BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s COVID-19 task force said on Friday it will ban for a second year the street water fights that usually take place during celebrations for the upcoming Thai New Year due to the pandemic.
The Songkran festival takes place from April 13 to 15 and in a normal year crowds pack the streets, spraying water guns or flinging water from pick-up trucks in what has been described as the world’s biggest water fight.
“Water splashing will not happen this Songkran. We must ask you to cooperate with us,” Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for Thailand’s COVID-19 taskforce, told a briefing.
He said foam parties would also be banned, though a tradition of pouring water over the hands of older people, religious activities and travel between provinces to visit relatives would be allowed.
Thailand has been relatively successful in controlling coronavirus infections, with a new…
