Seventy rich foreign tourists travelling in a “bubble” will enter Thailand on Sunday and go into villa quarantine at an upscale resort complex in Phuket, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.
Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), said they would be the first tourists to make use of villa quarantine.
They will be staying at Sri Panwa Hotel in Phuket, which advertises itself as a 5 star hotel and resort with private beach.
“Although the government approved measures for villa quarantine long ago….their arrival will be the debut of villa quarantine,” Dr Taweesilp said.
The hotel management had provided details of its villa quarantine measures for the 70 visitors.
According to Dr Taweesilp, they are rich nationals of Brazil, Canada, France, Denmark, Ukraine and the United States.
They have been travelling together in a “bubble”, on a chartered aircraft, and have been repeatedly tested for Covid-19 in the countries they visited. They will arrive from Indonesia.
A Sri Panwa representative presented the personal profiles of the tourists to a sub-committee of CCSA on Wednesday morning.
For the first five days of their 14-day quarantine the visitors will stay in their rooms. After that, they can leave their rooms and make use of the facilities within the grounds of the hotel, Dr Taweesilp said.
“If villa quarantine is successfully implemented, meaning there will not be a Covid-19 case, or infection can be effectively controlled, we will be a tourist destination in the new era,” the spokesman said.
Bangkok Post
