Updated measures for entering the Kingdom of Thailand announced, starting April 1st

[Eaglekott]

9 hours ago, razino said:

Malaysia - Singapore border open today at midnight, no covid test, no need insurance, but must be fully vaccinated.... vehicle can cross too .... 

Sweden no rules at all, no tests, no quarantines, can even arrive without being vaccinated by land, by air, boat. No restrictions what so ever, well from some countries you need a valid VISA of cause.

[jacko45k]

4 minutes ago, wealthychef said:

You can reduce tourists to zero and covid is still going to rampage through Thailand unabated.

That did not appear to be the case in Australia.....and the reason it currently is here is omicron came in with tourists and locals from overseas. 

Thailand will make its own decisions.....

[Bkk Brian]

10 minutes ago, thasoss said:

too long ago to remember if boosters were given. Quoting the CDC is hardly a good recommendation for making a decision regarding to be vaxxed or not.They sing from the same hymn sheet as WHO.

 

Yea right, Reuters, WHO and CDC all sing from the same tune but your thinking is the correct one even though you admit you can't remember. Sideways comments get you nowhere

[thurien]

16 hours ago, TheScience said:

So, nothing has changed.

 

I said it before. Thailand is utterly confusing it's hopeful tourist base to the point that the only sane thing to do is just wait a year or two unless you have family or are a desperate sex-pest.

 

This tells me that the people controlling the covid money machine simply can't let go. The nation be damned.

the Covid money machine is one thing; the other thing is: The PowersOfTheCountry benefit even more from all this C19 hype, they nourish it! Helps them to control the country in times of uproar, demos; angered,  unsatisfied citizens who openly disagree with persons X Y Z etc.etc.

[Eaglekott]

16 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Should be the opposite.  Testprior to flying if vaccinated and boosted and then no testing on arrival.  It isthe locales who pass on the infections.  I returned from the US 30 days ago and 16 days in I was infected with Covid.  Just now cleared it,

I think the best would to skip PCR totally and just ask people to do an ATK after travel for their own sake.

If they still need one PCR, it would be best to do it in your country of your residency.

If you live in Germany its better to do the test there so you can self isolate at home before travel, and if you live in Thailand the best is to do after arrival so you can self isolate at home with no need of insurance or your self pay 6-7 days isolating in a hotel.

[Misterwhisper]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Travelers must have a fully paid hotel reservation confirmation for the arrival date which must include an RT-PCR test, ATK test kit, and airport pick-up. Thailand Pass must still be completed and approved prior to arrival in Thailand.

And here is the reason why inbound tourism is NOT going to pick up as "predicted" by "experts" in the below post -- no matter how strong or weak the baht is. It's the inconvenience of getting into the country that keeps foreign tourists away. Nothing else.

 

 

[Neeranam]

15 minutes ago, wealthychef said:

A 5 day quarantine in a two week vacation is a big deal.  Anyhow it's fine, glad to know you are unaffected!  I was just sharing my own preference, which you really have no right to quarrel with since they are my own preferences.  

If I were you, I'd consider coming for 3 weeks or more.

[ThailandRyan]

2 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

If I were you, I'd consider coming for 3 weeks or more.

Yet some can not take more than 2 weeks away from their jobs.

[goatfarmer]

9 hours ago, CG1 Blue said:

Perhaps you can explain the purpose of testing tourists on arrival in Thailand when the virus is already circulating across the country?

Arrival tests only have an impact when trying to contain a virus. That ship sailed long ago. Most sensible tourist reliant countries realised this already. 

Indeed, it would appear to be irrational. The marginal benefit of containing a few, arbitrary, cases does not outweigh the harm to the tourist, transport and entertainment industries, not to mention the countless people in the grey economy who depend on them. One might as well test people coming in and out of provinces, or cities, or crossing the road.

[wealthychef]

14 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

That did not appear to be the case in Australia.....and the reason it currently is here is omicron came in with tourists and locals from overseas. 

Thailand will make its own decisions.....

Agreed!  I do not work for nor advise the Thais about their business. If Thailand can stop all tourism, I'm sure it would benefit Thailand.  I hope they succeed!  I'll figure my own business out in the meantime along with everyone else.  I'm just a bit more public about it LOL.  

[Neeranam]

6 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Yet some can not take more than 2 weeks away from their jobs.

They are not the ones complaining; those are the retired guys. 

No Thais I know are complaining, they are all happy with the recent announcement, go figure. 

