This decision was made on Friday as a compromise between the required income from tourism and the fear of a new Corona outbreak due to the Omikron variant, reported the newspaper “Bangkok Post”. Bangkok. This means that quarantine-free entry under the so-called Test & Go model is only possible for those who have already registered for it. According to the newspaper, the deadline for this was extended to January 15 on Friday. Anyone who wants to come without such a prior notification has to be in quarantine for between seven or ten days after arrival – depending on the country of origin and vaccination status. New registrations are currently no longer accepted.
The Test & Go model introduced at the beginning of November was a loophole for the Omicron variant to get into the country, the newspaper quoted a spokesman for the Covid crisis center CCSA after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. It was initially suspended until January 4th.
Under this scheme, fully vaccinated tourists only had to do a PCR test on arrival and then wait one night in their hotel for the result. Most new infections in the Southeast Asian country can be traced back to the Omicron variant, officials from the Ministry of Health say.
The so-called sandbox model, which has been running since July on the largest island of Phuket, in which fully vaccinated tourists can take a quarantine-free vacation under certain conditions, is still running. And there are now some more destinations such as the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Tao to be added at a point in time that has not yet been announced. The popular holiday destination reopened its borders to tourists from dozens of countries in early November. Since then, the influx of visitors from all over the world has increased steadily.
Source: Nachrichten
