Here is an update from James, who was told to quarantine for 14 days after he became a close contact to a friend who had tested positive. They had shared the same hotel transfer car from the airport. Richard Barrow



Here is an update from James, who was told to quarantine for 14 days after he became a close contact to a friend who had tested positive. They had shared the same hotel transfer car from the airport. 

My friend was discharged after 10 days. His hospital bill came to 112,000 baht which was covered by the insurance. He had no symptoms at all throughout his entire stay. 

For myself I was really struggling to get answers, I was always refused a retest and it got to a point where the hospital just started to ignore my questions. I even managed to order an ATK from 7/11 which proved I was negative but that made no difference. It was only when I contacted the department of disease control and explained my situation that I managed to make progress although they also confirmed that the guidelines say to quarantine for 14 days if you're a close contact.

After further explaining some key points about my situation which I believed gave me the right of a retest they then agreed and contacted the hotel and hospital. I was finally retested on day 10 and allowed to checkout as soon as I received my negative result.

How is it fair that a positive person with no symptoms only has to quarantine for 10 days but I'm expected to wait 14 days even though I continued to test negative? Once I asked that, the next email I received was the confirmation that I will be retested and able to leave once a negative test is confirmed.

I believe it probably helped that I knew the positive person so I could show them his discharge certificate etc.

My advice would be to  anyone else travelling in to Thailand to ask the hotel their booking, 

1. What happens if you test positive? 

2. What happens if you test negative but are a close contact? 

3. How many days would you be expected to quarantine for? 

4. When would you be allowed a retest? 

Also as I didn't have a Thai phone and the hotel would never transfer me to 1422. I found a number which could be called from an outside number which might be help to others it was +6625903000/3157