Filipinos now allowed a quarantine-free trip to Thailand

Have you been waiting to travel to Thailand? Here's good news! The Southeast Asian nation is now accepting more travelers, and Philippine residents are exempted from quarantine!

On Monday, November 1, Thailand officially announced that it is once again ready to welcome more travelers and with fewer quarantine restrictions. 

According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Philippines is among the approved 63 countries and territories that are no longer required to undergo quarantine, through the 'Test and Go' scheme.

The tourist must be fully vaccinated, traveling only by air, and must have stayed in the Philippines in the last 21 days or longer. Tourists who are under the age of 12 are exempt from the vaccination requirement as long as they’re accompanied by fully-vaccinated parents or guardians.

Travelers are still required to present a couple of basic requirements, as well as a Thailand Pass, which usually takes three to five days to be processed.

A number of basic requirements include a Certificate of Vaccination accompanied with negative RT-PCR test results, and a general or health insurance policy with a coverage of no less than U.S. $50,000, or about 2.5 million pesos.

The tourist is also required to take an RT-PCR test upon arrival. Despite the no-quarantine feature, results of the RT-PCR test need to be secured. It usually takes overnight, and the tourist needs to wait for it at a Thailand Safety and Health Administration-accredited hotel.

If the results come out negative, the tourist will be handed an antigen test kit for self-testing on the sixth and seventh day of stay.

As part of Thailand's travel requirements, the nation allows the following vaccines: CoronaVac (Sinovac), COVILO (Sinopharm), Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Sputnik V.