Photo: RFA
Lao migrant workers are coming home in large numbers from Thailand but are bringing COVID-19 with them, driving up new infections in Laos, which has recently seen a drop in the number of domestic cases, Lao sources say.
Up to 246,757 Lao workers have returned from Thailand since the pandemic began, with around 150,000 coming back in 2020 and their numbers now increasing day by day, Lao and Thai labor officials confirmed in a virtual meeting held on July 9.
Around 893 returned to Laos on July 11, Sisavath Southanilaxay Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Disease Control told a news conference that day, while an official in southern Laos’ Champassak province said on July 8 that around 200 workers had crossed each day into his province in the last five days.