Thailand tightens COVID-19 restrictions, including Bangkok curfew

Doesn't bode well for the Phuket international travel initiative, which is supposed to start soon, I believe.

Meanwhile we are about to bring in 70,000 to 80,000 here to Japan

@JeffLee...The Phuket travel initiative started last week. 6 travellers found to have CV19 so far out of 3917.

At the moment the Phuket 'Sandbox' program has brought in something like 2,500 actual tourists since July 1. Phuket normally gets 8-9 million visitors a year. Many other people on the scheme are Thai citizens from overseas and expats who want to enter and stay in Thailand.

It is a start, but the conditions are onerous and expensive. Plus, people residing in Japan are not eligible anyway. This country is seen as a high risk.

Come on Thailand! Clamp down so you can open up soon.

I've spent this year in Japan, SG, USA and Europe and can verify 100% that Asia is struggling most in Year 2 of Covid-19 while Europe and USA are well on their way toward normalcy. It is now abundantly clear that further lockdowns just delay the next wave; the ONLY way out of this mess is to vaccinate 70%+ of your entire population, issue some form of vaccine certificates and move on with life. Australia and Japan, as the richest APAC countries have no excuse for their current predicament. Even middle income countries such as Thailand should focus on vaccinating their populations rather than opening "tourist islands" like Phuket to bring a few bucks in until the next variant hits.

Australia and Japan, as the richest APAC countries have no excuse for their current predicament.

Australia does - they went with a vaccine that turned out wasn't the one that would cover the most people.

But, let's be clear, Australia's current predicament is that they've had EXTREMELY few deaths in relation to their population. So their 'predicament' is hardly a predicament. They've been living normal life for the overwhelming majority of the past year.