While the government suspended the Test & Go scheme in order to curb the spread of the Omicron variant last month, people who are already approved are still trickling in, and many have come as part of the Sandbox programme. Despite throttling the influx of international travellers, the number of Covid-19 infections brought in from abroad has been steadily rising, and the infection rate among those who arrive has sharply increased, with Russia leading the pack.
In November when the government reopen the borders across Thailand to international travellers with 3 different entry schemes depending on country of origin and vaccination status, out of about 133,000 international arrivals, the rate of infection was just 0.13%. In December as more people began travelling to Thailand, that infection rate tripled to 0.45% with nearly 291,000 arrivals.
But so far in the first half of January,…
