Thailand's Immigration Bureau released a report announcing it will allow passengers from yachts and cruise ships to disembark on Thai soil. However, travelers will have to go through similar stringent screening procedures as air passengers.
The Immigration Bureau has since November 1, 2020, granted ten yacht operators to allow their guests to disembark and enter Thai soil. For now, the tourists are mostly from Malaysia and Singapore, according to the deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau Pol.Maj.Gen.Archayon Kraithong.
Archayon said that like any air passengers, cruisers were allowed to enter Thailand under the Special Tourist Visa arrangement, adding that entry would be granted once the passengers could present documents of the quarantine hotels. However, they were currently allowing tourists to come from COVID low-risk countries.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday (November 11), Thailand's Ministry of Justice published a report, revealing that Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn had donated baht 128 million (US$4.2 million) for the purchase of medical equipment and supplies for nineteen prisons' healthcare division. The donation is aimed at improving medical care for inmates, the department announced on the Ministry of Justice's website.
The baht 128 million donations have been the second phase following the last one on December 28 at baht 217 million (US$7.1 million). The donation was spent on purchasing 756 items of medical supplies and equipment for medical facilities at 25 prisons, 5 of them high-security ones.