Thai tourist island of Phuket gets Covid jabs first in race to offer quarantine-free holidays

Government hopes to jumpstart tourism with mass inoculation program

In Thailand, it's the all-important tourism sector that has jumped to the head of the Covid-19 vaccination line, with the country's most popular resort island embarking on a mass inoculation programme two months ahead of the rest of Thailand.

The island of Phuket aims to deliver shots to at least 460,000 people - the majority of its population - as it gears up for 1 July, when vaccinated overseas visitors will no longer be required to quarantine.