The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration on Monday thanked both shops and shoppers for their cooperation in observing social distancing measures on Sunday, the first day that shopping centres were allowed to reopen.

CCSA spokesman Taweesilp Visanuyothin said the reopening went well, although he said there was room for improvement.

"Thank you to the shops and the people for their cooperation, although it was only Day 1," he said.

Shopping centres reopened on Sunday after some had been shut down for more than one month as the government stopped social gatherings in the fight against Covid-19.

"We all are learning together to make tomorrow better than today," Dr Taweesilp said.

Some 2.7 million people and almost 45,000 shops used the Thai Chana app on Sunday, but some 800,000 did not check out when they left the premises. "Do not forget to check out otherwise the information still shows you are there and others cannot go in," he said.

The centre encouraged more people to download and use the app to track the number of people in any store and enable contact tracing if any customers tested positive for Covid-19. 

"The database is controlled by the Disease Control Department. It is used only to track patients and the data will be kept for a period of time," the spokesman added.

Dr Taweesilp said if the reopening of shopping centres went smoothly, with no major rise in infections, more types of business will be allowed to reopen in next few weeks.