THAILAND PLANS TO RELEASE 50,000 INMATES AS COVID REACHES PRISONS

Thailand, already facing its worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic, is considering cutting its prison population by as much as 16% to counter the rapid spread of infections among inmates and workers in overcrowded facilities.

More than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases have been reported in about a dozen densely-packed Thai prisons. These latest clusters have pushed the country’s daily case count to record highs twice in the past week, including on Monday when more than two-thirds of the 9,635 infections were reported in prisons, official data showed.

In a separate development, Austria has decided to phase out Astrazeneca from its Covid-19 vaccination programme because of delivery problems and wariness among the population following reports of the vaccine’s rare side effects.