'Entry conditions for Thailand are relaxed: Quarantine is shortened'
The National Communicable Disease Committee (NCDC) will propose a shorter quarantine period for foreign visitors to revive the tourism industry and boost the economy.
If the proposal is approved, selected groups of foreign visitors will only have to quarantine for 7 or 10 days instead of 14. Opas Karnkawinpong, director general of the Department of Disease Control (DDC), said the quarantine period would be shortened in either case .
The DDC wants to shorten the quarantine period to seven days for fully vaccinated and RT-PCR tested visitors. With a negative test certificate for their flight, they will be tested again on the day of arrival in Thailand and on day seven of quarantine, Dr. Grandpa.
Visitors not fully vaccinated must be quarantined for 10 days and also undergo two RT-PCR tests. The first on arrival and the second before they end their quarantine period.
In both situations it concerns tourists who arrive by plane.
The current quarantine period of 14 days and two tests will continue for visitors arriving by land who do not have proof of vaccination, said Dr. Grandpa.
The measures apply to visitors from all countries.
Source: Bangkok Post
Nice gesture, but I don't think people will suddenly jump on the plane with a swimsuit in hand with this message. No quarantine, and then we'll talk. Who is going to live in disability for a week of their vacation?
It probably won't be a storm, but I still think people will be won over with a week less penalty time.
These will probably mainly be people who regularly went to Thailand, but for whom two weeks of quarantine was too much.
Well Shefke,
A week is not such a limitation.
I arrived in Phuket yesterday and already had the negative test result at the hotel reception, so I was allowed to grab a beer at a beach bar the same evening.
The plane going there was also packed!
Rented a motorbike today and already made a nice tour. So no obligation to sit in your room.
Thailand Travel in R'dam got me over the line.
So there are more enthusiasts to enjoy a 'limited' holiday for 7 or 14 days before they can travel an extra month in Th.
Welcome to Thailand.
Dear Pear,
Nice to read we are also leaving for Phuket next Monday, after all the negative reactions and comments from people, this is sometimes nice to read.
It's great that you got your negative result so quickly! Hopefully we'll be just as lucky 🙂
Enjoy your trip I say!
Greetings the moppies
Now the Certificate of Entry with the obligation to take out insurance and then I come!
That remains to be seen.
CoE; May expire if airlines and governments accept the IATA Travel Pass. If that does not work, then each country will apply its own rules and that will go through (a kind of) CoE. We can forget tests at airports; too cumbersome, too time consuming, too much expense. Until now, the IATA Travel Pass is still “by invitation”.
Insurance: It is a long-standing wish of Thailand to force tourists to have compulsory travel insurance, reportedly because hospitals are left with unpaid bills. This is therefore the opportunity to make insurance mandatory in the context of Corona. I think that will be a keeper
I sincerely hope that compulsory insurance will be introduced. It is thanks to all those pipos without insurance that hospitals are starting to charge extortionate prices to pay those unpaid bills of those uninsured. I wouldn't care if tourists stay away for those reasons. Good from.
In 2019, the last normal year, unpaid hospital bills totaled 448 million baht. That is 11 baht per visitor because 40 million visitors; then you cannot expect the Westerner to pay 8000 baht for a 3-month insurance policy and accommodation, while the Westerner are mostly well insured. Then be realistic and increase the departure tax, which is already included in the ticket price, by 11 baht, say 30 Euro cents (0,30 Euro), which is a bit better to swallow than a rate of 200 Euro for an unnecessary extra insurance for someone who stays longer and already supports the Thai economy well through many (tax) payments such as Thai VAT. The foreigners spend 2000 billion baht, say about 50 billion euros and maybe more, then those unpaid bills are nothing.
And I read that the private hospitals already use a surcharge to cover unpaid bills from someone else and also know that a state hospital already makes a foreigner pay 3x as much as a Thai, which was prescribed by the authorities.
Here's a link with my numbers:
https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/destitute-foreigners-in-thailand-and-unpaid-hospital-bills-360259
Of course, that remains to be seen – the Thai government is completely unpredictable.
Incidentally, I have no problem whatsoever with the fact that you must be insured, but I do have the fact that you should insure things twice, as is now the practical consequence of the Thai 'policy',
I also read about those unpaid hospital bills a long time ago. However, you haven't heard about it for months and think about it. It is just being thrown into the world to enforce something again (in this case compulsory insurance). It may be that someone does not pay their bill and disappears, but from my own experience I know that I will not leave the hospital (even if well insured) before the insurance company has approved the bill at inpatient.
