Thai News

quarantine hotel

Thailand has confirmed new mandatory quarantine requirements for foreigners wanting to enter Thailand. These procedures are signed off by the Thai prime minister and apply from 1st April 2021. They are expected to apply until being further relaxed in October 2021, though there may the opportunity to consider the whole of Phuket or Ko Samui as a quarantine hotel from July.

Quarantine is 7 days for tourists who have been fully vaccinated (two doses for most, but not for all makes of vaccine) 14 days prior to arriving in Thailand. There is also a rather worrying piece of small print suggesting that Thailand only considers vaccination to be valid for 3 months).

Quarantine is 10 days for those who have not been vaccinated or not received the full doses

Quarantine of 14 days remains for those coming from areas with virus mutations as designated by the Ministry of Public Health, seemingly just Africa for the moment.

The number of tests for seven day quarantiners is one only after 5-6 days, 10 day people must do two and 14 day folk must have three.

Note that the Thai providers will be vaccinating expats living in quarantine islands, presumably for free, but assuming that they are formally registered as resident on the islands.

quarantine hotel

It has been reported that Thai authorities have agreed to allow foreigners fully inoculated against coronavirus to travel to Phuket and have the freedom of the island for presumably a week of quarantine.

The idea is contingent on about 70% of island residents being vaccinated before the scheme starts in July.

By October, the quarantine waiver scheme is expected to be extended to five holiday destinations, including Pattaya.

quarantine hotel

In advance of an imminent official announcement, Thai business media has been summarising its understanding of plans to gradually reduce quarantine requirements.

The business media said that D-Day for the start of what is known as Area Quarantine - part of what is now being called Open System - will be April 1st.

Vaccinated tourists will have to quarantine for 7 days from April to September if they have been given two doses of vaccine in their home countries. It's ten days for those not vaccinated.

Phase 1 - April and May: Tourists will be able to use fitness facilities in quarantine hotels, swim and go on cycle rides in the grounds. They can eat food delivered from outside the hotels.

Phase 2 - June to September: would involve the setting up of an exclusive travel area in which tourists could move around while doing Area Quarantine for 10 days. They would be restricted where they could move. The plan is to have Area Quarantine in Phuket, Pattaya, Krabi, Chiang Mai, Surat Thani (Khon Tao, Koh Samui and Koh Phangan), Phangnga and Bangkok.

Phase 3 October to December: For seven specified tourism provinces quarantine will be reduced to one day for vaccinated visitors with a swab test requirement to leave quarantine. Along with it will be an end to the Certificate of Entry document that will be replaced by a vaccine certificate.

Under the Open System tourists will be able to come for a stay of 45 days (up from the previous 30) or utilize Special Tourist Visas, Yacht Quarantine or Elite cards.

 

Update: Official update

19th March 2021. See article from forum.thaivisa.com

The most notable of the official announcement is that quarantine will be reduced from 14 days to 10 days from 1 April. It will then be reduced to 7 days later for vaccinated foreigners, before quarantine will be scrapped completely by 1 October for those who have received the vaccine. This date is provisional of the covid situation at the time.

After 12 months of forcing foreign travellers into a 14 day mandatory stay expensive hotels, at their expense, as part of the Alternative State Quarantine program, the Thai government has slightly relented about the length of quarantine.

From April, the Thai government is cutting the mandatory quarantine in half, from 14 to seven days, for any foreign travellers arriving in Thailand that have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. However the concession is mostly worthless as it only applies for 3 months after vaccination. In addition vaccinated travellers will still have to get tested before travel, produce onerous paperwork, and risk substantial losses should the paperwork get rejected.

The Thai government is also set to reduce quarantine to 10 days for unvaccinated travellers. However travellers from Africa will still have to quarantine for 14 days.

The government is set to confirm the changes after a meeting next week.

The Thai Government has given permission for this year's Songkran Festival to go ahead.

Now Pattaya's mayor Sontaya Khunpluem has been speaking of what wil be allowed in Pattaya.

Sontaya was keen to play up the importance of spurring tourism and the economy now that the vaccination program has started.

He outlined the cultural activities that would go ahead including a ceremony to honor older people at Wat Chaimongkhol and Kong Khao rice giving ceremonies to honor the departed at Photina Klua and Wat Nong Yai. He said that all events will be subject to mask wearing, temperature and social distancing protocols.

He said that an organising committee and associated individuals were in charge and said that what form any water splashing would take remains to be decided.

Foreigners seeking to enter Thailand require a document from their local Thai embassy called a Certificate Of Entry. The onerous process of obtaining this document now requires them to download and install an invasive snooping app called ThailandPlus prior to their arrival.

The app uses GPS to track movements and a Bluetooth proximity algorithm to detect contacts with covid carriers.

The whereabouts of all tourists with the app installed will be known throughout their stay and allow authorities to immediately round them up and no doubt incarcerate should they come in contact with a covid case. No doubt the facility will also be used for locating visa overstayers and the like.

 

Update: On at all times...even short times?

