City Hall has ordered Bangkok shopping malls to close from Sunday until April 12 as it steps up the battle against the spread of the coronavirus.
Most stores in malls will be closed except supermarkets, pharmacies, food take-out and delivery and other essential services, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang said on Saturday.
The governor also ordered the closure of other venues considered high-risk areas because they attract large crowds of people. They include weekend markets and an expanded list of sports and entertainment venues, in addition to those ordered to close earlier.
The governor asked the public not to panic and hoard goods. “Please don’t be alarmed, I guarantee that you will be able to buy food and goods sufficiently,” he said.
The venues to be closed include:
- restaurants (except takeout and restaurants serving food for hotel guests)
- shopping malls (except supermarket zones, drugstores or zones selling necessary items and food shops (takeout is permitted)
- markets and weekend markets (except sales of fresh and dried food and cooked meals for takeout, animal feed, drugstores and other necessary items)
- beauty salons, tattoo service shops
- skate and rollerblade venues or other similar services
- amusement parks, bowling lanes, gaming and internet shops
- golf courses or golf driving ranges
- swimming pools or similar service venues
- fighting cock venues
- Buddha amulet sales stalls
- exhibition and convention centres
- educational institutions at all levels including tuition schools
- weight-control services and cosmetic clinics
- health spas, animal spas, massage parlours, herbal treatment centres, cinemas, theatres
- entertainment places, boxing stadiums and boxing schools, sports stadiums and horse race tracks.
Those who violate the closure order are liable to a jail term of up to one year and/or a fine of up to 100,000 baht.
The order comes after Thailand reported its largest daily increase in coronavirus infections on Saturday, with 89 new cases taking the national tally to 411.
A Public Health Ministry spokesman said the new cases were linked to earlier infections from a boxing match, an entertainment complex and a religious gathering in neighbouring Malaysia.
Of those infected, 366 are currently being treated, while 44 have recovered.
Thailand has reported one death in the outbreak.