[Bkk Brian]

1 minute ago, Neeranam said:

They are not the ones complaining; those are the retired guys. 

No Thais I know are complaining, they are all happy with the recent announcement, go figure. 

I live in Phuket as you know tourist reliant and I  can assure you there are plenty of Thai's complaining. 

[Neeranam]

4 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

I live in Phuket as you know tourist reliant and I  can assure you there are plenty of Thai's complaining. 

Of course, there are ones in tourist places complaining for selfish reasons. Most are not. 

[CYCHAN]

No mention about Insurance for Covid and the latest  insured amount ?

[Marco100]

PCR test at arrival what sense  does it make ? Specially  considering that Omicron  in Thailand is at its  peak .

????

[champers]

Less than 100 Covid deaths per day now in Thailand, more than 200 per day in the UK. Both countries have similar populations.

[Bkk Brian]

3 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Of course, there are ones in tourist places complaining for selfish reasons. Most are not. 

Your opinion, not that of those Thai's who have been waiting for over two years to get their livelihoods back on repeated promises from the government of large numbers of incoming tourists coming to save them.

[BayArea]

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

+80,838 new cases a day......

 UK has over 86k positive cases per day in the month of March and they are fully open without restrictions.  

 

Here are some excerpts from the article:

" the health minister has said that the situation is under control and the hospitalization and deaths have been recorded low. "

 

"As per the health ministry, this is due to the fact that the country has inoculated over 98% of its citizens and it is planning to vaccinate teenagers and children."

 

Do you think Thailand can even achieve this goal ? Mind you , Thailand had a head start in vaccinating her people. Viet Nam didn't start mass vaccination until October 2021.

 

[connda]

Travelers no longer have to balance a bowling ball on the tip of their nose while singing John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt 72 hours before arrivals, but will still be required to juggle a water melon, a banana, and a badminton shuttlecock while driving a unicycle and singing Chaat Thai upon arrival.  Failure to successfully accomplish the task will require the traveler to stay one week in substandard confinement with a bunch of sick people at a minimum price of 100,000 THB.

A Tourist Authority of Thailand spox indicated that they expect the relaxation in rules to generate at least 1 trillion THB in the coming year as rich, well-coordinated, Thai-speaking foreigners come flooding into Thailand in 2022 to participate in Temple Tours and socially distanced Ox Plowing ceremonies.

[metisdead]

A post with a link to the Bangkok Post has been removed:

 

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A troll post with misleading information has been reported and removed.

[ozimoron]

10 minutes ago, LukKrueng said:

Actually the pre COVID-19 definition of vaccines was to immune the body against the disease so a vaccinated person would not get infected. When COVID-19 vaccines started to roll out in 2020 they were all measured by the % of infection protection. The % of breakthrough cases compared to all childhood vaccinations is very high. When vaccines manufacturers (and governments) realized it's not all as promised, the definition has changed to say the purpose of the vaccines is to eliminate symptoms so if you're vaxed and still got infected you'll be asymptomatic. Once it was evident that many vaxed people got infected AND symptomatic they changed the story again now saying the severity of the symptoms would be lighter than if not vaxed...

Regardless of any definition you may quote without a link, vaccines have never been claimed to provide 100% sterilizing immunity. Many vaccines, even covid vaccines, go a long way to reducing infections to very low numbers but none are perfect. Some are just better than others. The flu vaccine has been around for many years, long before covid and have never provided 100% sterilizing immunity. You're claim that the definition of a vaccine was changed after covid is misleading because none ever have done so. You claim that "many" have become infected after vaccination is also over egged. The truth is that the definitions were upgraded to reflect reality in the light of modern science while nobody really paid attention to the fit between the definition and the reality in the past. It took a once in 100 years pandemic to bring attention to that.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/11/30/fact-check-merriam-webster-changed-vaccine-definition-accuracy/6354415001/

[Cake Monster]

10 hours ago, candide said:

The perfect trap!

No test before flight then get tested positive at arrival and end up financing hospitals owned by well connected groups.

The latest plan could almost be called " entrapment "

Hit the Tarmac at swampy, test positive and off to a very expensive Hospitel Room for your 2 weeks.

if you are lucky enough to get through Swampy, there is the Bear Pit on Day 5 waiting for the Tourist.

[Harveyboy]

17 hours ago, TheScience said:

So, nothing has changed.

