Restaurants in Bangkok as well as Krabi, Phang-nga, and Phuket provinces may sell alcohol again starting Monday.

 

Timed with the reopening of the country to vaccinated travelers from 46 nations, the lifting of the months-old booze ban was announced Friday afternoon by the COVID-19 task force.

 

Though the ban will be lifted in tourism pilot areas, it was not immediately clear whether it applied to bars, which have either been shuttered for months or resorted to selling illicitly. A slide used during the press briefing only used the word “restaurants.” The Tourism Authority today announced that bars, pubs and nightlife venues would remain closed.

 

A new color was introduced to the system used to rank the pandemic situation in each province. Four of what had been “dark red” for having the worst outbreaks – Bangkok, Krabi, Phang-nga, and Phuket – are now a much friendlier and inviting “blue.” Blue is to be used for pilot tourism destinations.

 

People will also be able to get together with 498 of their good friends again – gatherings of more than 500 remain banned. Take that, public protests!