25th February 2021. See Government instructions from tatnews.org

After downloading the ThailandPlus application from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, travellers are required to enable the GPS and accept the privacy policy. After that, a recent (not more than one month old) profile photo needs to be uploaded before inputting the COE number and reference ID obtained from the Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate-General. Once all data is verified as correct, the system will direct travellers to the QR code page where they can begin using @the application.

Travellers will need to keep the ThailandPlus application on all the time, as they move to different locations around the country. Businesses throughout Thailand prominently display QR codes that are required for check-in and check-out scanning. This includes all types of accommodation, restaurants, shopping centres, and tourism attractions, to mention just a few examples.

In the event that travellers are in close contact with any confirmed COVID-19 cases, they will be notified and offered 'recommendations'.

Update: Thailand salivates over using apps to control people's movements

1st March 2021. See article from forum.thaivisa.com

 The Thai government is inevitably keen on mandating vaccine passports for entry into Thailand but why stop there?

Thai news site, The Standard is debating whether such a document could be mandated to enter places where large numbers of people congregate in close proximity, (or no doubt where a couple of people congregate in very close proximity).

That would mean the entertainment industry and sporting events as The Standard pointed out. So it might be necessary to hold a document to go to a pub, beer bar or disco in the future.

The article did not say that this was yet being mulled in Thailand but it appears that all suggestions are currently on the table.

The Standard noted that Israel has already issued a Green Pass that is a kind of vaccine passport (VP) that appears to be for internal use.

Thailand has committed to give everyone in the country - including expats and migrant workers - vaccinations against COVID-19.

Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) deputy spokesperson Apisamai Srirangsan said that everyone living in Thailand, including foreigners, will be able to receive the vaccine.

Thailand will receive its first batch of vaccines on February 24, with those deemed to be most at risk the first to be inoculated. People working in the tourism or service sectors or those that are likely to come in contact with foreign tourists would be vaccinated in phase 2 from May. Expats and foreign workers are likely to be vaccinated in phase 3 from June.

Dr Apisamai also said that the private sector will be able to procure its own vaccines, providing the vaccines have approval from the regulatory authorities.

Thailand is considering increasing the length of time some travellers will be required to spend in quarantine, the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) has announced.

According to CCSA spokesperson, Dr Apisamai Srirangsan, the proposal is to help limit the spread of the more contagious South African strain of the coronavirus. On Sunday, Thailand reported its first case of the South African strain, confirmed in a Thai national who had recently entered quarantine having travelled back from Tanzania.

The proposed increase in quarantine will initially apply to people travelling to Thailand from Africa, but could also be applied to other travellers from elsewhere.

A forest is coming to downtown Bangkok with the opening of the Suan Pa Benjakitti park. This will be known as the Benjakitti Forest Park in English.

It is being constructed on 259 rai of land in Klong Toei district off Rama IV road on land that was formerly owned by the Thai Tobacco Monopoly.

It is set to be complete next year and will include such features as a 1.5 kilometer elevated walkway, canals, ponds, areas for sports and a bicycle track that will connect to Lumpini Park.

Foreigners who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 could be allowed to visit Thailand without the need to quarantine, according to new proposals from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

TAT says so-called vaccine passports are one of a number of ideas mooted by TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn in a bid to revive the country's decimated tourism industry.

Supasorn said under the proposals, vaccinated tourists from the United States and Europe could start arriving in Thailand as early as March or April, with a focus on what would be the Easter holidays in Europe. Tourists from China, Japan and South Korea would arrive later once restrictions on all but necessary travel had been lifted by the governments in those countries.

Bangkok council has announced the coronavirus cases had dropped to around 10 cases daily.  So now the council has announced that 13 businesses can reopen as usual, but still with virus-control measures, Perhaps of most interest are:

• Internet cafes
• Stadiums can open but no spectators allowed
• Beauty parlours and tattoo shops
• Fitness centres
• Massage shops and spas -- but not massage parlours
• Bowling alleys and skating rinks

Expats in Thailand may soon be required to take a COVID-19 test in order to extend their extensions of stay.

Posting on Twitter, popular travel blogger Richard Barrows shared a document published in the Royal Gazette that said foreigners are required to take a COVID-19 not only to visit Thailand but also extend their stay.

This document was published in the Royal Gazette on 25th December. It will become law 30 days later. So on 25th January.

The details of how Immigration will implement this rule change are not yet clear. There are other diseases on the list of medical test requirements and it varies whether these are required on not.

Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) spokesman Taweesin Visanuyothin has apologised on for sparking public uproar with his threat of prison for people who conceal their travel information.

Netizens vented anger after Taweesin announced that people might be jailed for not installing the MorChana contact-tracing app on their phones. Social media users pointed out that many people don't have smartphones capable of running apps.

Taweesin responded by apologising for the confusion on his personal Facebook. He clarified that the legal penalty only applied to Covid-positive individuals in the 28 red provinces who have no records of travel, including on the MorChana app. The penalty -- up to two years in jail and/or a maximum fine of Bt40,000 -- would be strictly applied in the five locked down provinces of Samut Sakhon, Chon Buri, Rayong, Chanthaburi and Trat, he said.

The MorChana app identifies the Covid status of users according to four colour codes -- from green for low risk to red for high risk -- and tracks their location.