Thailand will resume its quarantine-free travel plan from February 1, officials have announced, after the program was suspended due to the fast-spreading Omicron Covid-19 variant.
Pandemic travel curbs have hammered the kingdom’s tourism-dominated economy, sending visitor numbers plummeting. Nearly 40 million travelers visited Thailand the year before the pandemic. That figure is down to around 5 million.
Fully vaccinated travelers will now be able to enter under the “test and go” scheme as long as they take Covid tests on the first and fifth days after arriving, a spokesman for the country’s Covid-19 taskforce Taweesin Visanuyothin told media.
Inbound travelers will have to isolate at a hotel while waiting for their test results and will be required to download a tracking app to ensure they comply with the country's rules.
Thailand launched the “test and go” scheme in November as an alternative to two weeks’ hotel quarantine, a scheme that was crippling the tourism sector.
The program was suspended late last month over fears about Omicron, but with deaths and hospitalizations not spiking, Taweesin said it could resume, though the authorities will keep it under review.
Previously, under the sandbox program launched last year which was a first step towards resuming tourism, fully jabbed visitors could spend seven nights in certain designated locations, such as the resort island of Phuket, before being allowed to travel on to the rest of Thailand.
In a further relaxation of Covid restrictions, restaurants will be allowed to serve alcohol until 11:00 pm, an improvement on the current 9:00 pm curfew.
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