Coronavirus: Thailand to allow vaccinated tourists to enter Phuket without quarantine
- Vaccinated visitors will be permitted to enter from July, after the resort island inoculates 70 per cent of its residents
- Elsewhere, India has halted exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine as cases rise, while Indonesia is barring people from going to their hometowns for the Eid al-Fitr
“If we can inoculate 50-60 per cent of the population we can open the country safely and move the economy and tourism forward,” senior health official Kiattiphum Wongraijit said.
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Its main vaccination drive is expected to start in June, with the goal of immunising half of its population by year-end.
It will receive an additional 5 million AstraZeneca doses, as well as 5 million more doses procured from Sinovac Biotech, the health ministry said on Friday. That would take its overall vaccine order to 73 million doses.
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Thailand has until now made entry requirements strict, including mandatory quarantine, which has devastated tourism, but helped limit infections to just 28,577 so far, with 92 fatalities.
From next month, the hotel quarantine period will be halved to seven days for fully vaccinated visitors to Phuket, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai, Phang Nga and Krabi, Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor Yuthasak Supasorn told a news conference.
By the fourth quarter, the quarantine waiver is expected to be implemented in five holiday destinations, he said.
The central bank expects to see 3 million foreign tourists this year, compared to nearly 40 million in 2019 before the virus struck.
INDONESIA BARS PEOPLE FROM GOING HOME FOR EID AL-FITR
The Indonesian government decided Friday to ban the public from leaving urban areas for their hometowns during the Eid al-Fitr Islamic holiday in May to reduce the risks of coronavirus transmission.
Muhadjir Effendy, coordinating minister for human development and culture, told a press conference that the ban will be imposed on all from May 6 to 17.
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Muhadjir said past experience has shown that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases always increased following a long holiday.
Ordinarily, many Indonesians hit the road or fly a few days before the holiday, which marks the end of the Ramadan month of fasting and this year falls on May 13 and 14.
Last year, the government imposed such a ban on civil servants, military personnel, police officers and workers at state-owned enterprises, but only advised others not to go back to their hometowns.
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INDIA HALTS EXPORTS OF ASTRAZENECA SHOTS AS CASES SURGE
The move will also affect supplies to the GAVI/WHO-backed global Covax vaccine-sharing facility, through which 64 poorer countries are supposed to get doses from the SII, the programme’s procurement and distributing partner Unicef said.
Deliveries will be delayed in March and April “as the government of India battles a new wave of Covax-19 infections”, GAVI, an alliance of countries, companies and charities that promote vaccination, said in a statement.
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Covax was in talks with India to “ensure some supplies are completed during March and April”, it said, adding that the SII had supplied 28 million doses to Covax. An additional 40 million doses had been expected in March and up to 50 million doses in April.
An Indian government source said New Delhi had not imposed any ban on vaccine exports “unlike many other countries”, and that it would continue to supply doses in phases.
“We remain committed to help the world with vaccines, including through the Covax facility,” said the source, declining to be named.
But the source said it may be necessary to adjust supply schedules given India’s vaccination needs. “All stakeholders would have to work together to adjust the schedules as required,” the source said.
India’s foreign ministry and the SII did not reply to requests for comment.
“Everything else has taken a back seat [to India’s needs], for the time being at least,” one of the sources said. “No exports, nothing until the time the India situation stabilises. The government won’t take such a big chance at the moment when so many need to be vaccinated in India.”
India has so far exported more than 60.5 million doses in total, according to the foreign ministry’s website, and many countries are relying on the Covax programme to immunise their citizens.
The SII has already delayed shipments of the AstraZeneca drug to Brazil, Britain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. British authorities are in touch with New Delhi to get its second batch of 5 million doses ordered from SII.
AUSTRALIA WARY OF PNG OUTBREAK
Australia is considering diverting Covid-19 inoculations from its vaccination programme to Papua New Guinea (PNG) where the coronavirus is threatening to unleash a humanitarian disaster, a government source said on Friday.
PNG is due to get 588,000 doses of vaccine by June under the Covax initiative to help poorer countries but doubts have arisen about those supplies given new restrictions imposed in producing countries as the virus spreads.
The European Union is implementing tougher vaccine export controls and has yet to respond to an Australian request that it release 1 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine that has been contracted to go to Australia, to PNG instead, the source said.
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India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca shot made by the Serum Institute of India to meet domestic demand, which will almost certainly delay deliveries to PNG.
There is growing concern that PNG, an island nation of about 10 million people, many living in impoverished, isolated communities, can’t afford to wait.
“We have a humanitarian disaster unfolding in our backyard,” said the source, who is familiar with the thinking of the government on the issue. The source declined to be identified as he is not authorised to talk to the media.
Australia is still lobbying the EU for the 1 million doses but considering other options, the source said.
“No decision has yet been made but the government is considering sending vaccines,” said the source, who did not comment on any quantity of doses being discussed.
A government spokesman declined to comment.
PNG, which was administered by Australia before its independence, has recorded more than 4,000 cases of the virus, according to figures released on Thursday. But Australia says that tally vastly underestimates the extent of the crisis as the Pacific country does not do mass testing.
PNG’s biggest hospitals have reported that as many as 80 per cent are coming back positive and Prime Minister James Marape has said the virus has “broken loose”.
Reporting by Reuters, Kyodo
