AYUTTHAYA: A new cluster of 180 Covid-19 infections, mostly people employed in the construction of a large department store, has been found in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district.
Provincial governor Panu Yaemsri issued an urgent order to lock down both the NMC Conland workers' camp and the site, effective from late Tuesday night until further notice.
The campsite is at Moo 5 village in tambon Ko Rian, about 1km from the construction site at Moo 7 in tambon Khlong Suan Phlu on the main highway near the provincial offices complex.
People were not allowed to travel in or out of the camp or the construction site without special permission.
There were 563 workers at the camp, 67 Thais and 396 from Cambodia and Myanmar, Mr Panu said.
Active case finding on June 7 showed 180 of them were infected with Covid-19.
Thirty-four vendors who did business with the camp also were deemed at risk.
Meanwhile, six of nine villages in tambon Koh Sathon of Tak Bai district in Narathiwat reopened on Wednesday after a one-month closure to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The villages were Ban Puyu Moo 1, Ban Si Pangan Moo 3, Ban Taliang Moo 4, Ban Jabaepa Moo 7, Ban Royor Moo 8 and Ban Chumbok Moo 9.
The other villages that remained closed were Ban Koh Sathon Moo 2, Ban Khok Kapoh Moo 5 and Ban Santisuk Moo 6, Sangkhom Korkerd, the Tak Bai district chief, said on Wednesday.
Mr Sangkhom said the three villages remain closed because 91 people have put themselves into quarantine there and they were not permitted to leave their homes.
Nine villages in Tak Bai district, where the first cases of the South African variant of Covid-19 were detected early last month, had been ordered closed to prevent the strain from spreading to other areas in Narathiwat.
Mr Sangkhom asked outsiders not to worry about villagers in tambon Koh Sathon, saying the district would issue documents for those who have completed the quarantine process so their lives could return to normal.
