Curbs on flights, dining-in likely to ease

Curbs on flights, dining-in likely to ease

The Public Health Ministry has proposed dining-in be allowed at restaurants in dark-red and red zones for customers who are fully vaccinated or have passed Covid-19 tests.

Airline passenger flights, now banned in dark-red zones, would also be allowed to resume, with the same criteria.

Dr Kiatiphum Wongrajit, permanent secretary for health, said the ministry would propose the relaxation of coronavirus controls to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration today.

Lockdown measures over the past four weeks reduced the number of new daily Covid-19 cases from about 20,000 to 18,000 and the decline was likely to continue, he said.

Under the proposal, air-conditioned restaurants in the 29 dark-red zones of maximum and strict Covid-19 control, and the 37 red zone provinces, would be allowed to serve meals to customers at up to 50% of their seating capacity. Social distancing must be observed. They could open until 8pm.

Diners and staff must have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine. If they were infected, the infection must have been at least one month ago but not more than three months, which is the period of effective immunity, he said.

Otherwise, they must test negative for Covid-19 via either antigen or RT-PCR tests, which must be conducted regularly.

The same conditions would apply to customers, who must have certificates of vaccination or Covid-19 test results. Those without the certification could only order takeaways, Dr Kiatiphum said.

Vaccinations or negative test results would also be required for airline passengers, he said.

He expected CCSA would give more details, including the timing, today.

There were another 229 Covid-19 fatalities and 18,501 new cases recorded over the past 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry reported yesterday.

There were 18,362 cases in the general population and 139 among prison inmates.

Over the past 24 hours, 20,606 Covid-19 patients recovered and were discharged from hospitals.

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