Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesperson of the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), said his agency had announced plans to prohibit massive gathering and organization of crowded events for any purposes throughout the country.

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Collecting samples for COVID-19 test in Thailand

The discovery of the new outbreak, which has put the coastal province of Samut Sakhon under a 14-day lockdown, weighed on Thailand's economic recovery and exacerbated the government's efforts to aid the ailing tourism sector.

To contain the spread of the disease, Thailand imposed restriction measures by province according to risk levels and caseloads, with its 77 provinces classified into four categories, namely the highly-controlled, controlled, under-high-surveillance and under-surveillance.

The same day, the Philippines recorded 1,406 new infections, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 469,005.

According to the Philippine Ministry of Health, the country saw five more fatalities due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, increasing the death toll to 9,067. As many as 431,055 people have recovered from the disease.

Meanwhile, Brunei had no new cases to report on December 26 and the total number of COVID-19 cases in this Southeast Asian country remained at 152, including three deaths.

Source: VNA