The Department of Disease Control is asking factory owners to comply with disease control measures strictly, warning that many plants, with hundreds of workers, risk spreading COVID-19 without these measures.
Director-general Dr Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai said that 1,386 factories had been surveyed, through the “Thai Stop COVID Plus” platform as of 11 May. The survey found that 1,056, or 76% of them complied with disease control measures, but the remaining 330 (24%) failed to do so.
There were 250 COVID-19 cases at five factories in Samut Prakan, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Pathum Thani, Samut Sakhon and Nonthaburi provinces. Most of them employed more than 500 workers, their workplaces were poorly ventilated and there was more than one person per four square metres of space.
Dr Suwannachai explained that COVID-19 spread mainly in factories where employees do not have their health checked each day before work.Workers also partied, shared cups of water and their dormitories did not comply with disease control measures set by the Public Health Ministry. (NNT)
