The Mon State government has arranged for Community Based Facilities Quarantine (CBFQ) for returnees from Thailand to Myanmar. According to U Myint Than Win, the Mon State Government Office Director this initiative will help support national health care in response to Covid-19. Returnees must stay in the facilities quarantine for 14 days to ensure they are not carrying the virus.
“What you [are doing by staying in quarantine] is in the interest of national health care. Community based facilities Quarantine in Mon State are provided with 2500 Kyats/day for each person for meals. However, there are also donations from the community. For now, we have set a rate of per person meal allowance at 2500 kyats a day.” said U Myint Than Win.
However, a Mon News Agency investigation into some other community based facilities quarantine in different villages revealed that not all had received the 2500 kyats meal allowance/ person from the government.
One leader from the Pa Nga village remarked that, “For their location preparation, we have received just 300,000 kyats from Township support (not from government support). We use donations from the community to cover other expenses.”
The community based facilities quarantine are facing other challenges. For example Township authorities had suggested local people bring food for those quarantined from their homes. However, it was soon realized that such a system would allow more outsiders into the quarantined area and risk spreading the virus. Now village charity teams are being organized to take care of meal preparation and outsiders are kept away from the quarantined areas.
The 14-day Community Base Facility Quarantine (CBFQ) at Mawlamyine University is also providing medical examination to more than 500 returnees. These individuals’ are from the Mon state, Tanintharyi, Yangon, Pago, and the Irrawaddy region.
One of the returnees who is now at Mawlamyine University CBFQ camp told MNA “my elder brother came back [from Thailand] yesterday, and he did not have to do this. I am coming back home because my grandmother is not feeling well. I thought I just needed to home quarantine for 14 days after receiving a health examination. I did not realize that I have to do this.”
Most of the returnees from Thailand are now in Mawlamyine, and many wish to quarantine at camps closer to their communities.
As of March 31, more than 6000 returnees have been monitored for COVID-19 infection at 370 community based facilities quarantine spread across Mon State.
