Thailand suspends domestic flights amid new Covid-19 case record
Bangkok, Jul 19 (EFE).- Thailand again set a new record for daily Covid-19 cases on Monday and has announced the suspension of domestic air routes to and from high-risk zones, including capital Bangkok.
The Thai authorities, which warn of further measures if cases continue to increase, will prohibit domestic flights into and out of the areas decreed as high risk — or maximum control — from Wednesday for at least two weeks, unless they are for emergency landings, medical reasons or part of the tourism bubbles.
In other provinces, the number of passengers on airplanes is limited to 50 percent, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement on Sunday.
The government also decreed three new provinces as high-risk zones, bringing the total to 13, where a night curfew remains in force, as well as stay-at-home orders, and the closure of all non-essential businesses, among other restrictions.
From Monday, traffic checkpoints will also be established in hardest-hit Bangkok, as well as at the entry to or exit from other provinces with the aim of reducing unnecessary travel, and public transport will be limited to 50 percent capacity.
Health authorities on Monday reported 11,784 new cases, a new record high of daily infections, as well as 81 deaths, bringing the total to 386,307 Covid-19 cases, including 3,422 deaths, since the start of the pandemic. Most of these have been registered since the current outbreak started in late March.
The government said in a press conference that if they had not applied measures, they estimate that the daily cases could rise to 32,000 a day by the end of October.
Doctors have also told local media that the case count could be much higher than official records, due to lack of testing.
Thailand, like other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Myanmar, is experiencing its worst wave of the pandemic, linked to the Delta variant, alongside an erratic and slow vaccination program. EFE
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