City Hall has confirmed that more places in Bangkok will be allowed to reopen on Sunday, including most shops at malls, in line with the second phase of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown relaxation.
At a briefing on Saturday, Pol Capt Pongsakorn Kwanmuang, a spokesman for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), said its communicable disease-control committee had eased restrictions on 10 business groups. The businesses allowed to reopen are:
- Shopping centres, restaurants and beverage shops.
- Other shops at malls, except movie theatres, game shops, bowling alleys, coin-operated game machines, tutorial classes and amulet shops.
- Day-care nursing homes for the elderly.
- Off-premises film-shooting teams, which must keep social distancing and limit the number of people to 10 in front of the cameras and 50 behind the scenes.
- Meeting rooms, hotels and conference centres may hold meetings up to 50 people each and participants must be from the same organisation or company.
- Clinics, beauty centres and nail salons can offer all services, except anything to do with the face such as botox or pimple piercing.
- Fitness centres outside malls, such as yoga studios, may reopen. Each person can exercise for no more than two hours at a time.
- Indoor exercise, including gyms and sports such as badminton, squash, fencing and climbing, with no spectators.
- Public swimming pools inside and outside condominiums. The time limit for each person is two hours. Swimming lessons are not allowed.
- Botanical gardens, flower gardens, libraries and arts centres must arrange queues and rounds. No video shows for audiences can be presented.
Mr Pongsakorn said the operators of all businesses and facilities must adhere to disease-control measures and social distancing.
In the first stage of relaxation on May 2, City Hall allowed small eateries outside malls to reopen.