For the mandatory Covid-19 tests under the freshly resumed Test & Go program, two bookings for hotel accommodation are needed for visitors of Thailand who arrived by air according to Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.

The revised Test & Go scheme now requires two Covid-19 testings for each visitor, one on the arrival date and another one on the fifth day of the visit.

Travelers are required to show evidence of hotel bookings for the two instances of Covid-9 testing from any of the designated hotels approved by the government with partnerships from hospitals that can do the testing services.

Strict compliance with the disease controls is needed, else the visitor will face legal action, the government official added.

“If they test negative in the first test, they can travel freely until the second test,” Dr Taweesilp said.

The revised Test & Go program is applicable to all visitors from all countries, he added.

In the case that visitor’s Covid-19 insurance is limited and that he or she got infected, all costs will still have to be paid by the visitor including any uninsured costs for treatment at the hospital or quarantine facility and responses by the disease control for high-risk contacts.

The Test & Go program was the most popular way of entering Thailand but was suspended late last month due to the Omicron variant. Travelers are anticipating its resumption and the Thai government heeded the demand with revision as reported above.

It is recorded that around 185,037 visitors had arrived in the kingdom by air from January 1-30, 2022. The majority of the visitors are from Russia, followed by Germans, Americans, and Britons.

For the past month, 22 visitors who used the Test & Go scheme have violated disease controls protocols and most could not be located when their Covid-19 results turned positive.

“Please stay overnight at your hotel and wait for your test results. If there are many tests around the same time, it may take 3-6 hours for the result to come back,” the official added.

The second Covid-19 test on the fifth day as required on the revised Test & Go scheme also allows the authorities to easily locate each visitor.

There are penalties for violation protocols and one of those is a fine of up to 20,000 baht depending on the gravity of the offense. Dr. Taweeslip also said that penalties are harsher in other countries citing an incident in Canada where a violator was fined about 19.6 million baht, and in Hong Kong a provision of jail terms up to six months awaits violators.

Source: Bangkok Post