SENG PHOO — Two Shan State residents currently in quarantine have been tested for COVID-19 after returning from Malaysia on the same flight as another man who tested positive for the virus on Saturday.

It was found that they had contact with Patient 182, who is from and is receiving medical treatment in Thantlang, Chin State. They were all among the more than 120 migrant workers on a flight to Burma from Malaysia on May 11. There were a total of 391 people sent back via Yangon for a lacking legal documentation to remain in the country.

While tracing those with whom Patient 182 may have had contact, two people in Shan State were identified. One lives in southern Shan State’s Pindaya Township and another lives in Tangyan Township in northern Shan State. Both had already been placed in quarantine after returning from abroad.

“The person who had contact with Patient Case 182 is staying at a quarantine facility in Mogok meditation center in Pindaya Township,” deputy head of the Shan State health department Dr. Hnin Ei Phyu told SHAN. “We sent his swabs to the NHL [National Health Laboratory] in Yangon yesterday,” she said on Monday.

Dr. Danny Lyn, a spokesperson for the state of COVID-19 in northern Shan State said that the individual Tangyan Township had been tested and their swabs were being prepared to be sent to Yangon to be processed.