Vaccinated visitors still required to undergo quarantine for 10 days from April 1
Despite shortening the required quarantine time for visitors to Thailand, those who are vaccinated won’t be able to skip quarantine just yet. Recently, the Thai government shortened quarantine times from 14 days to 10 starting April 1, but have not announced when or it vaccinated tourists will be able to forego quarantine altogether.
The move to shorten quarantine was to attract more foreign visitors, but it applies to both Thai nationals and foreigners arriving from abroad. But the quarantine length is dependent upon where they are arriving from. Travellers from certain countries, which have seen multiple Covid variants arise, will not be allowed to take advantage of the shortened quarantine.
For those arriving, however, the shortened quarantine also comes with more flexibility of allowed activities. People quarantining can leave their rooms during certain hours and for some purposes such as to use fitness centres or swimming pools; exercise outdoors; or buy food and products, but must remain in the quarantine facilities. Before, the rule was to only allow people to leave their rooms for 1 hour a day to exercise. During the quarantine period, travellers will be tested 2 times for Covid-19.
In more good news, those foreign travellers who wish to enter Thailand now only need to present an RT-PCR test 72 hours before flying, instead of the fit-to-fly document that has seen many obstacles. For Thais, presenting either one is acceptable.
The recent quarantine cut kicks off Thailand’s goal of doing away with quarantines altogether by October. But, it has not been decided if visitors will need to be vaccinated in order to skip quarantine or if they will still need to isolate for an even shorter period of 7 days. Recent news announcements may point towards the decision being made after tourism-heavy areas in the Kingdom have reached a herd immunity status, which requires 70% of local residents to be inoculated. Those areas, such as Phuket and Koh Samui, are already ahead of the game, as they are planning to reopen in July without the need for travellers to undergo quarantines.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
