Top travel destinations grapple with re-opening during the pandemic

The governor of the eastern province of Rayong has given the go-ahead for bars and other entertainment venues to re-open after they were closed at the start of January to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The province has now gone 9 days without any new Covid-19 infections. On February 1 Rayong’s Covid zone status was changed from red to orange.

Technically, bars, gyms, cinemas, and schools could have re-opened, but the cautious governor chose to only re-open schools at the time. Business’s complained that they were losing money while people could travel to nearby Pattaya for a drink or three and a slice of nightlife that were allowed to open.

With the latest lifting of restrictions, nearly all shuttered businesses have been allowed to reopen, with the exception of cock-fighting and fish-fighting venues, due to the illegal…