Judging by the online response, Thais remain divided over the decision, announced by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, to allow foreign travellers to enter the country from November 1st, provided they are fully vaccinated, test negative for COVID-19 and arrive from one of the countries on the government’s approved list.

Virologist Dr. Anan Jongkaewwattana asked, if 100,000 foreign tourists arrive in Thailand in a day, how health officials would be able to administer such a large number of RT-PCR tests effectively.

With just under 3 weeks to go, daily new COVID-19 infections in Thailand so far this month are averaging 10,574.

Daily new infections (excluding unconfirmed positive ATK results) and deaths:

• October 1st: 11,754 cases, 123 deaths.
• October 2nd: 11,375 cases, 87 deaths.
• October 3rd: 10,828 cases, 77 deaths.
• October 4th: 9,930 cases, 97 deaths.
• October 5th: 9,869 cases, 92 deaths.
• October 6th: 9,866 cases, 102 deaths.
• October 7th: 11,200 cases, 113 deaths.
• October 8th: 11,140 cases, 116 deaths.
• October 9th: 10,630 cases, 73 deaths.
• October 10th: 10,817 cases, 84 deaths.
• October 11th: 10,035 cases, 60 deaths.
• October 12th: 9,445 cases, 84 deaths.

Unconfirmed positive ATK test results:

• October 1st: 5,150 cases.
• October 2nd: 2,906 cases.
• October 3rd: 2,839 cases.
• October 4th: 1,743 cases.
• October 5th: 3,495 cases.
• October 6th: 5,652 cases.
• October 7th: 4,783 cases.
• October 8th: 5,225 cases.
• October 9th: 7,421 cases.
• October 10th: 10,055 cases.
• October 11th: 2,263 cases.
• October 12th: 1,368 cases.