After the four-month long trial run with the Phuket Sandbox, the Thai government has now announced they are ready to ease restrictions on allowing international travellers to enter the kingdom. From the 1st of November 2021, people will be able to enter using one of three distinct schemes. The first one is called “Test & Go” and is for fully vaccinated travellers coming from any of the countries on the approved list. These people only have to book one night in a SHA+ hotel where they must wait for the test results. If this is negative, then the next day they have the freedom of the whole country.
The second scheme is an extended Sandbox. Before, it was just Phuket and Samui, but from the 1st of November, fully vaccinated travellers coming from countries NOT on the list, have the freedom of certain areas in seventeen tourist provinces. All they have to do is remain in their hotel until they get their first test result and then they can go out. After seven days of enjoying the freedom of the Sandbox provinces, they then have to do one final test. If this is then negative too, they can then go anywhere they like in the kingdom.
The third scheme is Alternative Quarantine. Unvaccinated travellers arriving by air must do 10 days quarantine in a hotel and by land they have to do 14 days. In all of the above schemes, the required medical insurance coverage has been reduced from $100,000 to $50,000. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also announced that the present COE scheme will soon be replaced by the Thailand Pass system which they say will be faster and more efficient. I really hope that is true because no real tourists will come to Thailand while there are still many hoops to jump through.
See the
TAT Newsroom press release for full details about the re-opening.