After a year and a half on its knees, tourism-dependent countries around the world have hoped to speed up the economy again during the year.
In the EEA area, the pan-European coronapass solution has now opened up for increased cross-border travel for vaccinated as well as unvaccinated people.
In Asia, where the delta infection is ravaging several countries, the situation is quite different.
Opened for fully vaccinated tourists
Thailand and Indonesia are among the countries that derive large revenues from tourism, and which have wanted to be able to receive lucrative tourists from low-risk countries during the summer.
While the infection has recently skyrocketed, Thailand has opened the popular holiday islands of Phuket and Koh Samui under the so-called “sandbox scheme”. In Phuket, fully vaccinated people are admitted without quarantine, while Koh Samui requires a seven-day stay in a quarantine hotel.
Visitors will meet at a number of closed offers in both places, and must, among other things, test themselves regularly during their stay at their own expense, points out Bangkok Post, which welcomes tourists to its «prison holiday».
OPEN TO TOURISTS: The holiday island of Phuket has opened to receive fully vaccinated tourists from several countries. Photo: Shutterstock / NTB
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The mainland, where the infection is mainly located, is subject to strict restrictions, which, among other things, prohibit more than five people from gathering.
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In recent days, more than 10,000 daily cases of infection have been registered in the country, and around 100 daily deaths.
The record spread has led to strong criticism of the government’s pandemic handling. Protests erupted in Bangkok on Sunday, with police using tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.
– Impossible to open
The Indonesian government set foot on a similar arrangement on the holiday island of Bali just before the turn of the month. Indonesia is now the epicenter of the covid-19 pandemic, with around 50,000 new registered cases of infection daily.
On Sunday, 1,093 corona-related deaths were recorded, according to Worldofmeters.
The health service is under severe pressure, and a large number of volunteers work to deal with all the dead. According to The Guardian Several experts believe that the real infection rates are far higher.
The current wave of infections is currently strongest on the islands of Java, Bali and parts of Sumatra. It is believed that it will spread to the entire archipelago shortly.
– It is impossible to reopen with this delta variant. We are not even thinking about it anymore, said Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, during a press conference in early July, according to South China Morning Post.
Bali is now subject to the strictest restrictions so far during the pandemic. According to the newspaper, many residents go to bed hungry as a consequence.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has predicted a four- to six-week shutdown in the country, but several have questioned the time aspect.
The WHO recommends that the proportion of positive corona tests should be below 5 percent for at least two weeks before a destination reopens for tourists. The proportion of positive tests is now over 30 percent. The country’s hospitals also have a high occupancy rate, and only 18 per cent of the inhabitants are fully vaccinated.
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Epidemiologist Dicky Budiman, who has advised the authorities on pandemic management, believes Indonesia will remain closed until November or December.
Warns: – No doubt
Changes in vaccine programs
For various reasons, vaccination has been slow across large parts of Asia and the Pacific region. Production and distribution have not been at their peak, and according to NTB, the countries first adopted a wait-and-see attitude, when infection rates were low.
Recently, concerns about the efficacy of vaccines against the delta variant have also increased. A large part of the population in Asian countries has been vaccinated with the Chinese vaccines Sinovac or Sinopharm.
Thailand announced last week that instead of two doses of Sinovac, residents will receive a mixture of Sinovac and AstraZeneca. Health workers who are fully vaccinated with Sinovac will receive a third dose from another manufacturer.
Indonesia announced a similar change the week before, writes BBC. There, health workers who are fully vaccinated with Sinovac will receive a third dose from Moderna.
Sinovac and Sinopharm have been shown in clinical studies to be 50 and 79 percent effective against symptomatic corona infection and very good against serious illness, respectively, according to the channel.
No data have yet been released on the efficacy of vaccines against the mutated virus variants.
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