Myanmar Migrant Worker Says His Seafood Market Boss Started Chain of COVID-19 Infections

A Myanmar migrant worker in Thailand who became infected with the coronavirus said Wednesday that he contracted the illness from his Thai employer in a huge seafood market compound in coastal Samut Sakhon province near the capital Bangkok.

On Monday, Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and health officials said that foreign workers who entered the country illegally were the likely source of a record outbreak of COVID-19 detected at Thailand’s largest fresh seafood market complex, where hundreds of migrants from Myanmar have been infected.

Myanmar migrant worker Aung Shwe, who has been confirmed positive for COVID-19 and is being treated at a hospital in Bangkok, said he was infected by his boss, who tested positive for the virus first.

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Nayrein Kyaw for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.