Well I'm getting our suitcases ready now because we are really eager to feel that lovely sun on our bones again.
Now to get all the papers in order and let's hope that it will be arranged quickly (before the snow comes here in October).
Dear friends, we are coming then we can have fun again for 6 months.
Take it easy. We all know Thailand anyway. See first and then believe. The plans, proposals are daily rates. Nothing is certain until it is in the Royal gazette and the Thai embassy implements the new rules.
As an example:
I just saw on the website of the Thai Embassy in Vienna that they have temporarily suspended the issuing of the Certificate of Entry. All this pending the realization of the announced changes.
This is a step in the right direction, question: when will this come into effect? and is a week Phuket Sandbox still possible or do you have to fly directly to Bangkok? A lot of dates have already been mentioned October 1 and October 15, again no date of commencement. Would like to go back now also the Thai Embassy can't inform me yet so I'll just wait for the next message.
Sincerely,
Others.
.
It is of course better than nothing, but in principle there has been no real improvement that will move many more tourists to suddenly come to Thailand.
The fact that people who have already been vaccinated still have to be quarantined, tested and have to take out extra insurance to get a CoE, etc., simply remain.
Together, these are still the major obstacles for many to not come to Thailand for the time being.
An almost free travel of already vaccinated people, if this is done in Europe via a Q-code on your smartphone, is simply not possible because Thailand itself is still far behind with the vaccination of their own population.
The backlog of vaccination that the Thais themselves have is much more the reason that already vaccinated tourists can re-infect them than the other way around.
While with their obligatory fuss they still try to give the impression that the greatest danger comes from outside.
Bye tourists, welcome to Thailand, I may welcome you to our beautiful country, but you still have to sit in a hotel room for at least 7 days where you are not allowed to leave and where you have to eat the food from the hotel, the hotel must tell you also pay yourself, I hope you have a nice time in our country.
What is that man actually thinking?
As long as the mandatory confinement is attached to the visit, I fear that not many tourists will come, at most a few expats who stay for a few months and who miss their sweetheart too much, well, have fun.
The wish is the father of the thought ... and the mother of the disappointment.
This applies to both the Thai authorities and those who want to travel back to Thailand.
I would love to travel back to my family in Thailand, but not under the crazy conditions imposed by the regime today. A mind shift among the country's leaders is really necessary to make foreign guests feel like guests again.
I see this as a positive message. Especially since the article states that the aim is to be effective next month. I don't know how quickly legislation can be passed in Thailand. Maybe I can just take advantage of it because I want to go at the end of October / beginning of November. A week of quarantine is no obstacle for me. In any case, you are well rested and without jet lag before you start your Thailand trip.
This message is - in full accordance with the customs and customs of Thailand - in contradiction with ideas such as Phuket and other sandboxes. Surely the intention was not a quarantine, but a regional limited freedom of movement? For example, first 7 days in Phuket or Bangkok and then into the country. In Phuket you don't spend 7 days in your room!
Nice and clear weather in that country.
It does not hurt to also look at the Thai situation. Around me in Bangkok I know more people who have not even been vaccinated once, despite the figures that are given. If a Thai or I is the Sjaak in terms of contamination, then you are written off for 28 days on participation in society and you can pay for that yourself. If it turns out that vaccinated visitors can infect others, and especially with the Delta variant, is it strange to be careful?
Not if that foreign guest is fully vaccinated, tested negative before departure and tested negative upon arrival. What is the chance that it will infect someone else in Thailand? Incidentally, the reverse is much more plausible because vaccines do not offer complete protection.
Now, according to you, fully vaccinated foreign guests should be careful because the Thai authorities remained grossly negligent by committing to vaccination far too late. Weird brain twists Johnny BG. Infected by a malignant form of Thainess?
You forget to mention that those "vaccinated" visitors have to test double negative to be allowed to stay in that ASQ hotel room or to roam around on that SHA + island.
@Mark,
The only thing I wondered was whether it is wise to let vaccinated people who contract the Delta variant here and have no or minimal problems with it walking around among the unvaccinated. The tourist will be the worst, but a Thai resident who tests positive can pay for the costs for 28 days.
