Masks still needed in parks, says ministry as it eyes easing travel measures
The Public Health Ministry rejected rumours that it will ask the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) to let people remove their facemasks in public parks.
“This is a misunderstanding stemming from the National Communicable Disease Committee [NCDC]’s policy to adjust Covid-19 preventive measures for when the disease is declared endemic,” Public Health permanent secretary Dr Kiattiphum Wongrajit said on Thursday.
“The ministry has not approved this policy yet,” he said, adding that NCDC is designing measures for the transition period before Covid-19 is declared endemic in July.
“Once the number of daily infections slows down, people in non-risky groups will be allowed to remove their facemask when visiting certain public areas such as public parks,” he said. “However, this is only if there are no new mutated variants that can cause severe symptoms.”
Kiattiphum said on Friday, the ministry will encourage the CCSA to consider cancelling the requirement of a negative RT-PCR test result for new arrivals into the country under the Test & Go scheme and reduce the Covid-19 insurance coverage to US$10,000.
Under the new proposed rule, tourists can take an RT-PCR test upon arrival with no test required before departure. However, they will need to take a rapid ATK test on their fifth day in Thailand. Also, the mandatory Covid-19 insurance coverage for foreign arrivals will be reduced from $50,000 to $10,000 to reflect the current cost of treating Covid-19 patients in Thailand, which has dropped from about 1 million baht per person to about 20,000 baht per person.