20 September 2024

Chiang Mai’s largest retail market for fresh food, fruits and vegetables, Muang Mai, remains eerily quiet for a second day today (Sunday) after the provincial communicable disease committee decided to close it for three days for disinfection following the emergence of a fresh cluster of COVID-19 infections.

All the shops in the market are shuttered and the only sign of life is the presence of a Royal mobile medical unit located next to a fire station on the bank of the Ping River, to conduct COVID-19 testing of high-risk people.

Many shopkeepers and their employees were seen this morning waiting to be screened.

76 new infections were recorded yesterday, in addition to 95 cases detected earlier among people related to the market.

Normally, the Muang Mai market is a hive of activity around the clock, with several hundred traders and consumers at the market throughout the day.

It was reported that several traders, from as far as Mae Cham district, who visited the market have been found to be infected and have spread the disease to their family members or neighbours.