Naung Naung — State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said that keeping returnees from foreign countries at COVID-19 quarantine centres for 14 days was not aimed at confining them at these centres but only containing the coronavirus.

She said this during a video conference on April 3 on Skype from the President House with people from Kayin State in the afternoon on the affairs of these returnees.

State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said, “We must convince them that we are not confining them at these centres. We are containing only the virus. I want you to do this job of educating them. Quarantine does not mean confining the people but just for containing the virus. If one has been infected with this virus, we can contain this virus from transmission to other people and their family members unknowingly by keeping them at these quarantine centres. They need to know this point clearly.”

Since the first COVID-19 confirmed case was found in Thailand, hundreds of Myanmar migrant workers came back home via Myawady on Thai-Myanmar border daily.

Labour affairs activist Aung Mya told State Counsellor in his presentation that most of these returnees preferred to go back to their homes directly and they had anxiety at being kept at the quarantine centres.

“The biggest challenge of these Myanmar migrant workers coming back from Thailand is to go back to their homes directly. They don’t want to stay at these centres and moreover they have anxiety on being infected and testing positive,” Aung Mya added.

State Counsellor said that there was a need to convince them about the purpose of quarantine.

Worldwide, over 1 million people have been infected with COVID-19 virus and over 50,000 have died of this deadly virus. Myanmar has had 20 COVID-19 confirmed cases so far and one of them has died of the virus.