Governor Charoenrit Sanguansat said the number of infected people was increasing, so the new measure had to be launched to lower the rate.
His announcement that certain supermarket and shopping mall zones would be closed from today until April 13 resulted in many people rushing out to buy food supplies and groceries.
However, the Office of Commercial Affairs said there was no need to panic as the closure was limited to some zones only to create social distancing, and people were still allowed to buy products from the malls.