FILE PHOTO: Thai health minister Anutin Charnvirakul attends a meeting to address the measures against coronavirus in Bangkok, Thailand February 24, 2020. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

 

Thailand could be about to cancel its Test & Go scheme due to concerns over the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Thailand’s Minister of Public Health, Anutin Charnvirakul said on Monday morning. 

 

Speaking to The Nation TV, Anutin said that due a spike in Omicron cases among arrivals, alternative state quarantine measures may be reintroduced at the expense of Test & Go.

 

Anutin said that there had been 63 confirmed cases of Omicron among arrivals to Thailand with another 20 cases awaiting confirmation. 

 

Because of this, a proposal will be put before Thailand’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) later this week that would see the Test & Go scheme scrapped, at least for the immediate future. 

 

Test & Go, which was officially launched on Nov 1, allows people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter Thailand without mandatory quarantine. 

 

This is a developing news story. This post may be updated without warning. 

 

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I'm in Cambodia with plan to return on the 2nd and TP in hand. I was thinking they were unlikely to change things prior to the New Year....!!!

 

 

I am arriving Dec 30. Finished printing everything today Thailand Pass,  Test and Go all paid up.

 

Knew this was going to happen.  I'm just not gonna come to Thailand then - 

 

The government needs to disband the CCSA before they ruin the county

 

 

8 minutes ago, webfact said:

Anutin said that there had been 63 confirmed cases of Omicron among arrivals to Thailand with another 20 cases awaiting confirmation. 

Given how transmissable Omicron is, it sounds like other passengers on the plane would have caught it from these arrivals.

 

Which means it's already here (unless they quarantined the whole plane including the crew).

 

Either way, it seems inevitable that Test & Go will be scrapped within the next few days. I'm glad I didn't go home for Christmas now...

I knew it would happen. That's why I rushed to fly to Thailand one week ago.

11 hours ago, candide said:

I knew it would happen. That's why I rushed to fly to Thailand one week ago.

Smart Move. Trying to make some coin this month have work until Dec 27。Well lets see what the AQ proposal will be for triple vaXxed.

 

I already changed everything from a week or so ago when I learned of the Scoot nonstop SIN-CNX reboot, but I'm pretty much done.

 

If the Govt don't cancel all holiday activities and lock down the entire country again now it will be surely be everywhere .（Probably is already anyway).

 

so much for the benefits of double vaccination + booster.

It will happen but after New Year Celebrations.. Business first and make the people happy

19 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

The government needs to disband the CCSA before they ruin the county

Too Late ????

Experimental jabs and booster...booster...

Testing.....

Positive

False Positive

Negative

False Negative

 

Never Ending Story

Yes open the world 

32 minutes ago, webfact said:

Because of this, a proposal will be put before Thailand’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) later this week that would see the Test & Go scheme scrapped, at least for the immediate future. 

I kinda of had a hunch seeing their new platform makes no mention of it & seems to have gone back to 7 days even for vaccinated?

http://entrythailand.go.th/en/learnmore.php#

 

20 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

I am arriving Dec 30. Finished printing everything today Thailand Pass,  Test and Go all paid up.

 

Knew this was going to happen.  I'm just not gonna come to Thailand then - 

 

The government needs to disband the CCSA before they ruin the county

 

 

it was always a risk this could happen, many on here advised people not to travel to Thailand right now or anywhere for that matter and leave it well into 2022

 

I hope you recover your money if you decide npt to travel 

9 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

It will happen but after New Year Celebrations.. Business first and make the people happy

Hope so and I can sneak in by then. From what I am seeing on the internets already with large scale parties happening  and open bars near everywhere all it will do, to cancel Test and Go is cause more economic self flagellation.

Since March 2020, all the lockdown measures and restrictions have shown that the virus cannot be stopped with the new waves that keep appearing, worldwide. The only thing that has been achieved at best is a time lag. Perhaps a rethink now makes sense and mankind should now - to all appearances - 'sweat out' the milder virus variant. Better to end with horror than horror without end.

They really need to cancel it and cancel all New Years celebrations including closing all bars/entertianment venues.

This is getting more and more stupid as time goes by…

 

When will they realize/accept that this virus can not be beaten? It is already here and spreading.
 

The only way this pandemic could have been stopped would have been ALL countries working together to fight it, which of course did not happen due to stupid selfish world leaders and politically messed up countries.

 

Now it’s too late, so let the virus do it’s job and pray for it to burn out and not mutate into something more deadly. That’s all we can do.

