Reuters has quoted Minister of Public Health of Thailand’s Anutin Charnvirakul as saying that there is no need to present vaccination certificates and unvaccinated people can enter the country.

The information is contrary to the notice released by Thai’s aviation management authority on January 7 which said that travelers must be certified as being vaccinated to enter the country.

Prior to that, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) requested international travelers, including Vietnamese, to show evidence of at least two vaccination shots. The regulation was applied to passengers of all flights landing in the country from 1am on January 9 (local time). 

Passengers can instead present certificates proving that they have recovered from Covid-19 within six months. Those who have not been vaccinated have to explain the reasons. The new regulation does not apply to Thai citizens and transit passengers.

Airlines have the responsibility of checking documents before letting passengers get onboard, and returning passengers without legal documents to the departure points.

The regulation is applied to passengers aged 18 and above, valid until January 31.

The information about the requirements on entry set by the Thai government is an issue of concern for Vietnamese. On January 9, passengers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport faced problems when following procedures to travel to Thailand as they had not prepared enough documents as per the new regulation, mostly because they could not access PC-Covid apps.

Some passengers were requested to take other flights while waiting for relatives to bring the necessary documents and vaccination certificates to the airport.

“I am going to fly to Thailand on January 11. However, the information about the procedures to enter Thailand has changed so regularly these days, which makes us confused,” Ha Phuong from Hai Phong said.

According to travel firms, the requirement on vaccination certificates won’t affect Vietnamese travelers too much, because most Vietnamese people have got at least two vaccine shots and they have vaccine passports/vaccination certificates already.

“Tomorrow (January 10), we will serve a group of travelers to Thailand. We are constantly updating information from Thailand. We have asked clients to prepare vaccination certificates. they can easily install apps, therefore, the requirement won’t cause any problem,” said Nguyen Huu cuong, CEO of Trang An Travel International.

Bui Thanh Tu, marketing director of Bestprice Travel Technology JSC, said the constant changes in entry procedures will raise some difficulties for elderly clients who are not good at using technology devices. 

Linh Trang