News Forum - Thai officials to review list of low risk countries, possibly ban travellers from high risk

[Guest1]

16 minutes ago, NMax said:

 Do you think more restrictions will come into play by the thai government that will not make me travel???  

my guess: More restrictions, YES! But more than Sandbox, for Phuket, ....? Na, not so quickly!

[Cathat]

3 hours ago, Rangers said:

What happens if they ban people from the UK and I'm already on a flight to Phuket tomorrow? 

If you were on a flight that originated in the UK flying direct to phuket non stop and a ban was announced while you were en route one of the following would probably happen.

1/If the aircraft was still close enough to return to the UK they would file a new airborne flight plan and you would return to the uk.

2/if you were beyond the point of non stop return the aircraft would probably make an en route technical stop at the nearest suitable airport,refuel and then return to the UK.long range flights are carrying extra crew at present and flight time limitations would not be a major factor.

If you were close by phuket and no quartine free diversion destination were available it's likely you would continue to Phuket,be quarantined then returned to the UK at a later date.

If you were on a flight via another country perhaps Emirates via Dubai the aircraft would probably continue to final destination and you would then be quarantined and probably returned to your point of origin at the airlines expense. in this case emirates would be responsible for removing you back to Dubai then the UK.

The airlines operations department can easily contact a long range aircraft 1000s of miles away from base instantly so the crew will have a good idea what's going on real time.

Countries are generally giving a few days notice prior to issuing travel bans to stop this sort of situation developing.

 

[Rangers]

29 minutes ago, Cathat said:

If you were on a flight that originated in the UK flying direct to phuket non stop and a ban was announced while you were en route one of the following would probably happen.

1/If the aircraft was still close enough to return to the UK they would file a new airborne flight plan and you would return to the uk.

2/if you were beyond the point of non stop return the aircraft would probably make an en route technical stop at the nearest suitable airport,refuel and then return to the UK.long range flights are carrying extra crew at present and flight time limitations would not be a major factor.

If you were close by phuket and no quartine free diversion destination were available it's likely you would continue to Phuket,be quarantined then returned to the UK at a later date.

If you were on a flight via another country perhaps Emirates via Dubai the aircraft would probably continue to final destination and you would then be quarantined and probably returned to your point of origin at the airlines expense. in this case emirates would be responsible for removing you back to Dubai then the UK.

The airlines operations department can easily contact a long range aircraft 1000s of miles away from base instantly so the crew will have a good idea what's going on real time.

Countries are generally giving a few days notice prior to issuing travel bans to stop this sort of situation developing.

Thanks mate. Hopefully won't come to that, i fly tomorrow. But I appreciate all that info, cheers. 

[Lawyers_Guns_and_Money]

1 hour ago, NMax said:

planning on going to thailand on the 11th of January 2022 from the UK. We were thinking about getting our flights ready for 26th December 2021. Do you think more restrictions will come into play by the thai government that will not make me travel???  

Yes...maybe no

[ace035]

I doubt Philippines not included in the high risk countries since we only have 3 cases of Omicron variant.

[JohninDublin]

7 hours ago, Rangers said:

What happens if they ban people from the UK and I'm already on a flight to Phuket tomorrow?  

Where I've seen bans introduced in other countries, the country of arrival gives two or three days notice. I presume you are in the UK. Check the Foreign Office website, which is updated very rapidly with relevant details like that.

Just to add my own experience, I was due to fly to Phils for a family wedding April last year due to arrive on April 15th. Two days before, I was notified by my sister who was already out there, that arrivals after Midnight on April 15 from infected countries would be refused entry unless they were a Filipino, or married to same.

I checked the Irish Foreign Office website as well as CNN Asia where this was confirmed.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/thailand

[Rangers]

31 minutes ago, JohninDublin said:

Where I've seen bans introduced in other countries, the country of arrival gives two or three days notice. I presume you are in the UK. Check the Foreign Office website, which is updated very rapidly with relevant details like that.

