The Thai Immigration Bureau said that it had dispatched hundreds of officers to patrol porous areas bordering Myanmar for fear of illegal migrants crossing to Thailand and spreading COVID-19, Xinhua reported.

Thai army troops, police and administrative officers of the border town of Mae Sot, in the northern province of Tak, were conducting inspections along jungles and the Mekong River, the two main areas dividing Thailand and Myanmar.

Thailand’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) said that despite the border seal-off during the COVID-19 lockdown, there have been reports of illegal entries of Myanmar workers.