NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Two big chicken processing factories in Chok Chai district have been bubbled and sealed after more than 100 employees were found to be infected with Covid-19.
The infection clusters at the two factories, which have more than 10,000 workers in total, sparked fears among local residents that the virus might spread to their communities.
Chok Chai district chief Somchai Amphankarn, representatives of the provincial public heath office and local leaders on Friday held a meeting with executives of the two chicken processing plants to discuss measures to deal with clusters of infections. The names of the factories were not disclosed.
At the first factory, 56 workers tested positive for Covid-19. Six of them were being treated at Chok Chai Hospital and the 50 others at an isolation facility in the compound of the factory, under the supervision of the district disease control centre.
Mass testing had been done on 3,260 of over 8,000 workers at this chicken processing plant. Testing continued.
At the second factory, which employs Thai and Lao workers, some 300 at-risk workers were tested for Covid-19 and 60 returned positive, of which which 57 were quarantined at a dormitory in the compound of the factory. Two were being treated at Chok Chai Hospital and the other was quarantined at home.
Another mass testing of 799 workers at this factory found 11 of them were positive.
The meeting on Friday agreed that bubble and seal measures would be imposed on the two factories to control the spread of the disease. Workers must stay inside dormitories inside the factories.
The factories must place infected workers inside community isolation centres set up inside the factories. Medicines and other essentials were being provided by the factory managements, with Chok Chai Hospital supervising the isolation centres. Patients who developed severe symptoms would be admitted to the district hospital, officials said.