News Forum - Government to discuss delaying resumption of Test & Go until end of January

[Thaiger]

Following an inevitable rise in cases of the Omicron variant in Thailand, the government will discuss postponing the resumption of the Test & Go entry scheme. Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul says that the scheme was originally suspended due to concern over mounting Omicron infections globally. However, imported Omicron cases have now been detected in people arriving through Test & Go. “In the interests of health and safety, we have decided to delay the Test & Go scheme further. We will present the proposal for approval by the CCSA.” The Bangkok Post reports that travellers whose Thailand Pass applications have […]

The story Government to discuss delaying resumption of Test & Go until end of January as seen on Thaiger News.

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[think-and-ask]

1. corrupt governments ( politics, experts in health institution, etc. ) and
corrupt vaccine companies ( pfizer, astra johnson, sinovac etc. ) by
corrupt news /press, on t.v. ( tell e vision ) say what helps, as by
corrupt google company ( searching information ) ? nice that they care. :)

this is why most people are healthy, educated and happy or not ?

2. winter-sick people, lockdown-sick people,
news-scared people and over-protecting people,
in hospitals etc., are not corona-virus-sick people.
maybe some people have forgotten in stressful times.

and positive-tested people are not all sick. so have a nice day. :)

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by think-and-ask

[ace035]

Bunch of lies from the Thai government, end of January means another extension until end of May.

[Todd]

At least they should revise the name to convey what it really entails: "Go and Test"

[PJK]

This constant on & off regarding tourism is not tenable to the average traveler. Will be years before trust is regained in the tourism sector.  Test on arrival is a crap shoot that until rescinded, will kill the ability of the average tourist to book a trip. 

[Cabra]

18 hours ago, ace035 said:

Bunch of lies from the Thai government, end of January means another extension until end of May.

The statement there are no plans to resume test and go under the current circumstances is probably the most honest thing they have said in months... Seeing as the current circumstances and associated hysteria are just now getting started, May is probably a long shot.

[JohnnyP]

From the article "Travellers who have already been approved for the Thailand Pass through Test & Go must enter the country by January 10. "

Why write this? It's being decided on Friday.

[Pauly]

So they should be be they demand expats in jump on through so many in hoops to get the Thai Pass then close the door.

The number of COVID cases based on Thailand's population is bugger all of FGS

[Attaboy]

Government should consider maximum of 1 night ASQ quarantine for foreigners employed in Thailand when they return from year end vacation from their home country in January 2022. Most of them are caught by surprise and any extended quarantine could disrupt their work. 

Kalai

[BlueEyeSamurai]

Why do you insist on promoting the idea of a January 10 cut-off date?  It was incorrect last time you promoted it. How about news and not rumors?

[SkylineGTR82]

In the meantime I am happy to have made the decision two days ago to completely cancel my trip for January 23rd. This is one big mess what Thailand and the government is doing there. The next opportunity to travel to Thailand again and to visit my friends, I think, will only be available again at the end of the year. How things will look like with the Thai economy by then is extremely questionable.

[Leeshard]

From the UK’s Daily Telegraph today:

“The (UK) Prime Minister lifted all travel restrictions introduced to combat the spread of the omicron variant, meaning fully vaccinated holidaymakers will only take a lateral flow tests on their return to Britain. Omicron is now so prevalent that these restrictions are no longer serving their purpose.” So Thailand will have its Omicron wave and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Compulsive quarantine on incoming travelers is now quite pointless and will continue to harm the economy and destroy jobs for no purpose whatsoever. 

 

 

[Busqueezo]

So, having arrived Jan 1 and undergoing the pcr test at the Novotel same day, I then traveled home to Chiang Mai Jan 2 after test was negative.  On Jan 6 I went to Lanna Hospital Chiang Mai for the follow up mandatory Thai Govt required 2nd pcr test.  I arrived at Govt authorized Lanna Hospital at about 7am.  There were 300 people waiting in complete disarray as no instructions were provided as to where the front of the queue line started.  A complete cluster XXck.  Also, Lanna Hospital was requiring a 200 Baht payment for each test.  Free as stated by Thai Govt?  Not at Lanna Hospital.  Then drove to San Sai Hospital:  20 people in line for pcr test; took 1/2 hour and was tested painlessly.  Nope, no 200 Baht surcharge either.  WTF over?

[JamesR]

6 hours ago, Busqueezo said:

So, having arrived Jan 1 and undergoing the pcr test at the Novotel same day, I then traveled home to Chiang Mai Jan 2 after test was negative.  On Jan 6 I went to Lanna Hospital Chiang Mai for the follow up mandatory Thai Govt required 2nd pcr test.  I arrived at Govt authorized Lanna Hospital at about 7am.  There were 300 people waiting in complete disarray as no instructions were provided as to where the front of the queue line started.  A complete cluster XXck.  Also, Lanna Hospital was requiring a 200 Baht payment for each test.  Free as stated by Thai Govt?  Not at Lanna Hospital.  Then drove to San Sai Hospital:  20 people in line for pcr test; took 1/2 hour and was tested painlessly.  Nope, no 200 Baht surcharge either.  WTF over?

That is a bit like going to Italy and complaining that the Italians eat spagetti.

You are in Thailand and you expect things to go as (un)planned? 

[JamesR]

9 hours ago, Leeshard said:

From the UK’s Daily Telegraph today:

“The (UK) Prime Minister lifted all travel restrictions introduced to combat the spread of the omicron variant, meaning fully vaccinated holidaymakers will only take a lateral flow tests on their return to Britain. Omicron is now so prevalent that these restrictions are no longer serving their purpose.” So Thailand will have its Omicron wave and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Compulsive quarantine on incoming travelers is now quite pointless and will continue to harm the economy and destroy jobs for no purpose whatsoever. 

