Meanwhile, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday people who had not taken COVID-19 shots would be arrested if they disobeyed stay-at-home orders as infections hit a three-month high.

New applications for Thailand's Test & Go quarantine waiver scheme will not be approved until further notice to stem the increase of coronavirus infections, said Taweesin Visanuyothin, the spokesman of the task force.

But existing applicants can still enter Thailand without quarantine until Jan. 15, he said.

"We can still make changes if the situation improves, but for now we have to learn more about Omicron," Taweesin said.

Due to concerns over Omicron, Thailand had halted the waiver program since Dec. 22 and also most of its "sandbox" schemes, which requires visitors to remain in a specific location for seven days but allows them free movement during their stay, except for the resort island of Phuket.

But from Jan. 11, Thailand will allow quarantine-free entry into the country via the previously suspended sandbox schemes of Samui Plus, Phang Nga, and Krabi, Taweesin said.

Thailand would also lift on Jan. 11 an entry ban on people traveling from eight African countries it had designated as high-risk.

To curb local virus transmissions, alcohol consumption in restaurants will be halted after 9 p.m. in eight provinces including the capital Bangkok from Sunday, and banned in the country's other 69 provinces, Taweesin said.

"Social drinking is the cause of the virus spread. Measures to restrict this will help curb the spread," he said.

Thailand reported 7,526 cases of the COVID-19 on Friday, the highest number since early November and more than double the number on Jan. 1.

"If we just let it happen, cases could reach 30,000 a day by the end of the month," said Taweesin.

Thailand has vaccinated about 69.5 percent of an estimated 72 million people living in the country with two doses, but only 11.5 percent have received third shots.

The Thai government said it planned to inoculate 9.3 million people this month, including with third and fourth shots.

The country also approved a plan on Friday to buy 50,000 courses of Pfizer's oral COVID-19 antiviral pills Paxlovid.

 

Arrest order

Duterte in a televised address to the nation said he was asking community leaders to look for unvaccinated people and make sure they were confined to their homes.

"If he refuses, if he goes out his house and goes around the community, he can be restrained. If he refuses, the captain is empowered now to arrest recalcitrant persons," Duterte said.

Daily coronavirus infections in the Philippines hit the highest since Sept. 26 at 17,220 cases on Thursday, the health ministry said, including those caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The tally, which was more than triple recorded on Tuesday brought total cases to over 2.88 million, and deaths to more than 51,700, the second highest rate of COVID-19 infections and casualties in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia.

"I am responsible for the safety and wellbeing of every Filipino," Duterte said as he challenged those who disapprove of his directive to file a case against him.

At the end of last year, 49.8 million people had been fully vaccinated, 45 percent of the country's 110 million people. Under existing rules unvaccinated people in the capital region of Manila can only step out of their homes for essential trips.