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Malaysia looking to reopen
According to Reuters, Malaysia’s coronavirus recovery council said yesterday that is recommending a full reopening of borders as early as 1 March 1 without mandatory quarantine for travellers. The country is looking at how to recover financially from the pandemic and previously had a large tourist market. This seems to tie in with the aggressive marketing I have seen from Malaysian Airlines which seemed rather pointless without an opening date.
Travellers are expected to have to be screened for COVID-19 before departure and on arrival which may put people off. Apparently, they have been looking towards Thailand’s reopening model which is not a great thing! It remains to be seen exactly what that means.
However, the current agreement with Singapore that can enter Malaysia without quarantine only needs A RT-PCR test taken within 2 days before departure but you must be vaccinated or be able to prove you have had Covid. They then have a PCR test on arrival. So hopefully they follow the same model since a very high proportion of adults are vaccinated in Malaysia.
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Vietnam planning reopening
It is now looking like this spring could herald the reopening of much of Asia’s key tourist destinations with the exception of Hong Kong which I can’t see opening at all this year if they carry on with zero Covid. The country has already opened to flights from Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany in January.
I adore Vietnam so it’s great news that they are now considering reopening. The Prime Minster has said that Vietnam must retsart tourism ideally by the end of March at latest by the end of April. However, the key work here was “in a safe way”. Presumably they have realised that quarantine will not work to draw tourists back so hopefully they will focus on testing instead as they have proposed. Currently the Vietnamese Government have said that travellers must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or have recovered from the infection. A negative PCR test within 72 hours of arrival is required, as well as medical insurance that covers Covid-19 treatment with a minimum of $50,000 in coverage. Hopefully that’s all you need as that would make Vietnam an attractive proposition compared to Thailand that nows requires a second test on day 5 and quarantine in a paid hotel until the results come back.
France to relax entry for UK
According to the Telegraph, France are poised to drop testing for vaccinated arrivals from the UK and other countries outside the EU. This could be in time for half-term holidays. The details are expected to be confirmed this week. It’s all rather last minute if you ask me when they are trying to attract people to book.
Currently vaccinated Brits must take a PCR or lateral flow test to enter France in the 48 hours prior to departure. This is out of step with many other European countries that have removed the need for testing for those fully vaccinated.
3 comments
Seriously Michele, until they drop this PCR on arrival issue, people will still be put off. After my experience in Singapore with the supposedly false positive result, it was quite shocking. It’s too risky. We cancelled HKT for this month because of their erratic changing of policy too. BA cancelled our HKG flights anyway so that was helpful getting a voucher..
Like tou, we adore Vietnam, so thats looking better for next winter, hopefully. These countries need to wake up and restart their tourism. Their people need us,as much as we need their countries. Really miss Asia.
Yes I agree. I can understand it if the country has not been able to vaccinate people but once you have a high percentage of vaccinations I think you need to just get on with it. A lot of research has been fine recently to say that unless you close your border completely, travel restrictions are pretty pointless.
Nice German map of France. I’m not sure any French readers will appreciate the words Elsass Lothringen given that particular strip of land defined rather nasty Franco-German relations from 1870 onwards ????
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