Thailand to remove entry restrictions from next month
Thailand will end a nationwide state of emergency declared in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak after the Southeast Asian nation downgraded the virus from a “dangerous” communicable disease to one that only requires surveillance, reports The Straits Times.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration has agreed to let a state decree enforcing the emergency to expire on September 30, Deputy Health Minister Sathit Pitutecha told reporters.
The emergency decree, which allowed the government to streamline disease-control plans without multiple approvals from various agencies, had been in place since March 2020.
Thailand has moved to end most pandemic-era restrictions on travel and businesses following a steady decline in new Covid-19 cases and pickup in vaccination rate.
The lifting of controls has helped the tourism-reliant nation to lure back foreign visitors in large numbers in recent months.
Travellers to Thailand will no longer require a proof of vaccination to enter the country from next month, Taweesilp Visanuyothin, a spokesman for the Covid-19 panel, told a briefing on Friday.
Thailand has seen foreign tourist arrivals gather momentum since the scrapping of a pre-arrival registration requirement, Covid-19 testing and insurance in July.
