BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand on Friday reported eight new coronavirus cases but no deaths, bringing the total to 3,000 cases and 55 deaths since the outbreak started in January.

Of the new cases, three are from the southern province of Yala where authorities are aggressively testing the population due to high infection rates, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, spokesman for the government’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

Five other new cases are migrants who have been detained at an immigration detention centre in southern Songkhla province, Taweesin said. The centre has seen 60 other cases in the past two weeks.

Slowing numbers of new cases have prompted Thailand to cautiously allow some businesses this week to reopen after weeks of semi-lockdown.

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat. Editing by Kay Johnson.)

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