Phuket adds 300 hotel quarantine rooms as infections rise
Phuket is adding 300 hotel isolation rooms for foreign travellers who test positive for Covid-19, after a marked increase in infections. Last week, Phuket’s daily infection rate rose from 238 new cases on Wednesday to 742 on Sunday.
The Phuket Tourism Association found that some tourists had to wait for insurance claims or alternative quarantine accommodation after testing positive. Not all had funds available to do this, it added.
In response, it established the Travellers Communication Isolation (TCI) centre to accommodate this group of tourists. The move will see 300 Hotel Isolation Rooms open on Wednesday (January 12) at three Phuket hotels.
The Communicable Disease Committee has instructed Phuket hotels to offer 5 per cent of their rooms to the Hotel Isolation Room programme for tourists who test positive.
Phuket’s infection rate is rising among both locals and foreign tourists under the sandbox and Test & Go schemes, according to authorities. Those arriving on Phuket are screened twice, with 1 per cent currently testing positive in the first test and about 4 per cent in the second.
Phuket is still receiving about 4,200 bookings per day from foreign tourists, according to the tourism association. Most arrivals are from Germany, Russia, the UK, US and France.
