Samut Sakhon -- the province with the country's largest Covid-19 cluster -- is going to reopen 22 fresh markets on Monday after they were shut down from Dec 19.
However, the Central Shrimp Market, know as the origin of the largest Covid-19 cluster in the kingdom, is not one of them.
Samut Sakhon municipality on Friday began a three-day cleaning campaign targeting all 22 markets, according to Chingchai Bunprakhong, mayor of the municipality. He said the markets are to be sprayed with water mixed with concentrated chlorine.
On Friday, three water tanks containing the mixture were sent to begin the big cleaning operation at Mahachai Market, he said. He said a number of other markets were also set to be cleaned on the same day.
The operation is aimed at boosting public confidence in the hygiene of the markets before they reopen on Monday, Mr Chingchai said.
He said the Central Shrimp Market is not on the list of the 22 markets set to reopen.
The local administration last month considered reopening the shrimp market but it instead indefinitely deferred the move.
It is not known when that market will reopen as the information was not available at press time.
According to Mr Chingchai, the administration decided to reopen the 22 markets after recent Covid-19 testings had shown encouraging results.
So far, local health officials have tested 3,772 people working in the 22 markets and only 0.56%, or 21 people, tested positive for Covid-19, he said.
The provincial public relations office released a daily report showing that 95 Covid-19 patients were identified on Thursday.
Of the 95, 60 people were detected during active case-finding operations, it said, adding 35 of the patients were being treated in hospital.
