Until recently, if you wanted to visit Thailand, the only way to do so was a 15-day stay in Alternative State Quarantine (also known as ASQ). This meant staying in a hotel room, only occasionally and briefly going outside to get some sunlight.
But on July 1, Thailand continues its popular Phuket Sandbox initiative. The plan is that officials have vaccinated Phuket residents to achieve so-called “herd immunity,” and now allow fully vaccinated visitors to visit the island. Visitors must book accommodation in pre-approved hotels, and cannot leave Phuket for 15 days, but otherwise they are free to visit beaches and restaurants and explore the island in the same way as they would before the pandemic.
The first step to participating in the Phuket Sandbox program is to visit the coethailand.mfa.go.th portal, where you can apply for a certificate of entry. This is a document – in addition to a visa or visa waiver – that gives you permission to participate in the Sandbox program and eventually enter Thailand.
The first steps, by bureaucratic standards, are relatively simple. In most cases, you can only apply if you are traveling from a list of countries that are considered “medium risk”. No more than 30 days before you plan to travel, you will need to download your passport, visa (if any), proof of vaccination, and proof of payment for an insurance policy that directly covers COVID-19, with a minimum coverage of $ 100,000. USA, valid for the entire period of your stay in Thailand (companies that provide this include, in particular, the Thai General Insurance Association, AXA and Luma). Preliminary approval by the Council of Europe can take up to six days.
After pre-approval, you have 15 days to submit your flight details and hotel reservations. For the first you have to fly directly to Phuket; transfer through airports elsewhere in Thailand is prohibited. Currently, airlines operating direct international flights to Phuket are Thai Airways, Emirates, El Al, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and British Airways. For the latter, accommodation is available only in one or two of the more than 400 hotels approved by the Thai Occupational Safety and Health Administration (known as SHA +), which will appear in the drop-down menu during the application process; an unofficial list can be found here https://asq.in.th/phuket-sandbox-hotels. Hotels cover a variety of budgets and locations around the island. You will also need to prepay for the three COVID-19 tests required during your stay, which cost about $ 250.
When you receive a CoE, which can take about three days or so, all you have to do is confirm the “undetected” result with the PRC COVID-19 test no more than 72 hours before you leave.
At first, at least, it seems that the government is satisfied with the way things went with the sandbox in Phuket, and moved on to the second stage of opening Thailand to tourists. The Samui Plus program includes the islands of Ko Samui, Ko Phangan and Koh Tao. The initiative provides for many of the same provisions as the Phuket Sandbox, except that certain flights from Bangkok are allowed and traffic on the island is somewhat restricted during the first week. After a week at one SHA + hotel on the island of Koh Samui, visitors can move to another island.