BANGKOK -- With the promulgation of night curfew in most parts of Thailand, people retreat indoors at night to fight the coronavirus, Bangkok’s streets are handed over to increasingly brazen rats who are venturing out across the Thai capital in huge numbers.

Klong Toei wet market has barely closed for the night, but dozens of rats are sniffing their way through the fresh garbage, a nightly dance overseen by a gaggle of unimpressed cats.

The rodents have had to adapt to Thailand’s confinement measures and the night curfew. With shops closed and some restaurants now only offering takeaway, their source of food is scarcer and more scattered across Bangkok.

But fresh food markets and boxes of discarded takeaways are providing a new harvest as humans hunker down.

Thailand has reported a total of 2,518 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 35 virus-related deaths, according to data collected by John Hopkins University.

Thailand was the first to report a case of coronavirus outside of China on Jan. 15, after a Chinese woman arrived from the virus epicenter Wuhan. -- Agencies