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