Coronavirus: Thailand sees record deaths as first Phuket sandbox tourists arrive

The first international travellers touched down on Thursday in the holiday hotspot of Phuket under a quarantine-free scheme, as Thailand tries to reboot its battered tourism industry while also enduring its worst coronavirus outbreak.

Tourism makes up almost a fifth of the Thai economy, and the Covid-19 pandemic has led to its worst performance since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The kingdom is pinning high hopes for a much-needed revival on the so-called “Phuket sandbox” – a model that will allow vaccinated travellers to visit without quarantine.

On Thursday, 249 passengers on flights from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Singapore are expected to land on the island – where sandy beaches have been relatively deserted since the virus hit. The first 25 travellers arrived in Phuket on an Etihad Airways flight before noon and underwent screening procedures.

The launch of the quarantine-free scheme comes as Thailand grapples with its worst-ever Covid-19 wave and the worrying detection of the Alpha and Delta coronavirus variants. On Thursday, the country reported a daily record of 57 deaths from the coronavirus, the second day in a row of record-high fatalities. It also recorded 5,533 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infections to 264,834.

But Phuket remains relatively unscathed as Thai authorities have rolled out a mass vaccination campaign in preparation for the quarantine-free arrivals, with 70 per cent of residents receiving at least one dose.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha travelled to Phuket for the launch and said the pilot scheme would provide the basis for reopening the entire country in October.

“Phuket citizens should be proud as they are fulfilling their duty for the entire nation,” he told reporters at the Royal Phuket City Hotel.

“We would like the Phuket sandbox to be successful so it can be applied as guidelines for our goals.”

Besides being fully vaccinated, tourists must remain in Phuket for a fortnight if they wish to travel to the rest of Thailand, and take three coronavirus tests during this period – a substantial expenditure for a family.

Delays in government approval for the scheme have caused headaches for scores of prospective travellers, who flocked online to air their grievances.

“It is disappointing the communication has been so poor and new requirements without any detail are being created after the fact,” an American traveller said. She added she had spent hours calling consulates across the United States to get her paperwork processed – to no avail.

Delta outbreak grows in Australia

Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state on Thursday warned that significant numbers of new Covid-19 cases were being found in the community, raising fears of fresh clusters as it reported a rise in new infections for a third straight day.

With state capital Sydney in the middle of a two-week lockdown to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, authorities said half of Thursday’s total of 24 new cases had spent time in the community when infectious.

“[This] is a cause of concern. That is what we will be looking at in the next few days and beyond as a measure of our success,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters. She warned that many people with flu-like symptoms were ignoring lockdown orders and “going about their business”.

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Australia is battling simultaneous flare-ups of infections in several states and nearly half of all Australians are under stay-at-home orders to prevent any major outbreak of the Delta strain. Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Darwin imposed lockdowns in the past few days, following months in which Australia had nearly eliminated the virus.

Queensland state on Thursday detected two new local cases, as it tracks four different virus clusters – three of them the Delta variant. The Northern Territory detected one new case, South Australia and Western Australia recorded no cases.

Australia’s lagging vaccination campaign

After winning plaudits for an initial coronavirus response that avoided the heavy death tolls seen in the US and Europe, Australia’s sluggish vaccine roll-out plan has transformed the country into a pandemic laggard.

The Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker shows the nation is ahead of only near neighbour New Zealand among the 38 Organization for Economic and Development nations in administering doses. Australia has provided enough jabs for just 14.7 per cent of its population, falling behind many small economies including Morocco at 25.4 per cent, Azerbaijan with 17 per cent and the tiny South American nation of Suriname at 15.5 per cent.

Hit by supply-chain hold-ups from contracted drug makers, Prime Minister Scott Morrison is finding the failure to secure more doses from a wider range of sources is having long-term implications – maybe even for his re-election bid next year. About half the nation’s population of 25 million people is currently in a form of business-crippling lockdown, as health authorities race to stamp out continentwide outbreaks of the Delta variant.

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Australians’ patience with Morrison’s tardy roll-out may be starting to wear thin. A poll released on Monday showed his conservative government slipped 2 percentage points behind the main Labor opposition, reversing a 4-point lead three months ago.

“Australians are well aware of the mass-vaccination campaign being coordinated in the US,” said Helen Pringle, a political researcher at the University of New South Wales. “They’re becoming increasingly aware that their pandemic battle isn’t ending anytime soon, and we’ve missed an opportunity to set a global gold standard in achieving ‘Covid normal’.”

Morrison is also being blamed for confused messaging about the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been linked to rare blood clots. State and territory leaders have also said his government is not supplying enough doses, and has been opaque about the amount they will receive and when. The government is defending its position, saying more supplies are on their way.

“Our road map out of this is about progressively opening up” through ramping up the roll-out, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt told Sky News on Wednesday. He said messaging around the nation’s vaccination programme had a “focus on safety”.

Singapore withholds privileges for those taking Sinovac jabs

Residents in Singapore who opt for the vaccine made by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech will not get the same benefits as those with government-approved messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, reflecting the challenges facing people with less-effective inoculation as countries move to reopen safely.

