Thailand’s ‘new normal’ will last beyond lockdown, says Taweesin

The “new normal” in people’s daily life will continue even after the virus outbreak has ended, Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman of the government's Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, predicted at his daily press conference on Friday (April 24)
He cited Bill Gate’s opinion that new behaviour such as wearing masks and working from home will stick with society for a long time.
Businesses would also change their ways of reaching out to customers after the government eased restrictions to combat the virus pandemic.
Some people have called for businesses to be allowed to reopen after the daily count of new cases dropped below 20 this week. But the spokesman said that people should not let their guard down and added that government agencies were collecting data on the outbreak for the cabinet to consider next week.
Taweesin noted that Thailand’s “new normal” includes the wearing of cloth or medical face masks in public in line with the government directive on hygiene.
He said that the number of patients in neighbouring countries had risen recently, especially in Singapore where total confirmed cases have exceeded 10,000 in a country of just 5.7 million people.
As for anti-virus measures being taken elsewhere in Southeast, Indonesia and Malaysia have extended their lockdowns during Ramadan this month. Taweesin added that Thailand might do something similar, depending on how the Covid-19 situation develops.
Meanwhile, the number of people caught breaking the curfew has dropped dramatically, from 832 on April 16 to 482 on April 23. This was good news for ongoing efforts to reduce the spread of virus, Taweesin said.