Taking into account the vast majority of people over the age of 12 in the UK have had two vaccinations and more than 50% of people over the age of 12 have had three vaccinations you can not compare the few people in Thailand who are not in the same situation.

More than 80% of people in Thailand are not involved in the tourist industry and wish to keep the door shut for now until they are vaccinated. 

[Leeshard]

1 hour ago, JamesR said:

Taking into account the vast majority of people over the age of 12 in the UK have had two vaccinations and more than 50% of people over the age of 12 have had three vaccinations you can not compare the few people in Thailand who are not in the same situation.

More than 80% of people in Thailand are not involved in the tourist industry and wish to keep the door shut for now until they are vaccinated. 

A very brief Google search elicits this information:

Thailand has administered at least 102,681,943 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 73.7% of the country’s population.

That statistic alone invalidates your point.
Furthermore Thailand’s Test and Go scheme ensured that only fully vaccinated visitors entered the country with a negative PCR test before flying and another on arrival. Therefore these visitors were no danger to Thailand. The Thai hotel industry report 60% cancellations since T & G was suspended and they’re now looking down the barrel at less than 10% occupancy with the billions of baht losses that they continue to accrue. When will this idiocy stop.

 

[JamesR]

8 minutes ago, Leeshard said:

A very brief Google search elicits this information:

Thailand has administered at least 102,681,943 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 73.7% of the country’s population.

That statistic alone invalidates your point.
Furthermore Thailand’s Test and Go scheme ensured that only fully vaccinated visitors entered the country with a negative PCR test before flying and another on arrival. Therefore these visitors were no danger to Thailand. The Thai hotel industry report 60% cancellations since T & G was suspended and they’re now looking down the barrel at less than 10% occupancy with the billions of baht losses that they continue to accrue. When will this idiocy stop.

It has been shown that Sinovac is almost useless and two vaccines of any mix are not enough, you need three doses of a 'good' vaccine.

Why is Thailand so mad when it comes to tourism, the UK normally has 40 millions tourists a year for example as do many other countries but they know tourism is dead at the moment.

Why is Thailand always trying to flog a dead donkey?

I should correct myself, the Thai people I know are not in the tourism business as is the case for most Thais, when I phone them they never mention the lack of tourists, it seems to be farangs moaning on and on about it on such forums as this. 

[JJJ]

27 minutes ago, Leeshard said:

A very brief Google search elicits this information:

Thailand has administered at least 102,681,943 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 73.7% of the country’s population.

That statistic alone invalidates your point.
Furthermore Thailand’s Test and Go scheme ensured that only fully vaccinated visitors entered the country with a negative PCR test before flying and another on arrival. Therefore these visitors were no danger to Thailand. The Thai hotel industry report 60% cancellations since T & G was suspended and they’re now looking down the barrel at less than 10% occupancy with the billions of baht losses that they continue to accrue. When will this idiocy stop.

Not to mention collectively tourist industry businesses just spent billions of baht to restart their business for the high season that lasted 1 month. To the government, shutting other people’s business costs them nothing when they do nothing to support.

But it doesn’t matter anyway because the next lockdown is coming anyway so tourists better off not being here. 
 

And to the argument that 80% of the people aren’t in tourist industry is a red herring. Not even accurate. The baht was worst performing Asian currency last year. Everyone is poorer now because of the government policies. 

[JamesR]

19 minutes ago, JJJ said:

Not to mention collectively tourist industry businesses just spent billions of baht to restart their business for the high season that lasted 1 month. To the government, shutting other people’s business costs them nothing when they do nothing to support.

But it doesn’t matter anyway because the next lockdown is coming anyway so tourists better off not being here. 
 

And to the argument that 80% of the people aren’t in tourist industry is a red herring. Not even accurate. The baht was worst performing Asian currency last year. Everyone is poorer now because of the government policies. 

"Not to mention collectively tourist industry businesses just spent billions of baht to restart their business for the high season that lasted 1 month."

That was a bit dim of them, we all knew the virus was not over and would not be for quite a while yet.

"The baht was worst performing Asian currency last year. Everyone is poorer now because of the government policies. "

True, they are a bunch of wallies but very little to do with the tourism industry, it is only 20% of GDP.

"But it doesn’t matter anyway because the next lockdown is coming anyway so tourists better off not being here. "

We all know that is a strong possibility that is why we have put our visits off to Thailand and other countries for the last year or more.

Thailand and other destinations can open up as often as they like but we the hundreds of millions of  visitors do not want to risk going yet.

[DrPattaya]

Here is a nice video from the warm welcome on Phuket

 

 

[Marc26]

3 hours ago, DrPattaya said:

Here is a nice video from the warm welcome on Phuket

Looked horrendous 

 

On his Instagram he ended up being isolated at a hotel

But I couldn't find how long he had to stay at that prison like hospital 

 

But if you watch the video, the guy had no paperwork, no contact # or anything 

He just kept saying he didn't want to go

 

I'm not saying this would guarantee work in my favor

But when we go to Thailand 

I will have correspondence from the hotel I book of exactly what hospital I would be sent to 

(We booked Sofitel BKK for Jan 20 and I have emails of them confirming you would he sent to Bumrungard if you had to go to hospital)..

 

I would print put the AXA FAQ section where it says a doctor has to "prescribe" your hospital quarantine for them to cover it 

 

It's horrible where they sent him

But you have to also be very prepared to have info to fight such things as well

Not just "I don't want to go "