The UK’s Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, who has introduced a traffic light system on the basis of 14 days quarantine being required from red-lighted countries.

Late on Friday night, it came as a shock to Bangkok to find that Thailand has been excluded from the green list and relegated to the red list of countries. The UK’s new scheme, designed to open up the county to trade and tourism and air travel back into skies, takes effect on July 10th next.

The quarantine being implemented is self-enforced with monitoring by police and health authorities. Travellers from Thailand must quarantine for 14 days when entering the UK. Clarification late on Friday night is disappointing news for Thai authorities as the kingdom, earlier in the week, was green-lighted by the European Union.

From 4 July, Thailand is exempt from the FCO advice against all non-essential international travel. This is based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks.

However, the requirement to self-isolate on return to the UK from Thailand remains in place. See guidance on entering or returning to the UK.

The following advice within Thailand remains in place:

The FCO advise against all but essential travel to areas within the provinces on the Thailand-Malaysia border, including:

• Pattani
• Yala
• Narathiwat
• Southern Songkhla province. This does not include areas north of and including the A43 road between Hat Yai and Sakom, and areas north-west of and including the train line which runs between Hat Yai and Pedang Besar.

The decision appears to have taken no account of Thailand’s exemplary performance in fighting the Covid 19 threat at such a heavy cost to the public and the economy which has been left devastated. Contrary to earlier authoritative reports, it emerged on Friday night that the United Kingdom has red-lighted passengers from Thailand when it comes to an exemption from quarantine on entering that country from July 10th under the UK’s new traffic lights quarantine system.

The decision places Thailand, like much of Asia including China and the United States, in the same boat when it comes to the assessment of risk under the British government’s scheme. There has been a certain amount of confusion and consternation in Bangkok when it became clear late on Friday night that the United Kingdom had failed to give the green light to Thai travellers visiting Britain as part of the UK government’s new approach to health controls in respect of the Covid 19 virus as that country throws open its borders to trade and travel.

 

 

 

 

Source: Thailand is red-lighted in the UK for quarantine purposes alongside Brazil, China and the US, inexplicable move

Full story: https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2020/07/04/thailand-red-lighted-uk-quarantine-purposes-with-asia-china-us/ —

Photo by Ethan Wilkinson on Unsplash

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