First Delta case turns up in Phuket
>>PHUKET: The first case of the Delta variant has been confirmed on the tourist island as the province decided to close all schools until July 23 after a surge in infections.
Koosak Kookiattikul, chief of the Phuket public health office, said the province found the first patient infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19, the strain first discovered in India. The strain analysis was confirmed by the medical science centre on Friday.
He said the patient, a foreign businessman who lives in the province, is suspected to have contracted the virus from a visitor from Bangkok. The patient’s contacts are being placed under quarantine.
Ten Covid-19 cases were reported yesterday, the highest in several days, raising concerns. Most patients were Thai nationals who travelled from other provinces.
According to Dr Koosak, three variants of Covid-19 have been reported in the province and most are the Alpha variant, first detected in the UK. Six cases were found to be the Beta variant, first identified in South Africa, and one is the Delta variant.
He said it will take two weeks for the result of a strain analysis of an infected tourist under the Phuket Sandbox tourism scheme to be available.
The tourist, from the United Arab Emirates, arrived on the southern island in a tour group on Tuesday and was found to be infected with Covid-19.
He said 13 tourists in the same group decided to fly back last night while another entered an alternative local quarantine facility.
The school closure order was shared by the Phuket Covid-19 centre on its Facebook. Under the province’s order, all schools are to close from July 12-23 and switch to online classes.
The two-week closure follows a meeting of the provincial communicable disease control committee which expressed concerns about a rise in the number of Covid-19 patients aged under 18.
The school closure was proposed out of concern about the emergence of school clusters where people aged below 18 are not vaccinated and cannot fully comply with Covid-19 restrictions.
Students aged below 18 and not vaccinated would need to present student ID cards issued by their schools when entering the province and take Covid-19 tests on arrival. The committee also discussed tightening the screening process for local visitors.
>>BARCELONA: The Spanish region of Catalonia yesterday reimposed virus restrictions in the face of rising coronavirus infections, as the highly contagious Delta strain forced nations worldwide to put the brakes on a longawaited return to normalcy.
The highly transmissible Delta variant, first detected in India, is sweeping the globe as countries race to inoculate their populations to ward off fresh outbreaks that are increasingly affecting the unvaccinated young.
After an “exponential” rise in cases in recent days, officials in the autonomous region in the northeast of Spain said they had no choice but to reimpose restrictions.
Nightclubs were closed as of this weekend and a negative Covid-19 test or proof of vaccination will be needed to take part in outdoor activities involving more than 500 people.
“The pandemic has not ended, the new variants are very contagious and we still have significant segments of the population that are not vaccinated,” Patricia Plaja, a spokeswoman for the regional government told a news conference.
The Netherlands also reimposed controls yesterday where infections rose sevenfold in one week, a surge officials have blamed on the Delta variant.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte ordered the closure of all nightclubs and the curbing of restaurant hours, with visitors to eateries now required to adhere to a 1.5-metre social distancing rule.
But the new measures did not mean the Netherlands would return to a lockdown or curfew as in previous months, and Mr Rutte promised the Dutch people could still enjoy a “beautiful summer”.
Officials were equally optimistic despite a surge of cases in Thailand, which will impose a 9pm to 4am curfew on Bangkok and nine other provinces on Monday to stem a severe third wave of infections that kicked off in April.
“We apologise for difficulties of people living in areas with maximum restrictions, but this will support disease control efficiently. Thailand will be victorious,” said Apisamai Srirangson, assistant spokeswoman for the task force.
Residents will also be barred from gathering in groups of more than five people, while public transport networks will shut down from 9pm each night.
Supermarkets, restaurants, banks, pharmacies and electronics stores within malls can stay open but other shops must close.
Farther south, the Delta virus is wreaking havoc in badly-hit Indonesia, where emergency supplies arrived from Singapore on Friday as the country reports hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of cases daily.
Hospitals are struggling to cope, with many now refusing new patients, leaving scores to die at home, while desperate relatives hunt for oxygen tanks to treat the sick.
Nearly 1,000 Indonesian medical workers have died of Covid-19, including more than a dozen who were already fully inoculated, said the country’s medical association.
Authorities said on Friday that medics would be given a third booster jab using the vaccine made by US company Moderna, to provide them extra protection. Despite the slow resumption of activities, the virus continues to wage devastation everywhere from Africa to South America.
Senegal, the EU, the US, several European governments and other partners, signed an accord in Dakar on Friday to finance vaccine production in the West African state.
High vaccination rates may be the only way to stem the spread of the Delta variant, according to a panel of scientists advising the French government, who warned that as many as 95% of people might need to receive jabs.