Bangkok’s luxury nightclubs at centre of Thailand’s worst Covid outbreak

When the VVIP customers disembarked from their limousines at the Krystal Exclusive Club, young women in tiaras, angel wings and not much else sometimes greeted them. The VVIP clientele were whisked to the VVIP rooms, with their padded walls and plush sofas.

Thai government bigwigs partied at Krystal – one of its mottos is “the luxury entertainment of night light” – as did diplomats, army officers and business owners. For much of the pandemic, coronavirus restrictions did not stop the fun.

But this spring, as go-go dancers shimmied, Krystal and another neighbourhood nightclub, Emerald, turned into the epicentre of what is now Thailand’s biggest and deadliest coronavirus surge, according to health ministry officials.

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