New Covid variant forces Thailand to close its doors to eight African countries
Thailand is shutting its doors from December 1 to visitors from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the Public Health Ministry announced on Saturday.
The ministry has also disabled every method of registration to enter Thailand available in these countries.
Those who have already been authorised to enter Thailand will be quarantined for 14 days.
This decision was made in response to reports of a new, more easily transmissible Covid-19 variant being reported on November 24 in South Africa. The variant, named Omicron, has since been spotted in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel.