 

I said it before. Thailand is utterly confusing it's hopeful tourist base to the point that the only sane thing to do is just wait a year or two unless you have family or are a desperate sex-pest.

 

This tells me that the people controlling the covid money machine simply can't let go. The nation be damned.

Greed just Greed milk it to the last drop eh

[Harveyboy]

another death blow to tourism....Bye Bye  you couldn't make this S#£t up could you 

[Harveyboy]

1 hour ago, Eaglekott said:

Sweden no rules at all, no tests, no quarantines, can even arrive without being vaccinated by land, by air, boat. No restrictions what so ever, well from some countries you need a valid VISA of cause.

yes that is common sense..but Please remember where we are eh  

[Walker88]

I suppose the entangled pair effect in particle physics is slightly easier to understand that these new rules. If the test sites in Thailand were doing sequencing, it would be easier to understand, as the goal would be to stop the influx of a new variant, but all the after-arrival testing is doing is stating yes-or-no generic Covid.....an infection already quite well represented throughout Thailand.

 

That being said, people are biting the bullet and coming to Thailand. I traveled to my home country for a visit to parents and family, then recently returned. The airport lobby was fairly crowded, though that may be deceptive owing to the fact that all arrivals must wait for their inbound chariot to transport them to a hospital then hotel. Admittedly getting my medulla oblongata tickled after a 24 hour series of flights across 12 time zones isn't my first choice of post-arrival entertainment, but ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or.......quarantine. I could see upwards of 3 million visitors in 2022, though that is still far below 2019's 40 million. Baby steps.

 

Despite the hoops that many countries have long since removed, Thailand is making some progress towards whatever the New Normal will be. Infection numbers are near a peak, and deaths-per-day nearing three figures again, yet when the numbers were similar in the past, dine-in at restaurants was banned or alcohol sales prohibited. Both are now permitted, as well as allowing bars to pretend they are restaurants and thus staying open. That does seem to suggest an evolution toward an 'endemic' realization, and certainly less severe than what the original source of the virus---China---is doing.

[Burma Bill]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

However, the RT-PCR test requirement for the on-arrival date remains unchanged. Travelers must have a fully paid hotel reservation confirmation for the arrival date which must include an RT-PCR test, ATK test kit, and airport pick-up. Thailand Pass must still be completed and approved prior to arrival in Thailand.

Still many BS bureaucratic hurdles to enter Thailand and I am amazed the TAT idiots do not realize this! Cambodia "wins hands down" in attracting many tourists again - all one needs is to be fully vaccinated with proof of this (certificate or vaccination card). Visa on entry - no prearranged "pass".  No COVID-19 insurance (just recommended but not mandatory). 

[malthebluff]

As I write this from my bed in the local lunatic asylum I totally agree with everything the government says and does and my pet talking  cockroach agrees with me. Even Donald trump in the next bed says keep the covid money coming in so the people in  government can get richer and sod the rest of the poor people 

[connda]

2 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

Admittedly getting my medulla oblongata tickled after a 24 hour series of flights across 12 time zones isn't my first choice of post-arrival entertainment, but ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or.......quarantine. I could see upwards of 3 million visitors in 2022, though that is still far below 2019's 40 million. Baby steps.

Mandatory testing in a hospital setting followed by forced incarceration for a minimum of 100K THB should the unlucky, fully vaccinated passenger pop positive for Covid, or worse false positive. 

It will be a long, long time before they willingly give up this testing/hospitalization scheme that generates a ****-ton of revenues for private hospitals.  However, the big Kahunas fail to grasp the opportunity costs of revenue lost to countries with few or no Covid entrance requirement.  They can only see 'right here and right now' and right here and right now is making massive revenues for the private hospital sectors.  But where private hospitals make out like bandits, other segments of the economy continue to fail miserably.

[aussienam]

I will be having to face the Thai entry requirements in a couple of months in a return flight here. 

I will still test myself with an ATK prior to departure so I can postpone the flight if positive (I will try to get a booking where I can change the flight within 24/48 hour notice and if not then will have to accept losing several hundred dollars). 

 

I will do this despite no need now because it is cheaper than being found positive upon arrival and being forced into expensive hospital and hotel quarantine. 

 

But - if I am seated close to another passenger who tests positive, will I be forced into a hospital and then hotel quarantine too? 

 

My insurance will not cover me for hospitalization unless I am ill enough and definitely not hotel quarantine (I have already asked).  

 

Last year I contracted COVID after being infected from a local Thai person I know.  I self quarantined in my home.