
The Inya Lake Hotel compound in Yangon has been placed under quarantine after a staff member at a private clinic on the site tested positive for coronavirus.
The order means more than 200 people will be unable to leave the compound for 14 days, said Yan Shin, a local regional lawmaker.
“We were told there are 90 guests, 43 clinic staff, and 73 hotel staff,” he told Myanmar Now.
A 45-year-old female employee at the International SOS Clinic was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Tuesday after being admitted to hospital with a fever, sore throat and a cough the day before.
The woman, a Myanmar national who lives in Bahan township, developed the symptoms three days before entering the hospital, the health ministry said.
The clinic said in a Facebook post it had been told to close and was cooperating fully with the health ministry. It would offer teleconsultations while it was closed, the post said.
State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a speech addressing the crisis on Tuesday that authorities would impose “community quarantine” in certain areas “in the national interest”.
She also referenced calls for Myanmar to impose a national lockdown as well as fears about its impact on the country, with the community quarantine strategy apparently serving as a compromise.
A village of roughly 3,600 residents in Chin state has been under quarantine since last week after a Covid-19 patient held a gathering there before his diagnosis.
“I would like to urge the people of such a special region to cooperate and collaborate,” Aung San Suu Kyi said in her address.
Myanmar has reported 16 cases of coronavirus with one death. The latest is a 63-year-old woman from Yekyi township in Ayeyarwady region who tested positive at a public hospital in Yangon on Wednesday.
The woman, who has diabetes, visited Yangon International Airport on March 15 to pick up her son on his return from Dubai, the health ministry said.
The two have been staying in North Okkalapa in Yangon for the last two weeks. The ministry did not say if the son has been tested.