Thailand, on Thursday, reported a daily record of 57 deaths from COVID-19, the second day in a row of record-high fatalities. Thailand has been struggling to crush a third wave of coronavirus infections.
Thailand, on Thursday, reported 5,533 new cases, most of them in Bangkok. The kingdom in the meantime has started accepting vaccinated tourists to the island of Phuket. Travellers can head to other parts of the country, after spending 14 days on the island. In 2020, Thailand lost about $50 billion in tourism revenue as foreign arrivals plunged by 83 per cent.
Thailand, on Wednesday, announced that it would import five million doses of Moderna's mRNA coronavirus vaccine—four million would be imported towards the end of this year, and one million would be imported in early 2022, for use by private hospitals.
Australia at end of the queue for the Pfizer vaccine
Australia on Thursday, reported 27 cases of the coronavirus, while the country largely remains in lockdown. The country’s border has been closed with strict entry and exit requirements for over a year. Around 40,000 Australians remain stranded abroad.
Australia's Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said the country was "at the end of the line" for a Pfizer vaccine. He said that Australia was facing supply challenges because “European countries and pharmaceutical companies have favoured countries with high Covid rates to supply vaccines like Pfizer". So far, only 7.92 per cent of Australians aged 16 and over were fully vaccinated.
Brazil, in the last 24 hours, reported 43,836 new cases of the coronavirus. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country is now at 18,557,141.
Russia signals start of revaccination programme
Russian officials on Wednesday announced that health clinics in Moscow will start offering booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine. The city’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that this was an attempt to contain a surge in cases due to the highly transmissible Delta variant. Russia had for months had reported between 7,000 and 9,500 new cases of coronavirus every day, but, in recent weeks, the numbers have shot to above 20,000 cases each day.
In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo announced new COVID-19-related restrictions, which would effective starting Saturday. Indonesia reported 504 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours and a record of 25,000 new daily cases.
The new measures that include shuttering of mosques and shopping malls along with all non-essential workers working from home, would be in place till July 20.
As per an AFP report, Bangladesh has gone under a state of lockdown, with citizens being allowed to leave homes only to buy essentials. This week, the nation has seen a record surge in cases-- 7,666 new cases reported on Tuesday and 112 fatalities.
Some rural towns have infection rates of 70 per cent. Public transport has been shut down, so have offices and army troops and law enforcement agencies will ensure that lockdown measures are being followed.
Factories, including the country’s prime garment export sector, can function so long as health protocols are followed. So far, a total of 904,436 infections and 14,388 deaths have been reported in the country.