Just to add my own experience, I was due to fly to Phils for a family wedding April last year due to arrive on April 15th. Two days before, I was notified by my sister who was already out there, that arrivals after Midnight on April 15 from infected countries would be refused entry unless they were a Filipino, or married to same.

I checked the Irish Foreign Office website as well as CNN Asia where this was confirmed.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/thailand

What a nightmare. 

OK cheers mate I'll keep checking that, hopefully be ok but can't help worrying now. The trip has been cancelled 3 times already, and now this. 

[JohninDublin]

17 minutes ago, Rangers said:

What a nightmare. 

OK cheers mate I'll keep checking that, hopefully be ok but can't help worrying now. The trip has been cancelled 3 times already, and now this. 

I'm booked to arrive Jan 2nd. My fear is not so much that I can't land, but that I do land and the bars are then closed.

[CCM]

You get at pcr test prior to arrival and another upon arrival in Bangkok.   If negative, what is the problem?  What's the point of a week of quarantine upon arrival for those who test negative. There is also an antigen self test 5 days later.   The current protocols are sufficient.  But if they need to do something, perhaps discriminate between those from high & low risk countries and those with 2 & 3 doses of mRNA vaccine?

[Rangers]

26 minutes ago, JohninDublin said:

I'm booked to arrive Jan 2nd. My fear is not so much that I can't land, but that I do land and the bars are then closed.

Yeh that's also a worry. If I can't get my Chang and Sangsom chaser I might develop a huff. Hopefully it all goes to plan though, have a good trip when it comes mate. 

[la-resistance]

9 hours ago, Bob said:

Give over. High risk due to more testing. These” lesser savage cultures” don’t have it reasonably managed. They don’t test and don’t tell the truth. Don’t tell me a country like Thailand roughly the same population as the U.K. only as 3000 cases per day. Give your head a shake 

Exactly. It's like comparing apples and bananas. I'm from Denmark and just in the nordic countries there are huge difference in testing strategy. Norway and Denmark have almost same population 5.5 mill and Sweden around 10 mill.

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by la-resistance

[cockneyboy]

7 hours ago, Cathat said:

If you were on a flight that originated in the UK flying direct to phuket non stop and a ban was announced while you were en route one of the following would probably happen.

1/If the aircraft was still close enough to return to the UK they would file a new airborne flight plan and you would return to the uk.

2/if you were beyond the point of non stop return the aircraft would probably make an en route technical stop at the nearest suitable airport,refuel and then return to the UK.long range flights are carrying extra crew at present and flight time limitations would not be a major factor.

If you were close by phuket and no quartine free diversion destination were available it's likely you would continue to Phuket,be quarantined then returned to the UK at a later date.

If you were on a flight via another country perhaps Emirates via Dubai the aircraft would probably continue to final destination and you would then be quarantined and probably returned to your point of origin at the airlines expense. in this case emirates would be responsible for removing you back to Dubai then the UK.

The airlines operations department can easily contact a long range aircraft 1000s of miles away from base instantly so the crew will have a good idea what's going on real time.

Countries are generally giving a few days notice prior to issuing travel bans to stop this sort of situation developing.

some work of pure imagination in that post

[Abertillery]

A ban will come for UK,100,000 infections a day and rising ,the door will inevitably close

[steve860]

10 hours ago, Flotown said:

im flying this Friday and feel like its not going to happen..

It'll happen mate, take it easy!

[AussieBob]

13 hours ago, Stonker said:

Why?

That isn't the case in any other country, where the cut off date is the cut off regardless of any previous arrangements.

Stonker - I have to call you out on this issue mate.  On one hand you tell people (me and others) that TiT and if you dont like it you should leave/stay away - it is their country - etc etc etc. And then you say that the rules in other countries are that way, so why should Thailand not also apply them the same way.  Some would say that is disingenuous, and some would say it is duplicitous, but I think all would say it is very inconsistent.  