 

 

Flip flop again.  Like beached fish.  There were several posts yesterday describing how Omicron will get into Thailand.  There is a surge in India which will inevitably get into Myanmar, then into Thailand.  And I don't see the knee jerk reaction to stop this flow at the border.  It is most likely already here.  So the only thing to do is to increase vaccination rates for those who want the vaccine.  Further restrictions of entry will only continue damaging our lives and economies.  But blame the farangs like always.  You know all farangs have COVID and now all farangs have Omicron.  I truly wish I could ignore all of this government noise but my curiosity keeps me on this ever changing railway.

6 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

They really need to cancel it and cancel all New Years celebrations including closing all bars/entertianment venues.

For what reason? Omicron spreads too fast and will infect us all anyway at some point. 
 

Restrictions are only delaying it and causing people more pain in other ways. 
 

 

 

16 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

They really need to cancel it and cancel all New Years celebrations including closing all bars/entertianment venues.

Alternatively, people who are scared can stay away from such places and preferably stay at home indoors in their safe space.   I am not aware of a rule/law that states it is compulsory for anyone to attend a bar/restaurant or NYE celebration so I am sure you would be allowed to do this.  No need to destroy other peoples businesses just because some people are scared (again) despite being vaccinated, vaccinated and vaccinated again. 

Boris got busted getting on the <deleted> when everyone else was in hard lockdown.

So let’s make Omicron worse than any other disease even though only a handful of people have died in two months from OMICRON

Anutin has an extra chromosome and is not highly regarded.

 

I would bet that the TAT and Tourism related business will push back pretty hard on this and will be rejected for the moment.

 

Just him announcing this will cost the country millions or dollars.

 

Fail.

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

 

I'm in Cambodia with plan to return on the 2nd and TP in hand. I was thinking they were unlikely to change things prior to the New Year....!!!

 

 

If I were you Sheryl, I would return ASAP.

OK, the Omicron situation is not so bad yet here ( possibly ), but the Omicron variant has displayed its rampant nature already around the Globe, doubling every 2 Days..

For Sure Thailand will get the Omicron Virus Variant, but its a question of how soon it become a real issue here.

Best wishes

1 hour ago, Bvor said:

so much for the benefits of double vaccination + booster.

The booster helps a lot. Why is it so hard to comprehend viruses mutate and vaccinations need to keep up with it. Without vaccines we’d be so much worse off. Give it a few weeks and if people in hard hit countries don’t start dropping like flies then we should just let it spread with adequate protection.

200 years ago, statistically speaking, the average life expectancy was 35.6 years for men and 38.4 years for women.

 

Nature is now fighting back with a little virus. The human being as skin cancer of the earth. Overpopulation, extinction of species, filthy seas, filthy air, deforestation, melting of the polar ice caps, increase in climatic catastrophes

 

The virus will do its job whether the human is vaccinating or isolating. So enjoy every day of life and finally open the damn go-go bars.

Cancelling the test and go program will not only destroy my plan to get back to the family after 2 years away due to covid, but totally destroy thai tourism for  2022 and beyond. It's an absolutely nuts idea. If Thailand is willing to cancel the test and go after a month, it means thailand will never be open as it will be closing every 3-4 months when variants raise their heads.

 

He would be better addressing and publishing who and where these cases are coming from. Is it all migrant workers ? Is is all arrivals from say India with bogus certificates ? Is it us Brits catching it between testing and flying ? Is is a country known for bogus travel info ? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

27 minutes ago, DLock said:

Anutin has an extra chromosome and is not highly regarded.

 

I would bet that the TAT and Tourism related business will push back pretty hard on this and will be rejected for the moment.

 

Just him announcing this will cost the country millions or dollars.

 

Fail.

They don't give a toss as long they can make millions of dollars themselves. The whole planet has been conditioned and geared towards making money from covid, directly or indirectly. A lot of them don't want the gravy train to stop, so we kind of screwed in the foreseeable future.

 

9 minutes ago, Glassjaw said:

The booster helps a lot. Why is it so hard to comprehend viruses mutate and vaccinations need to keep up with it. Without vaccines we’d be so much worse off. Give it a few weeks and if people in hard hit countries don’t start dropping like flies then we should just let it spread with adequate protection.

i was being facetious re A Nuts attitude and do agree with you.

One thing I think he should do is give a guarantee of at least 1 months notice. At least this would give people a chance to reschedule and reapply for thai farce passes. as it is he could be about to cost many people millions of baht in cancellations which will not endure him and thailand to future tourism

1 hour ago, candide said:

I knew it would happen. That's why I rushed to fly to Thailand one week ago.

Yep... same here. I booked my ticket back two days after news of the new variant headlined. I'm back two weeks now. No way... I was getting trapped in depressing UK again.