JAKARTA - Thailand will allow nightclubs and karaoke bars to reopen from June and lift most of the remaining restrictions as daily COVID-19 infections decline.
"Entertainment venues, pubs, massage parlors and others may be open until midnight after June," the government's COVID-19 task force spokesman Taweesin Visanuyothin said at a press conference on Friday, May 20.
"This business should take a universal preventive approach ... staff should receive booster (vaccine) doses and have antigen tests every seven days," Taweesin said, adding.
Thailand's nightlife is a major attraction for tourists. Only most have closed or been subject to a strict curfew since the pandemic began, with some bars forced to be turned into restaurants to keep business going.
The government hopes the latest easing of restrictions will help revive the Southeast Asian country's tourism sector which has been battered by COVID. The tourism sector is a key growth engine and accounted for around 12 percent of Thailand's economy before the pandemic.
Thailand is targeting 5 to 15 million tourist arrivals this year.
Starting June 1, Thailand will also lift quarantine requirements for unvaccinated travelers. They must either take a test on arrival or show a negative COVID-19 test prior to departure.
From January to mid-May, Thailand received 1.01 million tourist arrivals. There were 427,000 tourists recorded last year.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
