Covid UPDATE Saturday: 292 new deaths, news briefs

The public health department have announced 292 Covid-related deaths in Thailand over the past 24 hours. There’s also been an additional 17,984 new infections announced, 324 of them from the Thai prison system.

5,109 patients are still in a serious condition with 1,069 people on artificial respiration.

20,535 patients have been released from state care across the country.

669,189 Covid vaccines were administered yesterday. 400,618 received their first dose and 263,299 people received their second dose. 5,272 people also received a ‘booster’ (third) dose. 29.5 million vaccines have now been administered across Thailand in total.

The Thaiger will post the provincial totals just after lunch time.

• The New York Office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand says that Americans who are fully vaccinated are looking to travel to destinations without complex restrictions. American travellers are looking away from previously popular destinations like Europe and Canada, and when they look for tropical beach destinations, quarantine-free destinations like the Maldives and the Caribbean are drawing the customers that might have previously chosen Thailand.

The director of the TAT’s New York Office says that travellers and tour operators are forgoing countries that have Covid-19 restrictions, strict regulations about who can come in and complicated procedures in order to enter. Instead, they are focusing their efforts and travel on countries that are fully open to travellers without requiring any time in quarantine.

Read the full story HERE.

The Royal Thai Gazette published the announcement yesterday that Thammasat University has now joined a handful of government entities that can import Covid-19 vaccines. The publication of their regulations on medical services and public health management during the pandemic allows them to import medicine and vaccines as an authorized government entity.

Thammasat University has already set its sights on importing second-generation mRNA vaccines as well as a protein subunit vaccine manufactured by Novavax.

Read the full story HERE.

• The British government has added Thailand and Montenegro to its travel “red list,” with foreigners banned from travelling to England from those countries and nationals required to quarantine. The new red list goes into force from Monday.

The UK’s Department for Transport said Thailand and Montenegro will be added to the red list from 4am on Monday, August 30, 2021, “reflecting the increased coronavirus case rates in those countries.”

The department said Thailand will move to the red category as low vaccination levels leave Asia vulnerable to new coronavirus variants, along with Montenegro. British and Irish nationals and those living in the UK are allowed to travel from “red list” countries, but must quarantine in a hotel for 10 days on arrival.

Meanwhile, the UK government added Switzerland, Denmark and Canada to the “green list”. Travellers from those destinations will now not have to quarantine, regardless of vaccination status – NBT

SOURCES: FRB | NBT