By Ploy Phutpeng
Klong Luek, Thailand – Thai officials are effectively curbing the spread of COVID-19 at the country’s border with Cambodia. But unless current personnel and resources are increased, they may find it difficult to cope when traders, workers and travelers resume crossing the border in large numbers.
Thailand’s busiest border checkpoint is at Klong Luek, in the eastern province of Sa Kaeo. Up to 30,000 people and 400 trucks used to cross this checkpoint each day until Thailand closed it on 23 March as part of national virus control measures, said Chaiyonh Kuhlab, a senior provincial health officer. Cross-border trading here is worth about 100 billion baht (US$ 3.2 billion) a year. But now Thailand only allows in pull carts, trucks carrying commercial goods and Thai nationals returning home.
A health officer who organizes novel coronavirus quarantine for people entering Thailand from Cambodia is seen at Thailand’s Klong Luek border checkpoint on 28 May 2020. © WHO/Ploy Phutpheng
In Chantaburi province south of Sa Kaeo is the Thai-Cambodian border checkpoint of Ban Laem, which some 10,000 people crossed each day in the pre-virus era. There, Cambodians working at the Ban Laem market can still enter.
Aree Moungsookjareoun, National Professional Officer in WHO Thailand’s Migrant Health and Expanded Program on Immunization, visited both checkpoints recently as part of 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. The team worked with local authorities to assess the preparedness and response to the virus threats there and sought to identify any gaps that their agencies and development partners could fill.
Currently, the only non-Thai nationals permitted to cross the border into Thailand are those transporting commercial goods. In any vehicle, only the driver and one assistant is allowed to cross. Thai truckers may cross into Cambodia, but if the driver and assistant stay overnight there, they must go into 14-day quarantine on their return to the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet at their company’s expense.
A WHO Thailand officer, Aree Moungsookjareoun, shows flyers on COVID-19 prevention that WHO helped produce. The flyers are given to travelers arriving from Cambodia at Thailand’s Klong Luek border checkpoint, which Aree and other members of a professional team visited on 28 May 2020. © WHO/Ploy Phutpheng
Thais returning to their country must present a letter from their embassy or consulate granting permission to travel to that border crossing on that particular day, along with a fit-to-travel health certificate. They must sign an agreement to go into 14-day quarantine.
The returnees are met at Klong Luek by Thai officers wearing face shields, masks and gloves. A public health officer screens the returnees, tells them the basic facts about COVID-19 and what to expect during the quarantine, and encourages them to take precautions including wearing masks, washing hands regularly, and avoiding unnecessary contact with others. The returnees report to a village health volunteer who will monitor their health and social movements. Then they head to the hotel near the border that the local authorities have organized for the quarantine.
Anyone with a temperature above 37.3 °C is instead immediately sent to the hospital nearby. Sa Kaeo’s provincial hospital can do 94 coronavirus tests a day.
Nine Thais returned from Cambodia through Klong Luek on the day the professional team visited. The team confirmed that the border screening, health advising and quarantine was well-organized, as was the 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.
Thais returning home from Cambodia fill out immigration forms at Thailand’s Klong Luek border checkpoint on 28 May 2020. The border has been closed to almost all arrivals during the COVID-19 pandemic except Thai nationals. © WHO/Ploy Phutpheng
The team noted that the health information card (“T8 form”), which border-crossers need to fill out, collects information related to other major communicable diseases but is not designed specifically for COVID-19. In addition, there are only two border health staff permanently assigned to this checkpoint; the others are temporarily seconded from health units in the province. Due to the limited number of border health staff, the T8 form records are not computerized, making it difficult to do effective tracing.Given the sustained low numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Thailand in recent weeks, people’s concerns have shifted from the risks of infection to getting back to making a living.
Chaiyonh said that in Sa Kaeo, 10 Thais tested positive for the coronavirus between 17 March and 17 April. Seven of them had traveled to the Cambodian town of Poi Pet opposite Klong Luek. All 10 have recovered and there have been no new cases since. So Thai authorities are investigating the possibility of reopening the border, and Chaiyonh said they are well prepared for any possible second wave of infections.
Any reopening of the checkpoints is decided as part of national policy, however. And Thai public health authorities continue to remind everyone that the virus has not gone away. Everyone must continue to wash their hands regularly, wear masks and stay at least one meter from others whenever they can.
A Thai truck carrying goods is sprayed with novel coronavirus-killing disinfectant while entering Cambodia after crossing Thailand’s Baan Laem border checkpoint on 29 May 2020
Traders and businesses are pressuring for a reopening. On June 1, the Bangkok Post reported that about 1,000 Cambodian traders picketed opposite Klong Luek, demanding that it be reopened so they could resume business at Rong Kluea, the second-hand goods market just inside Thailand. Upon hearing of the protest, Thai traders sent about 100 trucks with goods to the border hoping to be able to cross, the newspaper said.
Basic challenges must be overcome if the border crossings are to be reopened safely, the joint professional team said.
Besides personnel and resource shortages, many of the translators and others helping out at the crossings are volunteers who may not always be available. Also, there’s currently not enough personal protective equipment for all the various offices involved in border control.
A border health officer tells a group of Thai travelers at Thailand’s Klong Luek border checkpoint on 28 May 2020 how to guard against getting COVID-19. The group had just crossed back home from Cambodia. © WHO/Ploy Phutpheng
Coronavirus control measures will need to be put in place at Rong Kluea market, such as checking temperatures of shoppers at all entries, requiring the use of masks, making available alcohol-based gel for handwashing, and observing social distancing rules.
Due to reimbursement arrangements with the National Health Security Office, currently only one coronavirus test is given to people undergoing quarantine at the border (on day five), instead of two tests as recommended by the Department of Disease Control. That may not be sufficient for surveillance and case detection among asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic cases.
Also, local health authorities are concerned about who will pay for the testing and treatment of Cambodian workers who fall sick on Thai soil.
Local authorities plan to establish a 132-bed field hospital along the border should a local outbreak of COVID-19 occur.
Immigration officers check the forms of a Thai truck carrying goods into Cambodia, crossing at Thailand’s Baan Laem checkpoint on 29 May 2020. Trucks crossing the border are sprayed with disinfectant to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. © WHO/Ploy Phutpheng
When and how the border reopens will 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 can be employed to ensure that the risk of COVID-19 crossing the border is as low as possible.
Daniel Kertesz, Richard Brown, Montira Narkvichien and Kanpirom Wiboonpanich contributed to this article.
Edited by Peter. J. Eng
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