Thailand to tighten border controls after detecting South African COVID-19 variant

FILE PHOTO: A restaurant owner smokes a cigarette while she sits in an empty Khaosan Road during Songkran holiday which marks the Thai New Year during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, as the country deals with a fresh wave of infections after tackling earlier outbreaks, in Bangkok, Thailand, April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa/File Photo

BANGKOK (Reuters) - 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.