Subject: Thailand to reduce quarantine period for vaccinated travelers
JackTheBat
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Post at 8-3-2021 18:57  Profile Blog P.M. 
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Thailand to reduce quarantine period for vaccinated travelers

Thailand to reduce quarantine period for vaccinated travellers
By Reuters Staff
MARCH 8, 2021
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-thailand-idUSKBN2B00VB

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will from next month reduce its mandatory quarantine from 14 to seven days for foreigners arriving in the country who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, its Health Minister said on Monday.

Vaccinations must be administered within three months of the travel period and visitors will still be required to show negative COVID-19 test results within three days of their departure, Anutin Charnvirankul told a news conference.

Those not yet inoculated but with coronavirus-free certificates would be quarantined for 10 days, he said.

“Foreigners travelling to Thailand with vaccination certificates in accordance with the requirements of each brands, will need to quarantine for only seven days,” Anutin said, referring to the doses needed to be effective.

Thailand’s flight limits, its strict entry requirements and mandatory quarantine for all arrivals have been central to its success in limiting the spread of the virus to just over 26,000 cases and 85 deaths.

Those curbs have decimated its vital tourism sector, however, prompting widespread jobs losses and business closures and contributing to the country’s deepest economic traction in over two decades.

The country received close to 40 million visitors in 2019.

The new measures do not apply to those travelling from Africa, who would still be subject to quarantine for two weeks due to concerns about other variants of the virus.

Vaccinated Thai nationals without a certificate showing they are coronavirus-free need to spend one week in quarantine after two negative tests in the country.

After October, if Thailand inoculates 70% of medical personnel and at-risk groups, there could be more easing of restriction, Anutin said, adding it was possible quarantine could be waived completely.

Thailand has so far vaccinated 27,497 people, mostly medical workers, using the Sinovac Biotech vaccine. It has ordered 61 million doses in total of the AstraZeneca vaccine with mass vaccinations slated to begin in June

Anutin said the country may need to order an additional 10 to 20 million doses, which it could source from other producers.

Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Martin Petty

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anabikumi   9-3-2021 14:41  Acceptance  +2   Flying from the US will need connections. Without a uniform vaccine standard, travel will be still difficult.
honkong2012   9-3-2021 13:52  Acceptance  +4   It is a start
obe   9-3-2021 10:08  Acceptance  +10   Thanks
Tapthatass   8-3-2021 23:24  Acceptance  +4   Painfully waiting for HK & bkk to fully open up.
alex_french   8-3-2021 20:50  Acceptance  +5   Lots of development lately but confusing
porkchops   8-3-2021 20:17  Acceptance  +10   Only within 3 months after vaccination? And still a 7-day quarantine? Guess no Thailand for me at least until October...
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alex_french
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Post at 8-3-2021 20:58  Profile P.M. 
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Reply #1 JackTheBat's post

Last week, they proposed a new villa quarantine, but still keeps a mandatory 14 days quarantine.

Today, they further propose another scheme that reducing the quarantine from 14 days to 7 and 10 days for foreign visitors who have and have not vaccinated, respectively.

It seems they really want badly the come back of tourists for such an u turn in the policy.

[ Last edited by  alex_french at 8-3-2021 20:59 ]
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JackTheBat
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Post at 9-3-2021 03:01  Profile Blog P.M. 
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QUOTE:
Painfully waiting for HK & bkk to fully open up.

I don't know about HK, I would like to travel there myself. Let's see how it goes.


QUOTE:
Lots of development lately but confusing

Yes. Mixed messages since last July. At this point, stay confused and monitor the situation.


QUOTE:
Only within 3 months after vaccination? And still a 7-day quarantine? Guess no Thailand for me at least until October...

That's just the latest, and they've U-turned, V-turned and Z-turned on almost every announcement so far.

As of now, Bangkok restaurants recently started serving alcohol, and the town seems livelier than in previous months. It seems that next month's Songkran festival will be celebrated along with its attendant public holidays--as they declared April 12 a holiday earlier, assuming they don't go back on that, it'll mean almost a week of Songkran. I expect public celebrations to be subdued this year during Songkran, but I thought they might cancel it again as they did in 2020. We. Will. Find. Out.

Vaccines are being distributed but Thailand is in no rush...for a couple of reasons. The real question: when do they let people cross the border without mandatory quarantine?

All the stated requirements: number of days in mandatory ASQ, required documentation, etc are secondary. When can visitors fly in, pass through Immigration and be free to pursue their holiday ambitions, that's the question. And there's no firm answer to that. There's no shortage of guesswork and discussions on the Internet, but no one knows for sure.

My best guess, assuming that vaccinations proceed apace and Thailand approves some sort of "vaccine passport" or similar international document is Q4 2021. Again, that's a GUESS. Anyone wanting to visit needs to keep checking, because proof of vaccination will be required, and it must be accepted by Thai Immig. There may be test results and proof of insurance and who knows what, all expected in a neat folder when you land. The best source of actionable information may be your nearest Thai embassy or consulate.

Personally, I'm not crossing the border until I know I can re-enter without some bullshit ASQ. I'll happily self-quarantine in my condo--you want me to download the Thailand Plus app and keep my phone on? I'll do that. But I'm not paying for some hotel.

It's a waiting game but be aware that they're trying to open the border, they don't exactly know what they're doing, they're reactive rather than proactive, and nobody's dealt with a situation like this before. If you're keen on a summer visit and have plenty of time, maybe 7 days is the deal-maker. If you've got a month, you lise a quarter rather than half. Is it worth it? Only the prospective visitor can answer that question.

