Thai island seeks quarantine waiver for vaccinated visitors

[snoop1130]

FILE PHOTO: Empty chairs are seen on a beach which is usually full of tourists, amid fear of coronavirus in Phuket, Thailand March 11, 2020. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's resort island of Phuket is pushing to waive compulsory quarantine for tourists vaccinated against COVID-19 from July, when it expects 70% of its local population to have been inoculated.

 

The island, which is visited typically by about a quarter of foreigners who travel to Thailand, is leading a project to revive a tourism industry battered by the pandemic, which has weighed heavily on its broader economy.

 

"On July 1, we will be able to have tourists who have received two vaccine doses come to Phuket without having to stay in quarantine," Tourism Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn told reporters on Thursday.

 

"After one week on the island, without symptoms and with negative tests, they can travel to the rest of the country."

 

Thailand will from next month allow vaccinated visitors to undergo one week of quarantine instead of the required two weeks.

 

Though its strict rules have kept coronavirus cases to a fraction of those in many other countries, it has caused tourist numbers to plummet.

 

The central bank expects 3 million foreign tourists this year, compared with 6.7 million last year and nearly 40 million in 2019, who spent 1.91 trillion baht ($61.4 billion).

 

The tourism ministry is requesting 925,000 vaccine doses to inoculate 70% of Phuket residents starting from next week, Phiphat said.

 

Thailand has administered about 100,000 doses among medical workers and at-risk groups so far. Authorities on Thursday approved Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, the third to be authorised after those of AstraZeneca and Sinovac.

 

Phuket's "Tourism Sandbox" plan will be sent to the country's coronavirus taskforce for approval this week.

 

Hoteliers are keen to deploy vaccines faster and wider to speed up the revival.

 

"The government has to expedite approval of additional vaccine brands and import more vaccines and inoculate more people immediately," Thai Hotels Association president Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi told Reuters.

 

Hotels had become "zombies", she said, with immense debt and no profits.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-25

 

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[shackleton]

It seems every tourist area in Thailand has its own plans for vaccinating its people Phuket Pattaya ect

I thought the Government had its own plan of vaccinating all the Thai people  starting with Health workers the old and sick and so on 

Looks like money is going to say who gets what priority wise 

[internationalism]

"The island, which is visited typically by about a quarter of foreigners who travel to Thailand"

there is not chance, that they had 10mln per year, with 600 hotels, an average some 5 days stay and 60k residents.

 

international flights are charters during season. So the other travellers need 7-10 quarantine elsewhere, and than to samui.

 

the problem with this island is a private airport and thus very high airfares.

Budget travellers have to take air planes to to the other airports, train, buses and ferry, which makes journey complicated.

With it I don't think they have a chance to recover.