file photo: REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

 

There is renewed hope for British expats that travel restrictions between Thailand and the UK could be eased later this week.

 

On Thursday, the British government is set to update its green, amber and red travel lists.

 

Countries on the red list, which includes Thailand, are expected to shift to less restrictive amber or green rules following a drop in Covid rates, reports the i.

 

This should hopefully mean that people travelling to the UK from Thailand will not be required to undergo mandatory 14 day hotel quarantine, which currently costs approximately £2,000 per person. 

 

Meanwhile, the UK could also be about to scrap its green, amber and red traffic light system on travel restrictions altogether, according to a key spokesperson for the travel industry.

 

Paul Charles, chief executive of the PC Agency tweeted: “The traffic light system is expected to be scrapped by 1 October – at last. Airlines and some of us in the sector are aware of plans to create a simpler system, where countries are either red or not. This would be the US model in effect, which I’ve been calling for.”

 

A new system based on the vaccination status of travellers could be under consideration instead.

 

On Monday (Sept 13), Thailand reported its lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in seven weeks.

 

It was also announced on Monday that 40 million people in Thailand have now received a COVID-19 vaccination.

 

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9 minutes ago, webfact said:

It was also announced on Monday that 40 million people in Thailand have now received a COVID-19 vaccination.

Notice the 'a vaccination' singular.

Approx 18% are fully vaccinated (2 shots) 27mil people.

All said and done 18% great effort (if vaccination numbers accurate)

Yeah. OK. I believe you. What isn't mentioned is the UK not accepting visitors vaccinated with certain make of vaccines..

3 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

Yeah. OK. I believe you. What isn't mentioned is the UK not accepting visitors vaccinated with certain make of vaccines..

Does that mean  a British national can be refused access to his country ....., just like the Australians do ?????

6 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

Yeah. OK. I believe you. What isn't mentioned is the UK not accepting visitors vaccinated with certain make of vaccines..

British people going to the U.K are not required to have any vaccinations against Covid 

8 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

Yeah. OK. I believe you. What isn't mentioned is the UK not accepting visitors vaccinated with certain make of vaccines..

 

Read the post!   It is not about visitors, it is about returning Brits.

9 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

Read the post!   It is not about visitors, it is about returning Brits.

It refers to Expats then goes on to say 'This should hopefully mean that people travelling to the UK from Thailand will not be required to undergo mandatory 14 day hotel quarantine returning to the UK.' I take that to mean all travelers.

Just now, Gandtee said:

It refers to Expats then goes on to say 'This should hopefully mean that people travelling to the UK from Thailand will not be required to undergo mandatory 14 day hotel quarantine returning to the UK.' I take that to mean all travelers.

 

 

"All travelers" cannot travel.......for example Thais are banned from entering from a red country.

 

Reverting to amber means that they (and other foreigners) can travel from Thailand, and returning Brits do not need to quarantine.....

4 minutes ago, Gandtee said:

It refers to Expats then goes on to say 'This should hopefully mean that people travelling to the UK from Thailand will not be required to undergo mandatory 14 day hotel quarantine returning to the UK.' I take that to mean all travelers.

You need to read the whole set of rules to have a full understanding of the requirements and what is and isnt allowed 

This summer in the England has been wonderful after 18 months of restrictions.

 

No masks, no social distancing, holiday by the beach, pub and nightclubs packed as were festivals and football grounds. Yes, lots of infections, but deaths on the whole low. I know many people young and old that got it, some back at work in 10 days clear. Vaccines are working.

 

Thanks, Boris, for giving us a freedom summer, when it would have been easy to go the Australian route

 

Ok we can't travel abroad much, but I can live with that for now

 

 

3 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

"All travelers" cannot travel.......for example Thais are banned from entering from a red country.

 

Reverting to amber means that they (and other foreigners) can travel from Thailand, and returning Brits do not need to quarantine.....

If Thailand reverts to Amber, Brits will still have to self quarantine , rather than staying in a quarantine  hotel

1 minute ago, bartender100 said:

This summer in the England has been wonderful after 18 months of restrictions.

 

No masks, no social distancing, holiday by the beach, pub and nightclubs packed as were festivals and football grounds. Yes, lots of infections, but deaths on the whole low. I know many people young and old that got it, some back at work in 10 days clear. Vaccines are working.

 

Thanks, Boris, for giving us a freedom summer, when it would have been easy to go the Australian route

 

Ok we can't travel abroad much, but I can live with that for now

 

 

My Thai niece contracted covid. She had been twice vaccinated. After her husband got it she was tested positive, but suffered no symptoms. My wife maintains it was because of the Thai herbs she had been taking, but I go along with the effectiveness of the vaccines. Who knows.

1 minute ago, Gandtee said:

My Thai niece contracted covid. She had been twice vaccinated. After her husband got it she was tested positive, but suffered no symptoms. My wife maintains it was because of the Thai herbs she had been taking, but I go along with the effectiveness of the vaccines. Who knows.

Most people who contract the virus do not show any symptoms and it doesn't effect them at all , maybe she was naturally one of those people ?

Hopefully if this comes about the UK will also recognise Siam Bioscience AZ, Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines too.  Many countries in the EU have already done this so there must be a good prospect the UK follows suit 

23 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

"All travelers" cannot travel.......for example Thais are banned from entering from a red country.

