Phuket is getting ready to receive its first group of tourists from China who are expected to arrive next week under the Special Tourist Visa (STV) scheme.

In the initial stage of reopening, the first flight on Oct 8 is expected to carry 120 tourists from Guangzhou.

The visitors will stay in alternative state quarantine for 14 days.

Phuket governor Narong Woonsiew said on Tuesday that all authorities concerned are ready to welcome the visitors with Covid-19 labs, supplied by the Department of Communicable Disease Control, now installed at Phuket airport. He said agencies concerned will meet today to rehearse all the procedures.

Phuket has 1,222 rooms from nine hotels having passed inspection and selected as alternative state quarantine venues.

A total of 73 hotels with more than 5,800 rooms have applied to be alternative quarantine facilities.

About 5,000 rooms would then be needed to accommodate the tourists under the STV scheme, in which the number of tourists is limited at 100 per flight, with no more than three flights per week, an official said.



Passengers who do not pass health screening will be sent to hospitals. Visitors will also be tested in quarantine.

The head of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration's (CCSA) panel on the easing of Covid-19 restrictions said on Tuesday the STV scheme will first be introduced on the resort islands of Phuket and Samui.

He said the first group of foreign arrivals is considered a low-risk group because there have been no new Covid-19 cases in Guangzhou for an extended period.