Having said that - I agree with you on this one - if they drop test and go - then it stops. If you are arrive after that date/time, then you must change to one of the quarantine options.  Perhaps they could say it will stop at midnight on xyz date - allowing people time to cancel or to arrive.  But will they = maybe - maybe not. 

[JohninDublin]

15 hours ago, ace035 said:

I doubt Philippines not included in the high risk countries since we only have 3 cases of Omicron variant.

https://nitrocdn.com/TXGnHSzgVtmHZyFcCTmqtXBgbiQqZwCm/assets/static/optimized/rev-998eff3/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/63-low-risk-countries.jpg

If the UK can make that list, then anyone should be able to.

[Tada]

21 hours ago, Rain said:

And both have been high risk from the start, stemming from their societal mismanagement of the Covid Era.

All the while, continue to point fingers at the savage lesser than cultures, who've had it reasonably managed for some time. 

The irony.

I wouldn’t call extreme levels of testing to be mismanagement or irony within Europe or USA. The fact that Thailand and a number of other SE Asia countries were found to be wanting in the areas of genomic sequencing and testing,  therefore their numbers present a skewed  view of the situation not better management of Covid.

[Stonker]

10 hours ago, AussieBob said:

Stonker - I have to call you out on this issue mate.  On one hand you tell people (me and others) that TiT and if you dont like it you should leave/stay away - it is their country - etc etc etc. And then you say that the rules in other countries are that way, so why should Thailand not also apply them the same way.  Some would say that is disingenuous, and some would say it is duplicitous, but I think all would say it is very inconsistent.

Except that wasn't what I said as you seem to have overlooked the quote.

I was replying to the point I quoted, namely:

"Surely it will have to be for people applying for entry from the time of new rules 

Travellers with a already authourised thai pass who are already or about to travel must be allowed under old rules which are more than enough to catch 99% of cases!"

First I asked "why" since I can't think of any reason why Thailand would do that as there's no rational reason to, although they now apparently have.

Then I observed that "That isn't the case in any other country, where the cut off date is the cut off regardless of any previous arrangements" not because "why should Thailand not also apply them the same way", although that seems a perfectly reasonable thing to ask, but because of the hypocrisy of expecting Thailand to do something that their own countries haven't just to suit some tourists.

If you think that's somehow "disingenuous" / "duplicitous" or "very inconsistent" then you've simply mis-read what I wrote and, if it wasn't clear enough the first time, was made clear in my next post a few minutes later ("Why should Thailand be the only country that feels sorry for tourists who are chancing their luck?") and, if there was still any doubt, the one after that ("Well, that's how it is everywhere.  Why should you expect Thailand to be different?").

 

[AussieBob]

56 minutes ago, Stonker said:

Except that wasn't what I said as you seem to have overlooked the quote.

I was replying to the point I quoted, namely:

"Surely it will have to be for people applying for entry from the time of new rules 

Travellers with a already authourised thai pass who are already or about to travel must be allowed under old rules which are more than enough to catch 99% of cases!"

First I asked "why" since I can't think of any reason why Thailand would do that as there's no rational reason to, although they now apparently have.

Then I observed that "That isn't the case in any other country, where the cut off date is the cut off regardless of any previous arrangements" not because "why should Thailand not also apply them the same way", although that seems a perfectly reasonable thing to ask, but because of the hypocrisy of expecting Thailand to do something that their own countries haven't just to suit some tourists.

If you think that's somehow "disingenuous" / "duplicitous" or "very inconsistent" then you've simply mis-read what I wrote and, if it wasn't clear enough the first time, was made clear in my next post a few minutes later ("Why should Thailand be the only country that feels sorry for tourists who are chancing their luck?") and, if there was still any doubt, the one after that ("Well, that's how it is everywhere.  Why should you expect Thailand to be different?").

