Covid-19 cases reported in Sittwe among crew of returning border trade vessel

By DMG 04 Jul 2022

DMG Newsroom
4 July 2022, Sittwe

Fifty-five border trade cargo vessel crew who returned from Bangladesh to the Arakan State capital Sittwe were screened for coronavirus on Monday morning, with three of them testing positive, according to the Arakan State Public Health Department.

The vessel crew, who had returned to Shwe Mingan border trade camp, were quarantined and tested for Covid-19, said Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the state’s Public Health Department. The three are currently being treated at Sittwe General Hospital, he added.

The cases will not affect the border trade, however, and the 52 other crew are being isolated on their vessel, according to the chairman of the Arakan State Chamber of Commerce and Industry, U Tin Aung Oo.

“It is difficult to totally prevent Covid-19 infections in the cross-border trade, though we are taking measures to prevent infections. But as the infections were among quarantined people, I don’t think it is a cause for concern,” he told DMG.

Arakan State government spokesman U Hla Thein wrote on his Facebook page on Monday that the Arakan State administration is continuously monitoring the threat of Covid-19.

Since February, new coronavirus infections have declined dramatically both in Arakan State and across Myanmar, according to the regime’s Ministry of Health. The ministry said just 11 new cases were reported nationwide on July 4, down from a peak of about 6,000 new infections reported daily at the height of the virus’s worst wave in July of last year.