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Bloomberg
Thailand will increase a mandatory quarantine period for all arrivals to two weeks in a setback to the country’s previous plans of gradually reopening its borders to foreign visitors.
The Southeast Asian nation reduced the timeframe to seven days for vaccinated tourists and ten days for most others in a bid to boost its tourism sector. But the latest Covid-19 wave, the country’s worst since the pandemic began, has forced the government to reintroduce the restrictions.
All visitors who receive entry permits will be required to undergo the longer isolation, the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration announced after a meeting headed by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha. A mask mandate, a ban on large gatherings will also be enforced nationwide, Taweesilp Visanuyothin, a spokesman for the panel, said.
Thailand has seen total Covid-19 cases more than double since the beginning of April, with the flareup tied to entertainment venues in Bangkok that has since spread to most of the nation’s 77 provinces.
The panel deemed Bangkok and five other provinces at “highest risk†for infections, imposed a ban on dine-in services and added travel restrictions to and from those “hot†regions.