1,000+ cluster at Phetchabun's chicken factory

1,000+ cluster at Phetchabun's chicken factory

64% of 7,000 workers fully vaccinated. None shows serious symptoms

Health workers conduct mass testing among workers at Golden Line Business Co’s chicken processing factory under Sahafarms Group in Bung Sam Phan district, Phetchabun province, on Saturday. (Photo supplied by local leaders in tambon Kanju, Bung Sam Phan district)
Health workers conduct mass testing among workers at Golden Line Business Co’s chicken processing factory under Sahafarms Group in Bung Sam Phan district, Phetchabun province, on Saturday. (Photo supplied by local leaders in tambon Kanju, Bung Sam Phan district)

PHETCHABUN: More than 1,000 coronavirus infections were detected at a chicken processing plant in Bung Sam Phan district of this province. Most of them were Myanmar migrant workers.

Mass testing was conducted at Golden Line Business Co’s chicken processing factory under Sahafarms Group at tambon Kanju in Bung Sam Phan district. The plant employes more than 7,000 workers.

Provincial authorities had earlier been notified by Bung Sam Phan Hospital on Thursday that two migrant workers there tested positive for Covid-19, said a source.

An initial investigation found some of them were former construction workers in Greater Bangkok who had left their camps after they had been closed by authorities.

The cluster prompted the provincial communicable disease control panel to close the factory for four days from July 23 to July 26.

Phetchabun governor Krit Khongmuang on Saturday confirmed many workers at the factory got infected with Covid-19.   

On Friday, health workers had conducted Covid-19 tests on over 3,000 workers and more than 1,000 tested positive, said the governor.

Over 64% of them had received Covid-19 jabs. A source said 3,000 of them were fully vaccinated while 1,500 got their fist shots. 

Some Thai media reported the workers had received the Sinopharm vaccine the company had bought for them. All of them showed to serious symptoms.

The governor said he has ordered residents of three villages around the factory not to leave their homes from July 23 to Aug 6.   

Security officials and community leaders jointly set up seven screening checkpoints at communities around the plant with funding from the company, said the source.

Thai media reported that Golden Line Business Co produces and exports frozen chicken. The factory has the largest proportion of Myanmar workers in the province.

The provincial public health office on Saturday cooperated with health workers from other districts to help conduct Covid-19 tests on the remaining workers at the factory.

A report from the Bung Sam Phan police station showed the factory employed 7,200 workers — 2,580 Thais and 4,620 migrant workers.

During Covid-19 testing on July 22-23, a total of 3,344 workers registered to take the tests. They were 1,189 Thais and 2,155 migrant workers.

Of the Thai workers, 314, or 26.4%, tested positive. In the tested migrant workes' group,1,311, or 60.8% were infected.

The company has quarantined all infected workers at the field hospital inside the factory.

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