Thai health officials pushed back against hopes a ‘vaccine passport’ would result in an end in quarantine on arrival for travellers.
Vaccine passports have been touted as a way to allow travellers to enter Thailand if they are vaccinated and skip mandatory quarantine.
Thailand’s Department of Disease Control Director General Opas Karnkawinpong says that is unlikely as there is still no conclusive evidence that vaccinated people do not transmit the virus.
"Although Thailand and other countries allow Covid-19 vaccines, no one actually knows at this point the answer to the key question as to whether these vaccines are 100% effective in Covid-19 prevention," Opas said.
For the time being the mandatory 14 day quarantine is still the best protection, he said.
"The reason is there still isn’t sufficient information to conclude that the chance is zero for travellers already vaccinated against Covid-19 to be able to spread the virus to others It remains uncertain even for how long such Covid-19 shots will last and how many repeat shots will actually be needed."
To help speed up a recovery, industry groups have called on the government to prioritise tourism industry front-liners for the first wave of vaccinations.
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Editor
