BANGKOK, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Thailand said on Friday that it will further ease entry rules for foreign visitors next month in its latest effort to revive the tourism sector and economy.
Beginning May 1, fully-vaccinated visitors will no longer need to take mandatory COVID-19 tests on arrival, which would be replaced by self-antigen tests, Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesperson of the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), told a news briefing.
Earlier this month, Thailand dropped the requirement for mandatory pre-arrival COVID-19 tests.
Travellers having not been fully-vaccinated would be allowed for quarantine-free entry if they could present proof of a negative RT-PCR test no more than 72 hours before their trip, or they would be quarantined for five days, with one RT-PCR test on day four or five, Taweesin said.
The country will also lower the minimum COVID-19 insurance coverage for all foreign arrivals to 10,000 U.S. dollars, down from the previous requirement of 20,000 U.S. dollars, he said.
The adjustment came as the kingdom stepped up efforts to accelerate its economic recovery from the worst performance in more than two decades.
During the April 1-20 period, 275,559 travelers entered Thailand, according to the CCSA data. That was compared with a total number of 427,869 foreign arrivals last year.
The country's economy expanded 1.6 percent in 2021, rebounding from a 6.2-percent contraction in 2020. The Thai central bank expected the economy to grow 3.2 percent this year.
On Friday, Thailand reported 21,808 new confirmed cases over the past 24 hours and 128 more fatalities, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to more than 4.12 million, and the death toll to 27,520, according to the CCSA. ■
