File photo: REUTERS
Thailand on Monday (August 23) reported 17,491 new COVID-19 cases and 242 additional deaths over the past 24 hours.
● 17,093 new infections
● 398 prison / prison infections
● 22,134 recoveries
Monday’s cases bring the total number of COVID-19 infections in Thailand to 1,066,786 with 9,562 deaths. (Total infections since April 1: 1,037,923)
The news comes as more than a year and a half since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Thailand’s tourism industry is now struggling to survive and trying to shift from mass tourism to attracting more quality visitors.
The country received some 40 million international visitors in 2019, and the number came down to only 6.7 million in 2020.
For 2021, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) predicted that even in the best-case scenario, there will only be around 1-2 million foreign tourists visiting the country. Some believed that this figure is still considered too optimistic given the current vaccination rate and rising number of daily cases in the country.
(Source: – Asean Now)