Authorities in Thailand are strengthening security along the Myanmar border to block illegal entry — and vowing to prosecute anyone who helps to sneak people in — after a Thai woman tested positive for COVID-19 after returning home.
However, Chiang Rai governor Prachon Pratsakul said officials had decided to keep open the permanent checkpoint at the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge because to shut it would have an enormous impact on cross-border trade.
He said officials would step up border security to prevent smuggling and would ask their Myanmar counterparts to help locate and send home any Thais they found stranded in Myanmar. A local quarantine facility would also be set up in Mae Sai border area, he said.
