Photo above are flowers on a tree at our homestay Non Na Pua but that has nothing to do with the following. Reading on some social media I see that more and more people are wondering if traveling to Thailand like pre-corona is possible again in 2022. So I will try to help you answering that question. Mind you my ramblings are based on living & traveling in Thailand. And I do not have a crystal ball to see the future and I can not read the mind of the ruling elite controlling Thailand. So this is all my personal opinion based on information available at this moment of 22 April 2022.
It seems that the government of Thailand is working on it to create a situation where they can call the corona-crisis endemic. Whatever that actually means for the government of Thailand. Personally I think this is based on the outlook in Europe and based on the idea that saving the economy of Thailand is more important as the daily people dying of covid. It is a bit like the about 42 people who died per day in traffic in Thailand in the last 108 days. If you are driving a SUV who cares about all the people dying on their scooter?
The current situation is still that the number of new covid-cases is rising. Mind you it looks to me that the number of new covid-cases made public on national level are actually only the new cases confirmed by PCR test, not included the new cases confirmed by ATK test. But example in Nan province they don't do that many PCR tests anymore, but they do ATK tests. In Nan province the rolling 14-days average of new covid-cases is 205 confirmed by PCR test and about 1.186 by ATK test. So the total of new confirmed covid-cases is actually 6 times higher as only the new confirmed covid-cases by PCR test. The number of people dying from (or with) covid is also still rising, on national level about 120 per day. Have a look at Department of Diseases Control.
In Nan province about 1 to 3 per day. OK the average age of people might be higher in Nan province as all the young people are living in big cities like Bangkok, Phuket or Chiang Mai. But there are only about 500.000 people living in Nan province.
So all together personally I do not see any reason to declare the covid-crisis endemic **. But you can not keep the country closed?!?!?
Personally I am living here but if I would be living in Europe I would not go on holiday to a country with such a rising numbers of covid cases and with relatively poor healthcare system.
Travel situation
In the meanwhile restrictions for traveling to Thailand have been eased but you still have to do 1 day/night of quarantine in a SHA Extra+ hotel and one PCR test on arrival. Required insurance has been reduced to 20.000 us$, but you still need approval with the Thailand Pass from your local embassy. And you have to be fully vaccinated.
The only problem I see at this moment is that if you are tested positive on arrival or when you are traveling in Thailand and you are not sick you might still be placed in quarantine. And without being sick your insurance might not cover the costs. Of course some people just say they have some symptoms. So they are considered sick, so their insurance will cover the costs. Not my advice of course!
Nightlife is still far from what is used to be and you still have to wear a face-mask when you are at public places. That means wearing a face-mask when you enter your hotel, when you walk on the street or when you enter the 7-11. But most of shopping mall, restaurants and even massage places are open. That said at the entrance of most restaurants or shops are still temperature checks and alchohol sprays.
On the other hand Songkran as huge water party was this year again more or less cancelled. And any big party needs special permission from the local government. Like wedding parties. That said waterparks with hundreds of people together in the water are open. Also schools are open but closed again when they have a big surge of covid.
Flying and traveling by bus, train, car, motorbike is basically as pre-corona except that you vaccination might be checked, you might be asked to register and you will have to wear a face-mask in the airplane, bus, train or taxi.
Beaches and most other tourist destinations are open, besides that some National Parks close soon due to the raining season.
There might be a thing with some Thai being afraid of foreigners having covid, see my posting Amazing Thailand.
So at the moment the answer to the "Can you travel to Thailand again in 2022" is "Yes you can".
But This Is Thailand what means anything can happen. The Thai government is not really known for carefully planned rules or making plans known before they happen. So it could as well be possible that in June, July or August they will drop all restrictions in regards to covid19. But it could also be possible that they will not drop any of the current restrictions. If you do not like to wear a face-mask or do not like any of the other restrictions. No problem, go on holiday elsewhere. If you think you know it better, also no problem go discuss that to the Thai government.
Update 22 April at 14:16
It seems that the government has made the plan as per 1 May 2022 to ease the travel restrictions even more. Vaccinated travellers can enter Thailand without any test or any quarantine. You will still need an approved Thailand Pass and insurance of 10.000 us$. Within the country covid restrictions stay the same for the moment.
It also seems that the mandatory quarantine for people who get covid but are not sick is also lifted.
COVID19 cases in Nan province
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| COVID19 announcement of Nan province at 21 April 2022 |
Of the 2 people that died :
- Age 87 years, underlying disease and not vaccinated
- Age 50 years, no underlying disease and fully vaccinated (3 shots)
Explanation of infographic :
Left Top = 958 people cleared of COVID with now a total of 39.708 cases of COVID
Left Mid = 2 people died of COVID with now a total of 50 people who died of COVID
Left Under = rolling 14-days daily average of new confirmed COVID cases
- PCR tested = 205
- ATK tested = 1.186
Right Top = Currently 11.052 cases of COVID
- Hospital = 249
- Community Isolation = 85
- Home Isolation = 3.686
- Outpatient = 6.825
- Hospitel = 62
- Field Hospital = 144
- Free beds for red group = 28
- Of all current cases of COVID are
- Green = 10.735 (not really sick)
- Yellow = 312 (mild sick)
- Red = 5 (servere symptoms)
More data about Nan province
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| Official data about Nan province from the Department of Disease Control |
Above infographic above is also from Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) of Thailand but published via de Department of Disease Control. This is the same source where the general covid infographic of all Thailand comes from. This is a snapshot of live information at 22 April 2022 at 7:35am. The data is from 1 January 2022 until 22 April 2022.
I might be stupid but for me those numbers do not add up to the numbers that I did mention before. And it are not minor differences. Blame it on a typo, conspiracy, selective data, errors??
Disclaimer : All information is created in good faith and is an expression of fair comment.
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