Coronavirus: Thailand, Japan cut quarantine for vaccinated travellers

Thailand will halve its quarantine to seven days as it seeks to revive its tourism-dependent economy, while Japan will cut it from 14 to 10 days

Elsewhere, Australian PM Scott Morrison plans to open international border before the end of the year, as New South Wales seeks an end to lockdown

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Health workers stand at the Covid-19 swab test area at the airport after Phuket reopened to vaccinated overseas tourists. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:37pm, 27 Sep 2021Updated: 8:03pm, 27 Sep 2021

Thailand agreed to halve its mandatory quarantine to seven days for fully vaccinated visitors starting next month, and will remove any isolation period for such travellers in 10 key provinces including Bangkok in November to help revive its tourism-dependent economy.

The country’s main Covid-19 task force also approved the reopening of a variety of businesses and services, including theatres, sports venues and nail salons, as of October 1, when a nightly curfew in many parts of the country will be cut by one hour, according to spokesman Taweesilp Visanuyothin. The new curfew hours will be from 10pm to 4am.

The Southeast Asian nation previously delayed and adjusted its tourism-reopening programme several times due to low vaccination rates and concerns that the easing of rules would enable infections and hospitalisation to surge again. The programme began in July in the resort island of Phuket, after a high number of vaccine doses were delivered and administered.

The latest decisions by the virus panel, chaired by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, are part of its “living with Covid” strategy to restart the economy, while maintaining infections at a level that does not overwhelm Thailand’s health care system. The moves come after the pace of inoculations have been ramped up to major population and economic centres, with as many as 1 million doses administered daily in the past week.

Before the pandemic in 2019, Thailand’s tourism sector attracted nearly 40 million visitors annually and generated about US$60 billion per year. Various plans to ease restrictions on both domestic and international travel, as well as an array of businesses have been hampered by vaccine shortages and clusters of infections in markets and factories.

Quarantine days for unvaccinated air travellers cut to 10 days from 14

Coronavirus: Thailand, Japan cut quarantine for vaccinated travellers

Japan to shorten quarantine for vaccinated travellers