• June 16, 2020
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Thailand ends curfew, relaxes more restrictions

After 21 days with no new recorded case of local transmission, Thailand has lifted its nationwide curfew and relaxed several coronavirus restrictions.

The Southeast Asian country has been relatively successful in flattening the curve, with only 3,135 confirmed infections and 58 deaths to date. Of the total cases, 2,987 patients have already recovered. Thailand was the first country outside of China to record a COVID-19 case back on 13 January.

Authorities have attributed the containment of the virus to the Thais’ early adoption of wearing face masks, which has been ubiquitous in public since the start of the year. Border controls, business closures and curfew have also helped stem the spread of the disease in the country of 70 million people.

Alongside the lifting of the curfew were the easing of some restrictions. For one, schools with less than 120 students are now allowed to reopen. Sports events, meetings, seminars, concerts, film productions, and TV shoots are permitted provided certain conditions are met. Amusement parks and water parks can operate once more, but with limited customer numbers.

Massage shops, spas and saunas can resume operations too, but with mandatory mask-wearing, hand cleansing, and social distancing between customers. 

Pubs, karaoke outlets and bars will remain closed, although alcohol can now be served in restaurants that reopened two weeks ago.

Monday, 15 June, marked the second time in five days with no new cases in Thailand. The government task force versus COVID-19 has also said that all new cases in the past three weeks were found among Thais returning from abroad, who have since been quarantined.