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Helpers disinfect the streets of the megacity Bangkok: Corona infections at record level
Photo:
Rachen Sageamsak / Xinhua / imago images
A »Covid explosion« was the headline of the daily newspaper »Bangkok-Post« on its website on Monday evening to describe the current corona situation in Thailand.
The government had previously reported 9,635 new Covid-19 cases - by far the largest increase within 24 hours in Thailand since the pandemic began.
Then on Tuesday morning the next headline: "Record Death Numbers".
35 people had died related to the virus within 24 hours.
So far, the Southeast Asian country has been considered one that has the corona crisis under control - the number of infections was significantly lower than in Europe, even if there were local outbreaks again and again.
In the meantime, the number of local infections has been zero for weeks - despite 70 million residents.
Public life had largely returned to normal after months of severe shutdown with curfews.
Travelers from abroad must undergo a 14-day quarantine.
The country seemed to be able to keep the number of infections reasonably low.
Since April, however, the health authorities have been reporting significantly more infections, and the number of cases has reached new highs in the past few weeks.
The country is in the middle of the third wave: At the end of March, only 30,000 people were infected, the number has now risen to 111,000.
In Bangkok, hospitals with camp beds were hastily pulled up to relieve the hospitals.
Vaccination campaign starts slowly
The starting point for the increase in the number of infections is believed to be in a nightlife district in Bangkok.
The largest cluster can now be found elsewhere: in the country's prisons, especially in Chiang Mai and the capital Bangkok.
More than two thirds of the new infections were registered in prisoners, some of whom are housed in overcrowded cells.
Many prison workers are among those infected.
Often it is the highly contagious British mutant B.1.1.7.
The government is considering early mass layoffs to ease the situation in the hotspots.
Tourism industry hopes for the next high season in Phuket
Businessmen and medical professionals suspect that the days of celebrating the Songkran Festival, the traditional New Year celebrations in April, should have been stopped or restricted by the government.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, however, reacted at the time when the corona cases were already mounting, with a sentence that sounded more like a perplexed shrug than a crisis strategy: "Whatever happens, happens."
And vaccinations are also making slow progress in Thailand.
Around 2.2 million vaccine doses have been administered to date, mainly to medical staff and risk groups.
A broader vaccination campaign is to start in June, mainly with vaccines from the Chinese manufacturer Sinovac Biotech and those from the British-Swedish manufacturer AstraZeneca, some of which are manufactured in Thailand.
The travel industry in particular had hoped that Thailand would soon open up to tourists again and that another high season would not be completely lost. Most travelers usually come from autumn onwards. Before the pandemic, up to 40 million international tourists visited Thailand annually. In the past year, tourism came to an almost complete standstill, and the World Bank anticipates severe economic consequences for the many people who depend on the industry.
The holiday island of Phuket presented an ambitious plan in spring, according to which vaccinated tourists could vacation there in the summer without the two-week hotel quarantine.
The name of the project: Phuket Sandbox.
But now the plan is on the brink: Thailand's tourism minister has already admitted that such an opening of Phuket on July 1st had become rather unlikely due to the many new infections.
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