Thai cases hit daily record as prison clusters grow

Thailand recorded its single biggest daily spike in Covid-19 cases yesterday - stemming largely from outbreaks in its overcrowded prisons - even as it eased some physical distancing rules.

A total of 6,853 of the 9,635 cases reported were found in prisons across the country, including in Chiang Mai in the north and Thonburi in central Thailand. There were another 25 Covid-19 deaths, bringing the death toll so far to 614 with 111,082 cases.

The record number of infections came just as the Thai government allowed dining-in at restaurants in the most affected provinces - Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan and Nonthaburi - with up to 25 per cent their capacity from yesterday. They had been restricted to takeaway services from May 1, prompting business owners to clamour for aid.

Alcohol is still banned within eateries nationwide and working from home encouraged until the end of the month.

"We considered health concerns with economic and social concerns, and followed what has been implemented in other countries," said Dr Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoenchai, director-general of the Department of Health. "All other strict measures, such as temperature checking, distancing and mask-wearing within the premises, continue to be enforced."

More than 3,000 of the infected inmates were found in Chiang Mai province.

"The situation we have is that facilities are overcrowded. It's very difficult to cope with the outbreak when they live in a confined area," Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin acknowledged yesterday.

"If things do not improve we might consider special releases under probation to reduce their numbers."

Officials say they will continue pro-actively testing people in high-risk areas like construction sites to detect and stamp out active clusters. Construction sites found with infected individuals will be locked down.

Meanwhile, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council, the state planning agency in the kingdom, has lowered its full-year growth forecast by 1 percentage point, from 2.5-3.5 per cent to 1.5-2.5 per cent.

Asean's second-largest economy shrank by 2.6 per cent this quarter, compared to the same period last year.

Thailand's third Covid-19 wave had earlier compelled the government to lengthen the quarantine period for all incoming visitors to 14 days.

The tourism-dependent country is, however, still forging ahead with plans to allow vaccinated foreign tourists to enter selected holiday spots without quarantine requirements starting from July 1.

It says it is expediting the vaccination process for residents in Phuket, the pilot province for this scheme. At least 70 per cent of residents in the popular tourist spot need to be inoculated for this plan to go ahead.

The government plans to expand this scheme to other popular tourist destinations such as Krabi, Phang Nga, Samui Island, Chiang Mai and Pattaya by October.

As of yesterday, some 782,000 people in Thailand have been fully inoculated, mostly with the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine. The bulk of Thailand's free vaccination programme is expected to start only next month, when locally produced AstraZeneca vaccines come onstream.