COVID-19: THAILAND Opening up to the vaccinated – no quarantine

Thailand was little affected when COVID-19 first emerged back in early 2020. But the Delta variant has hit Thailand hard. The government is now working on ways to re-open the country to tourism – which is over 20% of the economy.

Previously

Thailand has been running a trial for fully vaccinated tourist arrivals into Phuket. It is now planning to broaden that initiative to include Bangkok and 9 other regions for fully vaccinated tourists, without a quarantine period. The unvaccinated will still need to quarantine for 10 days (used to be 14). Some destinations like Krabi are open from 1 October – but you will need to serve 7 days in quarantine.

Tourist destinations

After Bangkok, the new destinations as of November 1 include Chiang Mai, Cha-am, Hua Hin, Krabi, Pattaya and Phangnga, with no requirement to quarantine for the fully vaccinated.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

Thailand is averaging around 10,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, although this is now dropping. Vaccination rates are less than 40% but on the rise, with it taking about 23 days to raise that rate by another 10%. Given those figures, maybe I will be comfortable returning to my beloved Thailand in early 2022.

Besides the service and culture which I love – it also is home to some of the best health care facilities in South East Asia. Important if you happen to catch COVID-19.