No curfew nor lockdown - Thai PBS World Tonight [16th April 2021]

No curfew nor lockdown will be imposed, as Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha made a televised announcement at 4pm today to announce more restrictions in light of the recent COVID-19 outbreak which now has more than 10,000 infections.

The prime minister has urged the public not to panic, and explained that a lockdown was imposed during the first outbreak because it was necessary. Although it highly affected the economy but later on, Thailand was praised globally for handling the pandemic.

He also explained that the recent outbreak has proven what will happen if people lower their guards, and he’s glad that more than 90% of people still wear facemasks. However he’s still worried that people are not complying with social distancing.

PM Prayut also mentioned Thai people should be proud of themselves in fully complying with the measures, which he considered it to be “special”. He admits that he is “hurt” after having to impose the restrictions as it highly affects everyone’s livelihood, particularly those with low income.

The government is still finding ways to acquire more COVID-19 vaccines for the public, particularly from Russia (Sputnik-V vaccines) and the US (Pfizer vaccines).