The move comes after infections numbers started falling in the middle of last month and with the government under pressure to ease lockdown measures due to the impact on the economy.

"Thai citizens like me [...] will come back to normal life," said Wanvipa Luepromchian, who was getting her hair cut in a salon in the Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok.

The government in July started imposing strict measures including closing malls and prohibiting restaurant dining as the number of new infections surged due to the Delta variant.

At its peak, authorities reported over 23,000 new cases in a single day in mid-August.

On Wednesday, the health ministry reported 14,802 new cases and 252 additional deaths. Thailand has overall reported 1.2 million cases and 11,841 fatalities.

"If you [the government] lockdown everything that's so dangerous for the economy in Thailand," Wanvipa said.

Last week, the government also allowed some domestic flights to resume.

Restaurants dining can also restart, but at half the capacity to allow for social distancing.

"Customers need to get temperatures checked before entering and keep social distancing with only two people on one table, but if they are family, they can be seated together," said restaurant manager Nichapha Jiwvaganont. While a night time curfew remains in place in Bangkok, the partial reopening will be supportive for Thailand's struggling economy.

A joint business group on Wednesday raised its 2021 economic forecast from between a 0.5 percent contraction to 1 percent growth from a contraction of 1.5 percent to 0 percent growth as curbs were relaxed.

 

Global epicenter

As Indonesia and Thailand start to ease COVID-19 curbs after seeing case numbers fall, health experts say cases of new infections could rise again with vaccination rates still low.

After containing the coronavirus better than much of the world last year, Southeast Asia has turned into a global epicenter in recent months with the arrival of the virulent Delta variant.

Although case numbers are still rising fast in most of the region, Indonesia and Thailand, which have its largest economies, have started to lift curbs on dine-in restaurants and shopping malls to ease the economic pain of their lockdowns.

Indonesia reported 10,534 new cases on Tuesday, five times fewer than its peak in mid-July.

However, experts said relaxations carried dangers with a low level of vaccination and a shortage of testing, with rates of positive tests often above the 5 percent recommended by the World Health Organization.

"We are definitely concerned around the reopening without meeting all the criteria proposed by the WHO," Abhishek Rimal, Asia Pacific Emergency Health Coordinator at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters.

"Now with the Delta variant, which is highly transmissible, and the low vaccination rate, we could very well see a surge of COVID-19 in days to come."

Indonesia has recently had a positive test rate of 12 percent and Thailand 34 percent.

"Surveillance is not that great, we still need to be careful," said Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, a University of Indonesia epidemiologist.

Indonesia has recorded more than 4 million coronavirus cases in total and more than 133,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Thailand has reported 11,841 deaths and 1.2 million cases.

 

Lagging vaccination

The two countries both have first vaccination rates at around 30 percent with Indonesia having fully vaccinated 17 percent and Thailand 11 percent. Their capitals, Jakarta and Bangkok, have much higher levels of vaccination.

In Jakarta and some areas on the populous Java Island, restaurants inside shopping malls could have a 50 percent dine-in capacity, and shopping malls could stay open until 9 p.m., while factories are permitted to operate at 100 percent capacity.

Bangkok and 28 other provinces listed as having the most severe outbreaks can similarly reopen dine-in restaurants at a capacity between 50 percent and 75 percent, with opening hours capped at 8 p.m., the same as shopping malls.

"The situation is getting better because many people are getting vaccinated and they are being more cautious," said restaurant customer Orrapin Peenanee, queuing in Bangkok.

The economic benefits of easing lockdowns were understandable, said Dale Fisher, a senior infectious disease expert at the National University Hospital in Singapore, but he stressed that they also must vaccinate their citizens faster.

"As you ease off the lockdowns, how much sort of punishment can you take before you have to bring a lockdown back in and be and be stronger? The answer is in the vaccine," he said.