Thailand restarts quarantine waiver program in February to extend the state of emergency for 2 months

Source: China News Network

Thailand restarts quarantine waiver program in February to extend the state of emergency by 2 months

Bangkok, January 20 (China News Service) -- Thai officials announced on the 20th that they will restart the entry quarantine exemption plan from February 1 and extend the implementation period of the emergency law by 2 months.

A spokesman for the Thailand COVID-19 Management Center (REFERRED TO AS the Epidemic Control Center) said that the meeting of the center hosted by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on the same day discussed the current domestic epidemic situation and made the above decision.

Thailand launched its quarantine-free entry program in November last year, allowing visitors from 63 countries and territories who have completed COVID-19 vaccination to be exempted from mandatory quarantine after entering Thailand by plane. More than a month after the plan was implemented, the Thai government suspended applications for quarantine-free entry from December 22 last year due to concerns about the spread of the new variant, Olmi kerong.

After some recent observations, the Thai government believes that although the Omiljung strain has spread rapidly, the severe disease rate and mortality rate have not increased, so it decided to restart the entry quarantine exemption program.

According to the data, since the implementation of the quarantine-free program, about 390,000 tourists have entered Thailand through this model.

The spokesman said that after the resumption of the quarantine-free program, tourists will be tested once on the first and fifth nights of arrival in Thailand. In addition, the restarted Entry Quarantine Waiver Program is available to visitors from all countries and regions.

The meeting of the epidemic control center on the same day also decided to extend the implementation period of the emergency law that expires at the end of this month for another two months until March 31. This is also the 16th time that the Thai government has extended the implementation period since the first time the emergency law was implemented on March 26, 2020.

On the same day, Thailand announced 8129 new confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia and 19 deaths. So far, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Thailand 2353062, and the cumulative number of deaths is 21,987. (End)