested positive for Covid-19.
She was initially thought to have been infected in Chiang Rai, because she did not tell health officials she had been in Myanmar.
It was a relief to learn she caught the virus in Tachilek and was not locally infected, Dr Tossapol said.
He said the 28th-34th cases had all worked at an entertainment complex in Tachilek and had returned legally via a border checkpoint.
Dr Tossathep said one of the infected women had already recovered and would be discharged from hospital on Wednesday. She would still have to spend 14 days in quarantine before being released.
