BANGKOK — Thai border controls will tighten after the discovery of three local cases of the South African COVID-19 variant stemming from illegal border crossings, authorities said on Sunday, as the country grapples to contain its worst coronavirus outbreak yet.
The first local case of the South African variant, known as B.1.351, was detected on May 4 in a 32-year-old Thai man after he was visited by family who entered Thailand from Malaysia through an informal border crossing, the director-general of the disease control department said.
Movement of people has been restricted in the affected district and only two other cases of the South African variant, out of 81 cases, have …
Keep on reading: Thailand to tighten border controls after detecting South African COVID-19 variant