If that question is an evil form of Thainess then you really have not understood anything at all about the impact of this crisis on this country caused by a few figures on the monkey rock but at the expense of the common man. Should the latter then be victimized once more because someone thinks they have the privilege of visiting a country unhindered? Any idea how they do it in New Zealand?
@Johnny BG both vaccinated and non-vaccinated can contract a Covid-19 infection, also with the Delta variant. In vaccinated people, the chance is smaller that the infection will lead to serious symptoms or worse, although that cannot be ruled out completely.
The chance that fully vaccinated foreigners who test double negative (cfr. incubation period) enter Thailand infected is very small. To exclude the uncertainty of the incubation period, you don't have to be locked up in hotel isolation for 15 nights at all. The current Thai Q-measures have been ripped off in that sense. They date from last year when the strategy was still to keep Covid out of Thailand. A strategy that is no longer tenable since Songkran, this spring. The strategy is now also to vaccinate in Thailand to protect against serious complications in too many people.
I am fully vaccinated. Why then should I still be stigmatized by the Thai regime with 15 nights of hotel isolation, or exile on an island? Because I'm a white nose? Because the friends of the regime want to take my euros? Because leading figures of the regime want to frighten the Thai people of our farrang? (Ai farrang)
Both fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated people can contract the virus, including the delta variant. However, the risk of complications is different for the 3 groups.
The chance that vaccinated foreigners who also test double negative have a significant impact on the pandemic in Thailand seems rather small to me. The chances that their return will help economic recovery, initially directly for the tourism sector, but also indirectly, seem rather high to me.
It is to your credit to stand up for the suffering Thai, but you don't do that by parroting ineffective and inefficient quarantine measures of the leading Thais. On the contrary.
Sorry, I don't know much about New Zealand, but I happen to know about Thailand.
Maybe you can post on New Zealand blog 🙂
It remains a strange thing that Thailand continues to stick to the unreliable PCR test,
The FDA no longer gives permission for this test as of 31-12-2021 as it is now admitted that there are too many false positives and it cannot distinguish between flu and corona.
Then you now have to be tested on the first day of arrival: suppose you are negative, what do you have to be infected with later if you are alone in your hotel room?
This has to do with the incubation period. For example, if you became infected on the outward flight or a few days before, it will take a few more days for the virus to incubate. Only then are you – whether or not symptomatic – infected.
Color
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-fda-pcr-test-idUSL1N2P51XC
Your message is incorrect. The FDA wants a new test that can diagnose covid or flu in 1 test. There is nothing wrong with the current test, it detects covid perfectly. And yes, every test has a percentage of reliability. Now someone who tests negative for covid still has to take a flu test and the FDA wants that changed. The current test is certainly not FDA-approved. Know the facts and please don't spread nonsense.
I can't totally blame you Johnny BG, but alas, all those words of khun 'that' and khun 'that' are just sop to me. To avoid confusion, they should wait until they have more definitive answers. no one buys anything from 'maybe' and 'almost'.
just picked up my visa in The Hague 🙂 we couldn't postpone our trip any longer due to a wedding of our niece
Anyone who wants to go to Thailand must be tested before departure and 1x on arrival and a 2nd time later. This means a lot of costs. Insurance as required for a COE, also additional costs. Quarantine minimum 7 days: additional costs. And now people in Thailand want the tourists back. Well I can tell them this won't work, at most a million European tourists who can afford it and, most importantly, have the time. Because of the 40 million tourists in 2019, before the Corona, 11 million came from China, 6 million from other East Asia (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan), 11 million from Asean countries, 3 million from India and Oceania, etc. And only 7 million from Europe including 1,5 million Russians.
Go tell the 33 million tourists from Asia that with their annual 5-day holiday they have to quarantine for at least 7 days, as well as incur a lot of costs for insurance and mandatory hotel before they are wanted. Never read anything in the news about the vast majority from Asia for whom it is impossible to come to Thailand. And people want the tourists back so badly, yes yes they forgot to do in Thailand what I also did and already knew and that is first of all to see who the tourists actually are.
Think that after 2 months of easing people are starting to wonder why there are still no tourists coming in except for some Western ones and then maybe the light will come on and the quarantine and mandatory insurance will expire. Here's what I expect for early 2022.
Here is a link with information about visitors per region and country in 2019:
https://m.thaiwebsites.com/tourists-nationalities-Thailand.asp
The figures on tourists from the ASEAN countries give a distorted picture. People from neighboring countries who cross the border for a day to shop, for example, are already counted as tourists. If I cross the border into Germany to refuel and do some shopping, I'm not a tourist, am I?
