Thailand Pass, Covid insurance to end July 1

Thailand Pass registration and compulsory Covid-19 insurance will be lifted for all people arriving in Thailand from July 1, a senior government spokesman said on Friday.

Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said these decisions were made at a meeting of the CCSA on Friday. 

Arrivals will need only show their vaccination certificates or Covid-19 test results.

Without such proof, arrivals will be given random, professional antigen tests at permanent border entry points. Random testing would continue until the government lifts all state-of-emergency measures to deal with Covid-19.

The Thailand Pass registration system will remain in place but be used only for travellers to report suspected symptoms of dangerous and other communicable diseases, as determined by the Public Health Ministry, Dr Taweesilp said.

Foreign nationals will not have to be insured for Covid-19, and thermal scanning will end at border checkpoints, he said.

A certification of fitness for entry, issued by a Thai consulate, will also no longer be required.

At present, visitors are required to have US$10,000 Covid-19 insurance coverage. From July 1, the government will still encourage visitors to have such insurance, the spokesman said.

He said that from June 1-15 there were 348,699 foreign arrivals, the largest numbers were from Malaysia (61,486), India (51,800), Singapore (31,580), Vietnam (18,885) and America (15,708).