Bangkok, March 19 (BNA) Health officials said on Friday that visitors who have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) will no longer need to be tested before traveling to Thailand from April 1.
Taweesin Visanuyothin, a spokesperson for the government’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Management, said the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Thailand is keen to restore its lucrative tourism sector, which has seen a sharp decline when most overseas arrivals have dried up since April 2020.
Neighboring Cambodia, whose tourism industry has taken a similar hit, announced on Thursday that fully vaccinated passengers are no longer required to take a pre-arrival RT-PCR test. It also eliminated the need for a rapid antigen test on arrival.
Thai health authorities are currently dealing with record numbers of daily COVID-19 cases and related deaths this year.
More than 50,000 new cases were reported Friday, with just over half confirmed with RT-PCR tests, the rest with rapid antigen tests. There were also 80 new deaths.
Since the epidemic began in 2020, the number of confirmed cases in Thailand has reached nearly 3.3 million and 24,075 deaths.
Health authorities are concerned that the virus may spread next month during the Songkran festival, a raucous holiday that celebrates the Thai New Year.
They have banned the traditional sprinkling of water in the streets and other public places, and they have prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol at public ceremonies.
The main threat from the holiday is mass travel from the cities to the indigenous villages of the rural counties. This practice was a major problem last year, when most Thais had not yet been vaccinated.
Thailand has provided 126 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. At least 54.6 million people, more than 78% of the population, have been vaccinated with at least one dose. Fifty million people received at least two capsules, and 22 million received booster doses.
AOQ