The Delta Variant Changed Everything

By Burin Adulwattana, Chief Economist, Bangkok Bank

Since the beginning of 2021, Thailand has taken a step forward and two steps back regarding our handling of the pandemic. We seemed to have successfully brought the second wave of the pandemic well under control by March, but from April onwards, the third wave broke out, with daily infections climbing higher and higher. The Delta variant also has appeared to have breakthroughs with those already vaccinated in Thailand. The main vaccines distributed are Sinovac and AstraZeneca. As of July 25, 17.7 percent of the population had received at least one dose, with only 5.2 percent fully vaccinated. The pace of the vaccination rollout is evidently much slower than that of other countries, such as Singapore, the…