News Forum - Updated regulations on Thailand’s quarantine period for international arrivals

[Thaiger]

Starting tomorrow, the mandatory quarantine period for vaccinated travellers entering Thailand will be reduced from 14 days to seven. Those who are either unvaccinated, or who cannot show proof of their vaccination status, face a longer quarantine period of between 10 to 14 days. The mandatory isolation period is waived for vaccinated travellers entering Thailand through the pilot reopening projects on the islands of Phuket and Koh Samui. The government’s Phuket Information Centre recently announced that visitors arriving under the Phuket “Sandbox” project will now only need to stay at a SHA+ hotel for seven days. During that time, they […]

The post Updated regulations on Thailand’s quarantine period for international arrivals appeared first on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

[Bob20]

That's a whole lot of meetings and committees and lunches and dinners to make new rules for those two Indians that are thinking about maybe coming

[Paco]

"now only need to stay at a SHA+ hotel for seven days."

 

Good luck with that

[Griff1315]

So is this only applicable if you fly into Phuket ?

[DoUKnowWhoIAm]

In short, great news for returnees, but won't do any difference for the tourism.

[morgas]

So I am at my 3rd day of 14 as of 30/09 fully vaccinated with all paperwork in order. My thoughts are do I get to have a reduced quarantine time or do they not really care and made no plans for those people like me.

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

25 minutes ago, Paco said:

"now only need to stay at a SHA+ hotel for seven days."

Good luck with that

Yes as the posters have the following statements ……

No Less than Seven Days …

The quarantine period will be determined by the health control officers on arriving in Thailand.

So it could turn out to be longer

[Stonker]

28 minutes ago, Paco said:

"now only need to stay at a SHA+ hotel for seven days."

Good luck with that

Well, it's better than 14 days quarantne - at least for Phuket!

 

27 minutes ago, Griff1315 said:

So is this only applicable if you fly into Phuket ?

It depends if you want to walk around your room or around Phuket.  Close call .....

[Dave.Rakpasa]

Since this announcement was made on the 28th Sep, it means anyone arriving slightly before is in no man's land.

Example:

Arrive 27 Sep, finish 12 Oct

Arrive 1 Oct, finish 8 Oct

Obviously, changing these things with very little notice also requires some consideration of the transition cases.

Yours, frustrated in ASQ

 

[Stonker]

So why do Thai passport holders, arriving from the same places on the same flights, not need a negative PCR test when everyone else does?

Ho hummm .......

[Soidog]

16 minutes ago, morgas said:

So I am at my 3rd day of 14 as of 30/09 fully vaccinated with all paperwork in order. My thoughts are do I get to have a reduced quarantine time or do they not really care and made no plans for those people like me.

I suspect you know Thailand very well and hence your question is rhetorical

[Alavan]

1 hour ago, morgas said:

So I am at my 3rd day of 14 as of 30/09 fully vaccinated with all paperwork in order. My thoughts are do I get to have a reduced quarantine time or do they not really care and made no plans for those people like me.

And if reduced to 7 days, do you get a refund?
I guess not

[Griff1315]

1 minute ago, Alavan said:

And if reduced to 7 days, do you get a refund?
I guess not

Refund 

Sacrilege TIT

[TV7]

 

This COE thing is a no go for the normal tourists. Normal tourists talk to each other during dinner at home and say: "he, lets fly to Phuket for 10 days next week and have some fun..." Reality is that it takes a sh*t load of paperwork to get here. Not interesting for the average tourist. Staying in a SHA+ hotel isn’t the problem; tourists stay in hotels anyways. A mandatory test every 3 days is also not a problem. The - and I repeat myself - COE is. Get rid of that and you will see some spontaneous tourist deciding last minute that Phuket might be an option.

 

[S2k]

5 minutes ago, TV7 said:

This COE thing is a no go for the normal tourists. Normal tourists talk to each other during dinner at home and say: "he, lets fly to Phuket for 10 days next week and have some fun..." Reality is that it takes a sh*t load of paperwork to get here. Not interesting for the average tourist. Staying in a SHA+ hotel isn’t the problem; tourists stay in hotels anyways. A mandatory test every 3 days is also not a problem. The - and I repeat myself - COE is. Get rid of that and you will see some spontaneous tourist deciding last minute that Phuket might be an option.

The COE isn't a problem for me. I more despise the redundant PCR tests. But that still isn't going to stop me from coming.

