Two foreign travellers wanted by Phuket authorities, Covid-positive and left hotel quarantine

Two French travellers are wanted by Phuket authorities leaving their hotel quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19. Thai media used a word meaning “escape” and posted mugshots of the man and woman like suspects on a wanted criminal poster. Authorities have asked those who have seen the travellers, who are both around 35 years old, to contact the Patong Police Station.

A report in the Thai media outlet Khaosod does not go into detail about what scheme the travellers entered Thailand under. Those who enter under the Test & Go scheme are required to spend at least a night in an approved hotel to isolate while they wait for their results from an RT-PCR test to come back. It can take about a day.

There have been other reports of travellers leaving their hotel before the results come back. Recently, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told the media that health officials plan to impose tough screening measures to let only “quality travellers” visit the country as there were some breaking quarantine and submitting fake insurance documents.

Following the emergence of the Omicron variant in Thailand, with the majority of the initial cases involving travellers from overseas, the government closed registration for the Test & Go programme.

SOURCE: Khaosod