Thailand to welcome tourists again despite high infection numbers/ Demonstrations in Slovakia

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Despite continued high corona numbers, the government in Thailand intends to stick to a wide-ranging opening of the country to tourism from October. With the largest islands of Phuket and Ko Samui already welcoming fully vaccinated guests again since July, the capital Bangkok and Chon Buri province with the popular seaside resort of Pattaya, among others, are to follow suit from Oct. 1. The cultural center of Chiang Mai in the north and Prachuap Khiri Khan with the resort of Hua Hin are also scheduled to open then. In mid-October, a further 21 provinces in the Southeast Asian country are expected to follow, the Bangkok Post newspaper quoted Tourism Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn as saying on Thursday (Sept. 2). The precondition, he said, was that 70 percent of people in the affected areas would be fully vaccinated by then.

Demonstrations in Slovakia

Thousands of people demonstrated Wednesday (Sept. 1) in Slovakia’s two largest cities against the government’s Corona policy. In the capital Bratislava, mainly far-right opponents of vaccination occupied a central transport hub for several hours. Rally participants criticized the Corona vaccinations propagated by the government as “genocide of the Slovak people.” It was not until the evening that police broke up this roadblock, also using tear gas and rubber truncheons, according to media reports.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified a new coronavirus variant as a “variant of interest.” It is variant Mu, first identified in Colombia in January, WHO wrote Wednesday (Sept. 1) in its weekly Corona report. There are indications that antibodies in recovered or vaccinated individuals may be even less effective against the Mu variant than against other virus variants, it said. But more studies are needed for that, she said. In total, there are thus five “variants of interest” that are being followed with special attention. In addition, there are four “variants of concern,” including the delta variant, which is now also prevalent in Europe.