[Jason]

Did I read that right.... that unvaccinated tourists can enter (as long as they do 10-14 days quarantine??). How?? The basis for every other country in the world is that travellers by plane are all fully vaccinated and PCR tested prior to departure....

[tnes]

I am on my 11th day of quarantine.  I have met the requirements and then some.  I don't want a refund, I want OUT!  What medical sense does it make?  None.  Compliance without consideration makes for very bad policy and law.  Certainly this is not a medical choice and this is what makes people (all people) lack confidence in the policy makers.  Dissappointing....

[Bob20]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

Did I read that right.... that unvaccinated tourists can enter (as long as they do 10-14 days quarantine??). How?? The basis for every other country in the world is that travellers by plane are all fully vaccinated and PCR tested prior to departure....

Yes, you read correctly. Arriving from the US. But on the attached photo it actually says the period of quarantine is at the discretion of a health control officer.

I suspect the unvaccinated may be a good source of income with their 100k insurance if they pick up Delta here, now that there are vacant hospital beds...

[Benroon]

2 hours ago, Griff1315 said:

So is this only applicable if you fly into Phuket ?

and is this only applicable if flying in from US as per flowchart ? And do vaccinated non thai passport holders need to de pre flight PCR test ?! That’s not covered either This also states everywhere ‘for those flying into a sandbox scheme’ - what about those flying into Bangkok ? 

Sloppy - that article raises more questions than answers, just don’t bother reporting these things if it’s all over the place, it would be really good if someone proof read this stuff 

[diegogg]

30 minutes ago, TV7 said:

A mandatory test every 3 days is also not a problem.

You sound like you never took one of these tests. They take the swab to the very top... and you better pray it comes as negative. "Not a problem" ha!

[Benroon]

1 hour ago, DoUKnowWhoIAm said:

In short, great news for returnees, but won't do any difference for the tourism.

I think great is pushing it, COE, quarantine, PCR test and insurance you don’t want ? Just to get home. 

Great ? 

But yep can’t see that doing anything for tourism apart from the octogenarians who have met a 20 year old thats ‘different’

[Benroon]

2 minutes ago, diegogg said:

You sound like you never took one of these tests. They take the swab to the very top... and you better pray it comes as negative. "Not a problem" ha!

and they don’t need to go to the top, they’ve just been badly trained! 

[Benroon]

1 hour ago, Stonker said:

So why do Thai passport holders, arriving from the same places on the same flights, not need a negative PCR test when everyone else does?

Ho hummm .......

Exactly - utterly absurd!

[Manu]

I am in the middle of this paperwork madness as I am coming back next month. Knowing Thailand a little bit now, I knew that they will be announcing changes for October ...the last day of September.

Now what about the PCR tests? For 14 days, we were supposed to book 3 tests (and pay) in advance to be done during this period (thank god I have not yet). No mentioning of tests anymore... Does that mean no more tests during the 7 days?

[Soidog]

1 hour ago, TV7 said:

This COE thing is a no go for the normal tourists. Normal tourists talk to each other during dinner at home and say: "he, lets fly to Phuket for 10 days next week and have some fun..." Reality is that it takes a sh*t load of paperwork to get here. Not interesting for the average tourist. Staying in a SHA+ hotel isn’t the problem; tourists stay in hotels anyways. A mandatory test every 3 days is also not a problem. The - and I repeat myself - COE is. Get rid of that and you will see some spontaneous tourist deciding last minute that Phuket might be an option.

Yes I couldn’t agree more. One of the big attractions for tourists visiting Thailand, is that many countries can essentially walk in the door, get a 30 days stamp and have a great time for 2 to 3 weeks before heading home. Many tourists are put off even by the thought of a visa application which is often very simple. The COE process actually isn’t so difficult (been through it several times for friends returning), it’s more that it’s a two step process. There is a time limit involved which can be amazingly tight if there is a hiccup with your PCR certificate for example. If the did away with the CoE, forget the 45 day TV as thats offering little to the majority of genuine 2 week tourists. Insist on a preflight PCR test and temporarily (and I mean temporarily) add 1,000 baht on arrival (or departure as they use to many years ago (wasn’t a 1,000 but you know what I mean)). A further antigen test performed at the hotel on day 3-5 and job done. People would return in their thousands…… Well not yet as they need to come off the red list from many of the countries who’s people travel to Thailand. It wouldn’t catch every case and no system ever does. But as Covid is already endemic in the population anyway, then it really doesn’t matter. This is about controlling a virus we will all learn to live with, but the Thais are still in this Zero infection mindset.