ASIA/THAILAND - Increase in infections due to Covid-19 and openness to tourism: alert of missionaries

Monday, 5 July 2021 missionaries pandemic covid-19

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Chiang Mai (Agenzia Fides) - "The pandemic situation is not improving, infections are increasing and the situation is very serious. To date, over 6 thousand cases have been registered, of which 207 in prisons". The numbers are growing and the management is out of control", writes to Fides Fr. Ferdinando Pistore, fidei donum missionary in the parish of St. Francis in Lamphun in northern Thailand.
"Another lockdown is not possible because the economy would not withstand and it is not possible to overcome it in any way. The vaccination situation is slow, with less than 10 million people vaccinated with the first dose and less than 3 million with the second. Supplies have not arrived, we currently have the two Chinese vaccines and Astra Zeneca, all the other approved vaccines have yet to arrive", explains the missionary.
"As a minimum remedy in Bangkok, for example, where infections are more complicated to manage due to the variations, they have decided to close targeted places and make small red areas. Another experiment they have tried to do is to create a tourist island where tourists can arrive with the vaccination certificate and spend 14 days, following very strict rules, in Puket. If after 14 days they are negative they can also do tourism in Thailand. In the north here - writes Fr. Ferdinando - at the moment the situation seems more "rosy", at least in Lamphun. But in Chiang Mai and in the neighboring provinces, problems persist especially for the people who come and go from the capital and the red areas. Before Christmas there were less than 4,000 infections registered in the country while today, in one day, there are over 6,000. Currently in total the infected are over 243 thousand, with 61 deaths in one day".
"This is the Covid-19 situation with us, while unfortunately we have no news regarding Myanmar: in a confidential way, we tried to find someone who can bring drugs there but once they cross the border or arrive in the woods we know nothing more, whether they are distributed, to what extent and to whom. The Burmese immigrant community present here continues to work with us. In our parish of Lamphun, since Sunday in Albis we have been closed and we were able to open last Sunday only for mass, we cannot meet, the only thing was to maintain contact with the boys and girls online to show our attention and presence, while up in the villages everything is still closed. Chiang Mai Cathedral had been open on a Sunday but closed the following Sunday. We cannot see how the situation can evolve without a more advanced vaccination campaign", concludes Fr. Pistore. (FP/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 5/7/2021)