See my last post in another thread:

 

[Josh_the_bosh]

On 12/20/2021 at 7:30 PM, Bob said:

Give over. High risk due to more testing. These” lesser savage cultures” don’t have it reasonably managed. They don’t test and don’t tell the truth. Don’t tell me a country like Thailand roughly the same population as the U.K. only as 3000 cases per day. Give your head a shake 

Not really a fair statement mate, when you clearly don't understand the situation nor context, so please allow me to shed some light. Even in these "lesser savage cultures", mask wearing is still the norm, and enforced in most establishments, so that does help curb the spread of the cases somewhat, while in the UK/US, you guys are so busy trying to exercise your basic human rights to choose not to wear masks or practice social distancing, hence the explosion of cases. I'm not speculating, I actually do know people working as frontliners, and that's what they say.

On the other hand, the lack of healthcare sponsorships by the govt in these "lesser" countries also mean most of the low-income people are actually really, really afraid of going to the hospital, either for fear of being ostracized for being a covid carrier, or slapped with medical bills they can't afford, or both. So yes, while there is active testing and reporting, since a lot of the people who probably have covid, don't have access to free healthcare or even tests like you guys do, nor have basic health insurance, they just ride it out at home and pray for the best. Ironically, a lot of the reported cases are from the high-society community party clusters, or tourists.

[mcambl61]

21 hours ago, Josh_the_bosh said:

Not really a fair statement mate, when you clearly don't understand the situation nor context, so please allow me to shed some light. Even in these "lesser savage cultures", mask wearing is still the norm, and enforced in most establishments, so that does help curb the spread of the cases somewhat, while in the UK/US, you guys are so busy trying to exercise your basic human rights to choose not to wear masks or practice social distancing, hence the explosion of cases. I'm not speculating, I actually do know people working as frontliners, and that's what they say.

On the other hand, the lack of healthcare sponsorships by the govt in these "lesser" countries also mean most of the low-income people are actually really, really afraid of going to the hospital, either for fear of being ostracized for being a covid carrier, or slapped with medical bills they can't afford, or both. So yes, while there is active testing and reporting, since a lot of the people who probably have covid, don't have access to free healthcare or even tests like you guys do, nor have basic health insurance, they just ride it out at home and pray for the best. Ironically, a lot of the reported cases are from the high-society community party clusters, or tourists.

Masks do not stop or reduce the spread. 

 

There is no legitimate evidence of this being true.  The one people keep referring to in Bangladesh does not pass the smell test. 

 

 

 

[HiuMak]

On 12/20/2021 at 6:37 PM, Thaiger said:

In addition to discussing whether to cancel the Test & Go quarantine exemption scheme due to the uptick in Omicron cases, the Thai government will also review its list of countries considered to be at low risk for Covid-19 and consider whether to ban travellers from high risk countries. Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told Thai media today that the ministry will make a proposal to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration to cancel the Test & Go entry scheme, which allows vaccinated travellers from approved countries to enter Thailand, with just a minimal isolation period upon arrival while they […]

The story Thai officials to review list of low risk countries, possibly ban travellers from high risk as seen on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

Well I guess their assessment of high risks countries will be based on a wacky basis again that will not make cow sense

[BlueSphinx]

21 hours ago, Josh_the_bosh said:

... Even in these "lesser savage cultures", mask wearing is still the norm, and enforced in most establishments, so that does help curb the spread of the cases somewhat, while in the UK/US, you guys are so busy trying to exercise your basic human rights to choose not to wear masks or practice social distancing, hence the explosion of cases.

...

 

FYI > 167 comparative studies and pieces of evidence on COVID-19 masks and mask mandates that has been very clear for 20 months now: COVID face masks (blue surgical and cloth masks) are largely ineffective and even harmful.

> https://brownstone.org/articles/more-than-150-comparative-studies-and-articles-on-mask-ineffectiveness-and-harms/