THE Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) announced at today’s (4.5.2020) press briefing that a drop in new coronavirus cases to 0 for one to two weeks would lead to more of the strict lockdown measures being eased and people would then increasingly return to normal life, PostToday reported.
Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, CCSA’s spokesman, called for the cooperation of the people in doing what the government requires over the next 14 days because progress would lead to more rules being eased. On the other hand, if it was found that initial relaxation of some rules had led to a spike in the number of coronavirus patients then there might be a review and rules tightened again.
However 18 new cases were found over the past 24 hours but no death with these being foreign workers quarantined at the immigration office in Sadao district of southern Songkhla Province.
Seventeen of the new patients are female aged between 13 to 22 years and one is a 10-year-old boy.
Members of the public and shop owners were urged to help take care of the situation and check their communities on their own because their being able to control the situation well would then make it unnecessary to reinforce strict measures.
Dr Taweesin confirmed that beauty clinics or centres are not allowed to reopen during this period even if they have registered as a medical clinic because they are considered to be risky places for the spread of coronavirus similar to theaters, pubs, bars and entertainment venues which also are not allowed to reopen yet.
Meanwhile Thailand should watch what is happening in South Korea today as malls in Seoul and expressways leaving the capital to South Korea’s southern vacation island of Jeju were full of shoppers and travellers enjoying the first long weekend since the country began easing coronavirus curbs last month.
With early-summer weather helping retail therapy return with a vengeance, the term “bobok sobi” – revenge shopping – has trended on the nation’s social media, as people rush to make purchases delayed by social-distancing rules, New York Times reported.
After an initial explosion in infections made South Korea the first major outbreak outside China from the virus and Covid-19, the disease it causes, the authorities have limited the spread with widespread testing, intensive contact-tracing and tracking apps, avoiding the long lockdowns seen in many countries.
Seoul began easing curbs on April 19 and has still managed to bring down new daily infections from over 900 in late February to around 10 in the past week. The government will relax the rules further from Wednesday, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said on Sunday.
“Revenge shopping” quickly spread online after Wu Xiaobo, an economist from neighbouring China, was cited discussing the emergence of “revenge consumption” in February. A South Korean blog post on Wu’s forecast was widely shared, while news outlets increasingly have used the term to describe the bounce-back in spending.
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Top: Even though Bangkok’s 39 public parks reopened today after the government relaxed some lockdown rules, monitoring continued with temperature being checked and social distancing still required. While the gates to these parks have reopened, the children’s playground, fitness centres and tennis courts within them remain shut..Photo: PostToday
Below: South Koreans enjoying themselves at a popular beach. Photo: Ed Jones / AFP and published by PostToday
