The government reported zero new coronavirus cases and no new deaths on Monday, leaving the total number of infections in Thailand at 3,135 with 58 deaths since January.
Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said the country had not recorded any new locally infected cases for 21 days, and the past 24 hours saw no newly confirmed cases among quarantined returnees either.
"I must thank everyone for their efforts during this exhausting period of time. Lockdown relaxation has been applied in stages. Today is the first day when businesses and activities in the highest risk category can resume. We don’t know if we will be able to maintain this disease-free status," he said.
"The country must proceed with an effective defence because the number of Thai people who have registered to return from other countries remains at four or five digits."
Dr Taweesilp said 470 returnees would arrive on Monday and 553 more would do on Tuesday.
The death toll remained at 58 and the number of recovered patients was unchanged at 2,987. Ninety patients were receiving treatment at hospitals.
Dr Taweesilp said that in the past two weeks infections were found among quarantined returnees from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Russia, Qatar, the United States and the Netherlands.
Global Covid-19 cases rose by 127,863 over the past 24 hours to 7.99 million with 435,446 deaths, up by 3,440. The United States had the most cases at 2.16 million and the most deaths at 117,853. Thailand ranked 88th among 211 affected countries.
"New cases have exceeded 100,000 daily for many days. The global situation is escalating fast," Dr Taweesilp said.