Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has issued a set of new restrictions taking effect on Monday after a surge of the coronavirus.

The new restrictions will be applied to 28 red zone provinces including Bangkok.

Maximum controls are to be imposed for teaching and learning or activities likely to draw a crowd, except for online learning, charities, small schools with no more than 120 students, and border patrol police schools.

Activities which could transmit the virus in red zones, such as meetings, seminars, banquets, and food handouts are forbidden, except where they are carried out or permitted by authorities or they take place in quarantine facilities.

Bangkok and provincial governors are authorised to close pubs, bars and karaoke outlets in red zones. The new restrictions do not ban customers from dining in eateries, however, though the number of sit-in customers must be limited. Alcohol consumption is not allowed inside eateries.

Shopping malls, department stores, community malls, convention and exhibition halls, convenience stores, supermarkets, and other similar places are still allowed to operate under strict disease control measures.

Authorities will screen people who travel between provinces particularly from red zone provinces, while those who must travel to other provinces must show evidence of why they are going and undergo health screening.

Private companies are also urged to come up with work from home arrangements for employees or stagger hours to reduce the risk of transmission.

The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration decided not to enforce a national lockdown because of the devastation it would cause to businesses and the wider economy.

Meanwhile, the CCSA confirmed 315 new coronavirus cases, taking the total since the start of the pandemic to 7,694. No new deaths were reported, leaving fatalities at 64. The CCSA said 294 of the 315 new cases were locally transmitted. Of the 294 local cases, 274 were Thais and 20 migrant workers, 17 in Samut Sakhon and three in Nonthaburi.

The greatest number of newly infected Thais were Chanthaburi (68), Chon Buri (62), Rayong (43), Samut Sakhon (38 -- excluding 17 migrant workers), and Bangkok (19).