Thailand further eases COVID-19 restrictions despite record-high cases

BANGKOK. KAZINFORM - Despite record-high daily COVID-19 cases, Thailand on Friday announced further easing of social distancing rules nationwide, allowing more businesses to resume operations, Xinhua reports.

The government is also considering to cancel the requirement of pre-departure COVID-19 tests for inbound travelers from April 1, as part of relaxed border control measures to boost tourism, Natapanu Nopakun, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told a daily news briefing of the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

Aiming to help the economy recover from the pandemic, Thailand plans to declare COVID-19 an endemic disease by July 1, regardless of a recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

On Friday, new infections in Thailand hit a record high of 27,071, surpassing the previous record of 25,615 in late February, according to the CCSA. The country also reported 80 more deaths, the highest number of coronavirus-linked fatalities registered since November 2021.

To tackle the highly contagious Omicron wave, the authorities already approved a plan to gradually contain the surge of new infections and prepare the country to treat the virus as an endemic, with the help of accelerated vaccination.

As of Thursday, around 72 percent of its nearly 70-million population had been fully vaccinated, while 31.7 percent had received booster shots.