But keep an eye on it. Maybe they'll turn around tomorrow and say no, 7 days is not an option. They're like that. It's frustrating but try to be patient. The Kingdom wants you back...and they definitely want a taste of that sweet, sweet cash you guys have been saving for your holidays.

JtB

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obe   9-3-2021 10:09  Acceptance  +10   Bet they change their mind 300 more times...
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austin821
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Post at 9-3-2021 11:35  Profile P.M. 
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Once you are vaccinated you would expect to be let in with a pre flight neg test and should have a test on arrival with maybe 1 day in your hotel room until the results came back.

That would be acceptable to me

Then I would only have to wait to see what our ( Australian ) Govt decides to do with returning travellers as ATM it's 14 days Hotel Q at a cost of $3000 AUD.
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JackTheBat
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Post at 9-3-2021 21:01  Profile Blog P.M. 
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QUOTE:
Bet they change their mind 300 more times...

Well, maybe only thirty or forty more times, ha ha!

We must be philosophical about the current situation. EU countries (notably, Denmark), are trying to create a "vaccine passport" as proof of vaccination. As they're a number of contiguous countries, they want to allow free travel for bona fide vaccinated citizens. They unified the currency and did away with passport checks to boost trade and travel. It makes sense that they would allow EU citizens to get a document recognized by EU member-states to travel inter-EU.

And...that's where the sense ends. The EU consists of many countries that have seen COVID wreak destruction, delays in the vaccine supply chain, etc. These governments are not in a good mood about the situation. Now, with summer on the horizon, Greece in particular is clamoring for said "vaccine passport" because they desperately need tourist income from potential holiday visitors from the EU and UK. So, the EU is having issues with this, and given the human toll of COVID in the last year, not surprising.

Bootleg "vaccine" has already been found in South Africa, China, who knows where else. And sitting over here is the gov't of Thailand, which is notorious for making up rules and discarding them, sometimes very quickly. The problem is that there are different departments who claim to be in charge--the CCSA, which should be the ultimate authority, competes with the TAT and the Airport Authority, and high-ranking members often make statements and then must walk them back. It's not logical, and it's frustrating. But if you want to enter Thailand, and you don't want to do it under a pile of durians in the back of a pickup truck crossing the Burmese border (actually not a good idea to go to Burma right now), you're going to land at a Thai airport and deal with Thai Immigration.

The Thai authorities may not be in agreement with one another, but they make the rules, and they use a different form of logic--that's the best way I can attempt to explain whatever the hell they're doing. They're freaked out by COVID--for months, they declared there were ZERO cases in Thailand. I pointed out to anyone who would listen that the borders were porous, and in late December, a cluster was found among migrant Burmese workers at a shrimp market in a province west of Bangkok. It spread in central Thailand to some extent--as COVID infection is asymptomatic (or lightly symptomatic) in many patients, it's not an ideal contagion. The most infamous Thai who popped COVID-pos in 2021 is some guy named DJ Matoom, who promptly went to a party for his entertainment company. Who knows--maybe he had a cough for a couple of days, thought nothing of it. Oh, we have zero cases, we're bulletproof. Guy infected AT LEAST twenty-six people with COVID.

Stuff like this is a serious problem for Thai authorities. Someone lost face with the DJ Matoom fiasco, but who? I don't know. The result was a month-long crackdown which Bangkok survived (mostly) but Pattaya & Phuket kinda...maybe didn't.

I know there's a lot, and what does it have to do with flying in with a wad of banknotes ready to party and blow your wad repeatedly? I'll try to summarize:

• No one knows precisely when quarantine-free entry will be permitted, or what documents are required.

• The Thai gov't likes to have their own special guarantee--for example, a visa issued by one of their embassies or consulates. This indemnifies the Immigration Officer that stamped your passport, they can't lose face for your actions in-country.

• They will want proof-of-vaccination to have some sort of trail acceptable to the Thais that matter. I can't explain this exactly, but it's kind of like this: if they want proof-of-insurance, they may demand it be issued from a THAI COMPANY. The fact that it's worldwide is secondary. Not logical, but maybe reality--what happens is that Thai businesses figure this out and maybe sell an insurance rider or some sort of cover online, then send you a QR code. You show up at the airport with the QR code on your phone and they demand a printed copy, you argue, and they deny you entry--that is only an example I made up just now, but things like this can and do happen.

It's a nation that has done well in the COVID pandemic and they are basically locking up visitors at the moment to ensure that they can contain it. But their economy is slammed without tourist revenue, so they're trying to walk a frankly impossible line with an international community on one hand, and a bureaucratic internal system on the other. It's...complicated.

I apologize for going on like this, but there's an old-school system here for admitting visitors which has grown over the decades to accommodate massive crowds. In the last year of the Before Times, they had ~40m visitors. Entire industries sprung up to cater to specific sectors. All that got shredded a year ago--some thought it would last months and prepared for that. Now we know it will last months longer. Thais are resilient and take care of each other, but they are being tested.

Also remember: the gov't faces criticism for its vaccine program, and there are still Thai citizens stuck overseas awaiting repatriation. There are many thousands of tourists stuck in-country with expired visas. An article published today in the Bangkok Post quoted the deputy PM: "Beijing is considering making Thailand a regional vaccination centre for Chinese citizens living in Asean...He said the country has asked his ministry to help provide vaccines to 200,000 Chinese citizens living in the kingdom." Yeah, so add ~200K PRC citizens here now, status unknown.

This is the calculus of COVID. Be flexible, stay tuned, keep a cool heart.

JtB



PS: another article with tourism numbers:
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2080351/reopening-hinges-on-jab-strategies


[ Last edited by  JackTheBat at 9-3-2021 21:23 ]

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obe   9-3-2021 21:31  Acceptance  +10   Good stuff bro
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