No pre-travel PCR test for travellers entering Thailand starting today

Photo via Phuket International Airport - HKT (November 2021)

Starting today, travellers entering Thailand will no longer need to take a PCR Covid-19 test before their flight, but visitors will still need to take a PCR test once they land. All travellers – vaccinated and unvaccinated – no longer need to take the pre-departure test, but requirements after entry vary depending on the scheme.

And there are still some airlines that will require a PCT or ATK before flying or other documentation, separate from the Thailand Pass paperwork.

To make travel a bit more palatable and entice more people to visit Thailand, the government’s Covid task force decided to scrap the requirement for a pre-departure test taken within 72 hours before take-off. The revised entry requirements were published in the Royal Gazette yesterday, making the new rules official.

For those who are fully vaccinated and entering under the Test & Go scheme, an SHA+ hotel must be booked for their first night in Thailand while they wait for the test results to come back, which can take up to a day. On the fifth day of their stay, travellers will need to take a self-administered rapid antigen test and report the results on the Mor Prom app (available on the Play Store and App Store).

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Unvaccinated travellers, or those who do not meet Thailand’s vaccine requirements, must isolate at an approved SHA+ hotel or resort for five days under the Alternative Quarantine scheme and undergo Covid-19 testing before they are released.

Before flying to Thailand, travellers must apply for a Thailand Pass QR code through the official website run by the Department of Consular Affairs at https://tp.consular.go.th/.

The Thai government is gradually easing entry requirements as the country prepares to transition from a pandemic to an endemic in the next several months. Thailand plans to declare Covid-19 an endemic by July 1, but the date could change if there is a spike in the infection rate following the Thai New Year, Songkran, on April 13.

To prepare for an endemic stage, the Thai government has laid out a plan to focus on reducing infection rates and coronavirus-related deaths by swift and accessible medical treatment, as well as by accelerating the rollout of booster dose vaccines, particularly to the elderly.

Covid-19 vaccines approved for Test & Go, Sandbox entry

Covid-19 vaccine Doses needed Interval between doses
Sinovac 2 doses At least 2 weeks
AstraZeneca 2 doses At least 4 weeks
Pfizer-BioTech 2 doses At least 3 weeks
Johnson & Johnson 1 dose
Moderna 2 doses At least 4 weeks
Sinopharm 2 doses At least 3 weeks
Sputnik V 2 doses At least 3 weeks
Covaxin 2 doses At least 4 weeks
Novavax 2 doses At least 3 weeks
Medigen 2 doses At least 4 weeks
**Sandbox programme only**
Sputnik Light 1 dose

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If you are fully vaccinated and looking to travel to Thailand, you may enter by a 1 Day Test & Go Packages.

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Thailand NewsTourism News

Caitlin Ashworth

Caitlin Ashworth is a writer from the United States who has lived in Thailand since 2018. She graduated from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and media studies in 2016. She was a reporter for the Daily Hampshire Gazette In Massachusetts. She also interned at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia and Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida.

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