A hospital staff member test to a teacher to check for the Covid-19 in Pattani, on March 11.Photographer: Tuwaedaniya Meringing/AFP/Getty Images

The Health Ministry confirmed 27,560 new cases and 85 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours. The infections included 61 imported cases, the ministry said on its website.

Starting Friday, no pre-travel Covid tests will be required for foreign visitors as the tourism-reliant Southeast Asian nation seeks to draw more holidaymakers to help it sustain a nascent economic recovery. Overseas visitors will still be required to undergo an RT-PCR test on arrival and a self-administered antigen test on day five. 

The flare-up in cases comes ahead of the Songkran festival, the Thai new year celebrations, from April 13 with authorities cautioning against large gatherings and traditional splashing of waters on revelers to prevent more people getting infected. 

The country has prepared a road-map to classify the pandemic as endemic in the coming months, but the progress toward it would be contingent on first controlling the current outbreak, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha has said. 

Thai authorities aim to keep the daily Covid death-count to below 80 to allow the nation to declare the outbreak as endemic, Sumanee Wacharasin, an assistant spokeswoman for the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said at a briefing on Thursday.

The government has stepped up a campaign to vaccinate elderly and other vulnerable groups with the majority of the deaths during the current omicron-fueled wave reported among unvaccinated group, Sumanee said. With new cases on the rise it was important to keep the current Covid restrictions, she said.

Foreign arrivals totaled 262,311 during March 1-30, with only 0.59% of the visitors testing Covid positive, data from the virus task force showed. Travelers from Singapore, Germany, U.K., the Philippines and the U.S. led the list.