Yes, that's right, that's 7 million arrivals from Laos, Malaysia and Cambodia. Most of these are those who buy their monthly groceries because it is considerably cheaper (from Laos) or go out to eat, drink and a little more in southern Thailand. Suppose this is 4000 baht per person, then this is just 30 billion baht, 750 million euros. And those are the lost revenues from the immediate neighboring countries alone, what do you think the richer Asians from Japan, South Korea and the other countries spend on designer clothes, visits to department stores and restaurants in Bangkok, stays in 4 and 5 stars hotels. In short, a huge loss of income because Asian visitors are also made almost impossible with 7 to 14 days of confinement and many extra costs.
Hi. Can someone clarify to me what the difference is between a PCR and an RT-PCR, which is now required, also in terms of cost price. Puket sandbox you must land in puket and not via Bangkok. Rt-PCR 72 hours before departure or before arrival in Thailand?. Because it is different on some websites of embassies. Please response. Thanks.w
Will, I had to pay 3.800 bht for a pcr test at Bangkok hospital in Pattaya.
Fred
I really don't understand why you still have to quarantine if you are fully vaccinated. You can travel throughout Europe without quarantine if you are fully vaccinated. And by the way, they are far behind in Thailand with vaccinations, which is also a reason that the virus is still circulating. Thailand is throwing the baby (tourism) out with the bathwater. As a result, they are sinking themselves financially.
Agree.
Covid will remain and in the long term the vaccine will get better (more effective), but that takes time (years). Thailand cannot afford to remain closed any longer. It will have to admit tourists again, otherwise the financial need will soon be sky-high.
I fear that it may already be too late. The Chinese Evergrande (large Chinese real estate company) collapses because it cannot pay the interest on its debt of 260 billion (!!!!). The result is a financial crisis in China and Asia and therefore also noticeable in Thailand (possibly even in the US and Europe). The Thai economy is already struggling and borrowing money is becoming expensive. That also makes it expensive or perhaps impossible to borrow money for Thailand (its companies and individuals). The Thai government will not use its currency reserves for this and certainly not the richest man in the country.
Hotels no longer have customers, hotels can no longer make repayments, in short bankruptcies on the assembly line. Meanwhile, the Thai government has done little or nothing to prevent that situation, in fact, it has done everything it can to create it.
Thailand therefore desperately needs tourists and then it is better to allow the group that poses the smallest risk (the vaccinated). And of course vaccinate yourself at full power and not take a rest day on Sunday like now.
There is no rest day here in Khon Kaen regarding the vaccinations.
Tomorrow (Sunday 29/9) I get my second shot.
3 weeks ago also on Sunday my first
How should the Thai government sell to the population that foreigners do not have to be quarantined, but the Thai in their own country do?
Covid has reached the village, and quite a few houses have a placard meaning stay home for the whole family for 14 days.
Thailand is more than the villages, in the big cities it is a coming and going of people and it is impossible to check who comes from where, in a village it will be possible, but if someone returns to other large places from, for example, Bangkok, it is impossible. Saw it everywhere in the city of Korat a few months ago, in addition I was in Pak Chong (Khao Yai) in my own province where it was busy with people from Bangkok on their way to their holiday home or a day trip, while Bangkok was dark red and traveling was not allowed, but yes no control on it. I think the only ones who check are the village chiefs, not outside them.
Answer to the question you ask on behalf of "the Thai government": Because fully vaccinated Thai nationals are not covered by the quarantine measure.
So the question remains why fully vaccinated foreigners entering Thailand are still quarantined for 15 nights, while they also test double negative?
Quarantine is mandatory for anyone traveling from abroad, including those with Thai nationality. Or do you have other information?
Yes, and is the 15-night hotel quarantine effective and consistent? Isn't this at odds with domestic practice for fully vaccinated people?
And no, I have not associated efficiency and consistency with Thai government policy for a long time.
I quite understand the fact that Thailand has some conditions for visiting the country. Such as CoE, PCR test, Insurance Quarantine etc. That is entirely the responsibility of the Thai government. Just like it is MY decision whether or not I want to participate in this. And I have decided for myself that I will only go to Thailand again WITHOUT conditions. The only exception is that I am vaccinated. Conditions up to Thailand. My holidays in Thailand keep up to me.