Thai officials are effectively curbing the spread of COVID-19 at the country’s border with Cambodia, its busiest border checkpoint — but without additional personnel and resources, they may find it difficult to cope when traders, workers and travelers resume crossing the border in large numbers.
Cross-border trade here is worth about 100 billion baht (US$ 3.2 billion) a year.
Given sustained low numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Thailand in recent weeks, Thai authorities have been examining the possibility of reopening the border.
A joint team of specialists from World Health Organization (WHO), Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health and International Organization for Migration for Asia and Pacific recently visited this and another Thai-Cambodian border checkpoint, Ban Laem, in Chantaburi province, to assess the preparedness and response to the virus threats there and identify any gaps that their agencies and development partners could fill.
The team confirmed that the border screening, health advising and quarantine were well-organized, as were coordination and cooperation among the agencies involved in border affairs, including health, customs, immigration, border police, tourism police, disaster prevention and mitigation office, and military.
But it noted that the health information card that border-crossers needed to fill out collected information on other major communicable diseases, but was not designed specifically for COVID-19. Also, the limited number of border health staff on this checkpoint meant that records were not computerized, making it difficult to do effective tracing.
Several basic challenges had to be overcome if the border crossings were to be reopened safely, the joint team said.
When and how the border reopens would depend on the situation in the two countries. Improved cross-border information exchange on the COVID-19 situation would help authorities manage a challenging situation. WHO’s International Health Regulations mechanism for rapid information sharing and local-level border health collaboration could be employed to ensure that the risk of COVID-19 crossing the border is as low as possible.