Thailand and Israel increase travel restrictions

The governments of Thailand and Israel have announced plans to implement greater restrictions on travel due to concerns about rising Covid cases worldwide. The US government has also added eight more countries to its top tier Covid travel health notice.

The announcement follows a similar statement by the government of New Zealand on 21 December that it will delay its phased border reopening plans by six weeks.

Thailand suspends Test and Go quarantine waiver scheme

Thailand has announced that it will reinstate mandatory Covid-19 quarantine measures from 21 December due to concerns regarding the Omicron variant.

The government will suspend new applicants to its Test and Go quarantine waiver until at least 4 January, when the measure will be reviewed. The Test and Go programme was launched on 1 November and allowed fully vaccinated travellers from 63 low risk countries to enter Thailand without undergoing the full quarantine period.

All visitors not already registered for Test and Go will now have to undergo a mandatory hotel quarantine of up to 10 days. However, the 200,000 visitors who have already registered for the scheme will still be eligible for the waiver.
In addition, the Thai government has announced its counterpart ‘sandbox’ programme, which allowed foreign travellers to move freely within a designated location, will also be suspended in all participating areas except for the resort island of Phuket.

The announcement comes a day after the country reported its first local transmission case of the Omicron variant.

Israel to imposes new travel restrictions

Israel will also impose new international travel restrictions from Wednesday 22 December on a list of countries following government approval of Health Ministry recommendations on 20 December.

The edict will add Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey and the US to Israel’s ‘red list’, and will effectively ban Israelis from travelling to these countries without government approval.

In addition, Israeli citizens entering Israel from these countries will have to undergo a minimum one-week quarantine, even if they are fully vaccinated.

Foreign nationals have been restricted from entering Israel since the end of November, with few exceptions.

The new additions will join an existing list of countries including Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain, the UK, the UAE as well as most of Africa.

US CDC adds eight countries to its ‘avoid travel’ list

The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has added another batch of eight countries to its Level 4 ‘avoid travel’ list from 21 December, reflecting ongoing fears about the Omicron variant.

The new countries include Spain, Finland, Monaco, San Marino and Monaco in Europe; Lebanon and Chad in Africa; and the Caribbean island nation of Bonaire.

A Level 4 travel health notice is the highest of the CDC’s risk categories, and reflects a Covid level of more than 500 new infections per 28 days, per 100,000 people.

This brings the list of countries designated as Level 4 to 88, and follows the addition of Italy, Greenland and Mauritius to the Level 4 list a week before the current batch, with a further seven – France, Portugal, Liechtenstein, Cyprus, Andorra, Tanzania and Jordan – the week before that.

Omicron has become the dominant Covid variant in the US, accounting for 73 per cent of all new infections.