By Linda Khoo Hui Li
BANGKOK, Aug 19 (NNN-Bernama) — Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan o-cha said the spread of COVID-19 in the kingdom is showing ‘signs of slowing down’ and the numbers expected to start falling in September.
Therefore, Prayuth urged the public to strictly follow the COVID-19 restrictions and measures imposed since mid-July, especially in “28 maximum and strict controlled areas” to contain the pandemic.
Fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant, for the last few days the daily COVID-19 cases has exceeded 20,000.
He said the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) has decided to extend the restrictions including the seven-hour night curfew until the end of this month.
“The number of infections in the kingdom could reach the peak by this month and start coming down in September.
“If the COVID-19 restrictions and measures imposed now is proven to reduce the infections, the authorities may ease some restrictions starting next month,” he said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
He added that there were more daily recoveries than new infections recently.
Prayuth is concerned over the number of COVID-19 fatalities reported with Thailand seeing record high of 312 fatalities on Wednesday.
Thailand is fighting its worst COVID-19 outbreak since April this year. To date, Thailand recorded 989,859 COVID-19 cases 8,586 fatalities so far.
Meanwhile, Prayuth thanked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for donating A$2.8 million (67.3 million baht) to provide aid to strengthen its public health sector.
In a statement, Government House spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said Prayuth spoke to his counterpart on the telephone yesterday.
Anucha said Prayuth also proposed ‘a prompt and suitable means” of COVID-19 vaccine cooperation between the two countries.
The Australian Prime Minister agreed to support vaccine cooperation and the matter will be discussed, Anucha said.
— NNN-BERNAMA