Doctors are required to tell patients receiving vaccines under the city state’s special access route – which Sinovac has qualified for – “that they may not be regarded in the same manner as those vaccinated under our national programme”, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Wednesday. These individuals will still need to undergo pre-event testing, the statement said, referring to precautions that those with the Pfizer or Moderna shots are exempted from.

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The move raises the likelihood that those with Sinovac shots will also not be eligible for other easing measures that the Singapore government has signalled are forthcoming, such as being able to travel without serving a 14 day quarantine upon entering the border.

In mid-June, Singapore allowed two dozen private clinics to use its existing stock of Sinovac shots, though the vaccine has not been approved by the regulator. Long lines of people came forward for it, reported local media reported, though the government has not released data on how many shots have been administered. The vaccine is made from the traditional method of injecting an inactivated form of the virus to stimulate immune response, and can be given to immuno-compromised people, the World Health Organization said.

Malaysia tightens restrictions in capital

Malaysia on Thursday announced tighter restrictions on movement and businesses in the capital Kuala Lumpur and neighbouring Selangor state as new coronavirus cases show no sign of abating.

Security Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Kuala Lumpur and several districts in Selangor will see stricter measures imposed from Saturday for a period of two weeks.

Only essential businesses, including factories producing food and daily necessities are allowed to operate, he said in a statement.

Malaysia last week extended a national lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said restrictions will not be eased until daily cases fall below 4,000.

The Southeast Asian nation recorded 6,988 new cases on Thursday, bringing the cumulative total to 758,967 infections and 5,254 deaths.

Science minister Khairy Jamaluddin also announced that the country would shorten the dosing interval for the AstraZeneca vaccine to nine weeks from a 12-week gap previously.

Some European nations accept India’s Covishield for travel

Germany and Spain are among nine countries in Europe who have told India they will accept travellers inoculated with Covishield, the Indian-made version of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, Indian foreign ministry sources said on Thursday.

Friction emerged between India and Europe in recent days over the exclusion by the European Union vaccine passport programme of Covishield as one of its accepted vaccines.

From Thursday, the programme allows anyone who is fully vaccinated with any of five Western-made vaccines – Moderna , Pfizer and BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca – travel freely within the bloc.

The exclusion of Covishield, which is produced by India’s Serum Institute using analogous methods to the EU-approved AstraZeneca vaccine Vaxzevria but does not have EU market authorisation, stoked anger and the treat of retaliatory measures by India against travellers from Europe.

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An Indian foreign ministry source said on Thursday that Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland had informed the Indian government that Covishield would be accepted for the purposes of travel.

Estonia has said it will recognise all the vaccines authorised by the Indian government, the source said, which would include Covaxin that has been developed by local firm Bharat Biotech.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyan Jaishankar tweeted earlier in the week that he had taken up the issue of authorisation of the Indian version of AstraZeneca during his meeting with EU representatives on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers meeting in Italy.

Another foreign ministry source said that India had told the EU that it would lift quarantine requirements for anyone carrying the EU Digital Covid certificate, but they would have to allow equal access to Indians travelling with vaccines made in India.

“We have also conveyed to EU Member States that India will institute a reciprocal policy for recognition of the EU Digital Covid Certificate,” the second source said.

Once the EU listed the two vaccines currently being administered in India in its digital certificate, then India will waive quarantine requirements from people coming from EU countries, the second source said.

Record cases in Fiji

Fiji reported a record 431 new daily coronavirus cases on Thursday as an outbreak of the highly contagious delta variant continued to grow.

Health authorities have reported nearly 5,000 cases and 22 deaths since the outbreak in the South Pacific nation began two months ago.

The government of the island nation of nearly 1 million people has resisted calls for a full lockdown as leaders try to protect an economy that last year contracted by 19 per cent as international tourism evaporated.

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Health authorities say that about 9 per cent of people getting tested for the virus are returning positive results, a figure that has been increasing and indicates the outbreak is spreading.

Despite the growing outbreak, the government announced steps to reopen retail stores in and around the capital, Suva.

Faiyaz Koya, the minister for commerce, trade and tourism, said that without a reopening plan, some stores would need to close permanently, costing families jobs and years worth of hard-earned progress.

Bangladeshis confined at home in strict lockdown

Bangladesh went into a strict Covid-19 lockdown on Thursday, with the army and police ordered to stop people leaving their homes except for emergencies or to buy essentials.

The government says the South Asian nation of 168 million people is seeing an “alarming and dangerous” rise in cases, blamed largely on the highly infectious Delta variant. Hospitals are struggling, particularly in areas bordering India where the strain was first detected. Some rural towns have recorded infection rates of 70 per cent.

The shutdown announcement last week has sparked an exodus of migrant workers from Dhaka, with thousands cramming onto dangerously packed ferries. Dhaka’s police chief told reporters that from Thursday anyone leaving home without a good reason would be fined and may face arrest.

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The government has ordered the army and border police be deployed. All offices and shops will be shut with only local food markets allowed to open for a few hours a day.

Excluded from the lockdown are garment factories supplying Western giants such as H&M and Walmart. The sector is a key exporter but faces stiff competition from China and Vietnam.

Bangladesh has reported nearly 900,000 infections and just over 14,500 virus deaths, but experts say the actual toll could be much higher due to under-reporting. More than two-thirds of new virus cases in Dhaka are of the Delta variant, according to a recent study.

Reporting by Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, Associated Press