 

Reverting to amber means that they (and other foreigners) can travel from Thailand, and returning Brits do not need to quarantine.....

nope

This recent report from the Independent suggests that Thailand will remain on the Red list due to lack of testing , which is the reason as to why Thailand went on the red list in the first place 

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/red-list-countries-traffic-light-travel-b1919280.html

59 minutes ago, webfact said:

There is renewed hope for British expats that travel restrictions between Thailand and the UK could be eased later this week.

Lets see how this goes as one of the major reasons the UK gave for putting Thailand on the red list was because of insufficient covid sequencing for new variants. Hopefully with the decrease in case numbers this will sway them.

Ok good.   Now we just need Thailand to remove "every single country in the world" from its own red list so that those double jabbed, negative tested people who want to visit the UK can do so without needing to quarantine when returning.  

58 minutes ago, webfact said:

On Monday (Sept 13), Thailand reported its lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in seven weeks.

 

Great news! In completely unrelated news, the number of daily covid tests dropped below 50,000 for the first time since April 2021. Way to go Thailand!

 

 

 

 

https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&minPopulationFilter=1000000&time=2021-04-23..latest&facet=none&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&hideControls=true&Metric=Tests&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=false&Align+outbreaks=false&country=~THA

 

In reply to a few posts, from what I gather (here on this forum) it's not the brand of vaccine or where it's made that the UK don't accept, but where it's administered. So even a Pfizer jab that was given here in Thailand falls into the same category as Thai-made AstraZeneca.

I have no knowledge or opinion on Sinovac/Pharm, though. Maybe they're 'double bad.'

1 minute ago, 2long said:

In reply to a few posts, from what I gather (here on this forum) it's not the brand of vaccine or where it's made that the UK don't accept, but where it's administered. So even a Pfizer jab that was given here in Thailand falls into the same category as Thai-made AstraZeneca.

I have no knowledge or opinion on Sinovac/Pharm, though. Maybe they're 'double bad.'

I do think that that is incorrect . 

Certain vaccines are accepted and other ones are not , it doesnt matter the location of where you had the vaccination done , but even so, its a moot point because vaccinations are not required for Brits when entering the U.K 

Another reason why the numbers here are being 'Engineered' to be lower every day; gotta get off these Red Listings and also got to show we can open to allcomers on 1st October as the Big Pumpkin said we would !

Unfortunately, what Thailand is not addressing is freedom for holiday makers with respect to socialising, free movement, restaurants where people can enjoy a bottle of wine with their meal and bars with entertainment such as live music and where they are able to have a beer or two. 

Thailand wants fully vaccinated tourists to come - in the UK that would mean from Green rated countries

 

Thailand is pretty much wanting foregn tourists but treats them as Amber or Red, the only way it will happen in any numbers is if they effectively treat them the same as UK Green, on top of that there are too many restrictions in Thailand - they are getting way ahead of themselves, they should be opening the country first then get unrestricted local tourism running which is only possible when everyone has received 2x jabs of an effective vaccine, they are no where near that

 

unless they rate foreign tourists as green and open venues and drop the curfews - this is not happening on Oct 1st

October 1st and Hi-Season are just around the corner, looks like the anticipated 6 million Brits will be finally coming and will give the TAT numbers folks a win this time.........oh the irony and the sarcasm.  Wishing on one hand while sharting in the other...

1 hour ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

If Thailand reverts to Amber, Brits will still have to self quarantine , rather than staying in a quarantine  hotel

Indeed, self isolation is obviously not quarantine (with the associated costs).

1 hour ago, webfact said:

A new system based on the vaccination status of travellers could be under consideration instead.

That is going to kill it for expats. 

 

UK tourists returning will be okay, they have their NHS vaccination and app. 

 

Pretty sure 'our' vaccinations and More Prom will count for nothing.

22 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

That is going to kill it for expats. 

 

UK tourists returning will be okay, they have their NHS vaccination and app. 

 

Pretty sure 'our' vaccinations and More Prom will count for nothing.

At the moment it's not possible.   They were supposed to have this in place on the NHS app by 2 months ago:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/aug/08/nhs-still-not-recognising-british-citizens-overseas-covid-jabs-says-peer

 

"A government spokesperson said: “We are urgently working to access the data for UK residents who have received their vaccinations abroad to ensure eligible individuals can demonstrate their vaccination status via the NHS Covid pass."

 

It also sounds like they are only interested in fixing this for UK residents who "happen to be abroad" rather than UK citizens who reside abroad and even sounds like they are taking the approach to only trust data they can access directly rather than trusting the data that individuals provide, which sounds like mission impossible to me as that would need some kind of agreement with the host countries.    

2 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Ha. I just asked gf what the rock formation in background look like to check if I'm going nuts.

A Dragon having a drink from the ocean was confirmed.

Looks like a nice spot. 

Very popular with adolescent males who are keen on serious injuries and death!!!

1 hour ago, hotandsticky said:

 

 

"All travelers" cannot travel.......for example Thais are banned from entering from a red country.

 

Reverting to amber means that they (and other foreigners) can travel from Thailand, and returning Brits do not need to quarantine.....

They do need to quarantine, just not at 14 day  hotel quarantine. Until the UK recognizes vaccines like AZ manufactured in SE Asia, essentially nothing has really changed.