Thailand will re-open to some vaxxed tourists next month

Passengers from the list will no longer have to do the mandatory quarantine.

Thailand is set to re-open to fully vaccinated tourists from countries that are deemed 'low risk' next month, the BBC reports. The country's leader confirmed yesterday that Thailand will welcome tourists from a number of countries from 1 November. These include the UK, Singapore, China, Germany and the US. Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha said yesterday that the reopening has been prompted by the country's need to urgently boost the economy. He explained how fully vaccinated tourists from these countries no longer have to quarantine on arrival in the Southeast Asian country. He said: "When they arrive, they should present a [negative] Covid test and test once again upon arrival." He added that once they fulfill the testing requirements, fully vaccinated tourists may then travel freely around the country, just like Thai citizens. However, he stipulated that the Thai government would act quickly should cases of Covid-19 spike, or if a highly contagious variant starts to spread in Thailand. According to the BBC, Thailand lost an estimated $50 billion in tourism revenue during the pandemic, which is its economy's deepest contraction in 20 years. After reporting the first case of Covid-19 outside China in January 2020, Thailand closed its borders. While this devastated its tourism market, the country's stringent measures meant that they kept daily infection rates in single figures. However, infection rates increased following the arrival of the Delta variant to Thailand this year. The kingdom has since seen 1.7 million cases of Covid-19. Since July, it has recorded over 10,000 positive cases on a daily basis. Additionally, the country's roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine has been met with difficulties. Thailand's government was late in ordering vaccines, and now just 33% of the country's 70 million people are fully vaccinated.