On Thursday, Thailand’s National Communicable Disease Committee said it planned to propose to authorities to half-cut the two-week hotel isolation requirement for foreign arrivals amid delays in Bangkok and other key provinces’ reopening.
The government expects to reopen the country’s borders to vaccinated visitors after spending nearly 18 months under a strict lockdown.
The move seeks to reactivate and revive the kingdom’s collapsed tourism, a sector that attracted over 40 million visitors in 2019, generating high income to the country.
Disease Control Department (DDC) Director-General Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong said yesterday afternoon that “reducing the quarantine is not only about tourism, but will help business travel and foreign students.”
The quarantine period’s reduction will apply to all tourists who arrive in the country by sea, land or air regardless of their nationality, he explained.
However, according to the proposal, some conditions will be implemented to travel to Thailand.
The tourist group who have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine and present the corresponding vaccination documents must comply with a 7-day quarantine and undergo two RT-PCR tests, one on day 0 and another on day 7. Moreover, the quarantine period for air travelers who do not have a vaccination certificate will be ten days, with an RT-PCR test on day 0 and another on day 10.
People traveling from land or natural routes or those with incomplete vaccination documentation must complete a 14-day isolation period and undergo two RT-PCR tests on day 0 and day 14.
Dr. Opas said that the department would propose the quarantine reduction plan to the Center for Covid-19 Administration (CCSA) for further consideration on Monday, September 27.
It is not yet clear when the measure would go into effect if approved or how it could affect provincial reopening schemes.
Currently, Phuket and Samui islands waive extended quarantine for vaccinated tourists as part of their pilot tourism programs.
However, many aspects must be considered when reducing the mandatory quarantine period as less than a quarter of Thailand’s 70-million population has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
