Coronavirus: Thailand ends quarantine for vaccinated visitors from China, US, Singapore, others From Monday, fully-inoculated travellers will be able to freely tour Thai beaches, temples and tropical islands after testing negative for Covid-19 on arrival. Elsewhere, Singapore is boosting the number of ICU beds, while hundreds of workers at seafood firms in south Vietnam have tested positive for Covid-19
Thailand is ending quarantine for vaccinated visitors from more than 60 countries including China, India, Japan, Singapore and the US, in the biggest reopening gamble in Asia and one that could mark a turning point for the revival of mass tourism during the pandemic. From Monday, fully-vaccinated travellers will be able to freely tour Thailand’s sandy beaches, temples and tropical islands after testing negative for Covid-19 on arrival.
Inoculated visitors from countries not on the list can travel to Bangkok and 16 other regions, but they will be confined to their initial destination for the first seven days before being allowed to travel elsewhere.
It is the biggest step Thailand has taken to welcome back a slice of the nearly 40 million visitors it hosted the year before the pandemic, and is billed as a “fight to win foreign tourists” as countries from Australia to the UK also loosen Covid-19 curbs.A successful Thai experiment could help salvage its battered economy and serve as a model for countries wary of a virus resurgence from reopenings.To boost the confidence of tourists and the public, Thailand is linking the reopening to a higher vaccination rate, which “is a measured approach that has a lot of logic to it”, according to Amar Lalvani, chairman of US boutique hotel operator Standard International.
Meanwhile in Australia, the government will from November 21 allow fully vaccinated travellers from Singapore to travel to the country without quarantine, starting with New South Wales and Victoria, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported on Sunday.It will be up to the other Australian states and territories to decide if they similarly want to accept vaccinated travellers without the need for 14 days of hotel quarantine, according to the report.The decision follows an announcement by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) earlier this week on extending the vaccinated travel lane to Australia and Switzerland, which will allow vaccinated travellers from both countries to enter Singapore without the need for quarantine from November 8.
Singapore Transport Minister S Iswaran called it a “significant move”.
“Families and loved ones can reunite, students can resume their studies, and businesspeople and tourists can once again travel,” Iswaran said in a Facebook post on Sunday.Singapore is increasing the number of hospital beds in intensive care units as serious Covid-19 infections in the current outbreak remain at an elevated level.Authorities will set up 280 ICU beds this week, up from about 200 now, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in a Facebook post on Sunday. About 70 per cent of Singapore’s ICU beds are occupied, he said.“Our hospital capacity is dynamic – we step them up as the number of cases that require acute or ICU care goes up, and vice versa,” Ong said. “But with each increase, health care workers will come under even greater strain. There is a human limit.” Singapore is trying to ease the strain on the health care system by maintaining domestic restrictions at least until late November, including limiting social gatherings to two people.Janil Puthucheary, senior minister of state at the health ministry, will give an update in Parliament on Monday on the ICU situation and hospital capacity. He will also explain the possible course of action and the trade-offs Singapore is facing, Ong said.Singapore has one of the highest inoculation rates in the world, allowing its government to open borders up with vaccinated travel lanes including to parts of Europe, Australia, Canada and the US.
