Thailand will scrap the quarantine restrictions for fully vaccinated visitors from low risk countries from November 1 onwards.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said foreign tourists from 10 low risk countries, including United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany, China, and the United States of America will be allowed to enter the kingdom without undergoing quarantine on arrival.
More countries will later be added to the list by 1st December, the PM said.
“Now it’s time for us to slowly prepare ourselves for restarting international tourism. Today I want to announce one small but important step,” PM Prayut Chan-o-cha said during a live televised broadcast on Monday evening (Oct 12).
“Over the next one or two weeks, with tourists increasingly coming to visit Thailand, we will began to gradually allow people to travel without difficult conditions.
“The UK, Singapore and Australia are starting to relax their travel conditions abroad for their nationals. With this kind of progress, we still have to be careful, but we have to advance quickly.
“I have therefore instructed the Ministry of Public Health from 1 November onwards, that Thailand will start accepting non-guaranteed entry into Thailand for those who have completed their vaccinations and enter Thailand by air.
“They must be from what we define as low-risk countries. When entering Thailand, all persons must show that they are free from COVID-19, with proof of the results of a RT-PCR test, which is tested before leaving the country of origin and will be tested for COVID-19 again upon arrival in Thailand. Afterwards they can travel freely to different areas just like normal Thai people can.
“Initially, we will accept visitors from low-risk countries. To be able to travel to Thailand 10 countries will include UK, Singapore, Germany, China and the United States.
“Our aim, will be to increase the number of countries even more by December 1, 2021 and after that, by January 1, 2022, we will widely increase the number of countries,” said the Prime Minister.
“By Dec 1, we will also consider allowing the consumption of alcoholic beverages in restaurants as well as the operation of entertainment venues under appropriate health precautions to support the revitalisation of the tourism and leisure sectors, especially the new year period,” the PM added.
For visitors from countries that are not on the list of low-risk countries, may still face quarantine requirements.
It is unclear what the PM’s announcement means for the Hua Hin Recharge project and the other ‘Sandbox’ projects.
The announcement indicated that fully vaccinated foreign tourists would be able to visit all parts of Thailand without restriction.
Earlier, it had been proposed that visitors to Hua Hin would be able to visit the town without quarantine, but their movement would be restricted to just two districts – Hua Hin district and Nong Khae.
However, the exact details of how those proposals would work in practice were still undecided as of last week.
The PM’s announcement comes following a steady decline in COVID-19 cases nationwide and an acceleration of the vaccine rollout throughout Thailand.
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