All travellers on international flights to Myanmar are required purchase an Inbound Travel Accident Insurance Policy with COVID-19 coverage from Myanma Insurance, according to the Ministry of Immigration and Population.
Below are screenshots of the policy coverage and costs sent by Myanma Insurance when contacted by Myanmar Financial Services Monitor.
According to the Myanma Insurance website, its insurance policies are void when claims are made in contexts of war, strike, riot or civil commotion.
International arrival quarantines reduced to 24 hours
The Ministry of Health released on 6 April a letter stating quarantine on arrival will be reduced to 24 hours for fully vaccinated travellers.
A PCR test will be carried out at the airport. Travellers will then be transported to a hotel to await the test results. If negative, the traveller can leave the hotel after 24 hours.
This follows a notice on 26 March where the quarantine period was reduced to five days for fully vaccinated arrivals, with an RDT test on day 1 and PCR test on day 4.
This itself was a change from the policy announced on 23 February, which set the quarantine requirement for vaccinated travellers at seven days.
Unvaccinated or partially travellers are still required to quarantine for seven days on arrival and take an RDT test on day 1 and a PCR test on day 6.
On 1 April, Myanmar began accepting applications for business visas.
According to a meeting led by Minister of Immigration and Population U Khin Ye said as of 4 April, 54 applications for a business visa had been received.
The meeting also discussed the status of tourism e-visas, which prior to the pandemic were available to citizens of 100 countries, however, there was no clarification on when tourist visas would become available, and at the time of writing the Ministry of Immigration and Population website continues to display a message saying such visas remain suspended.
Myanma Insurance Managing Director Daw Sanda Oo was in attendance at that meeting, where she spoke on health and travel insurance requirements.
International commercial flights are to be resumed on 17 April
Other entry requirements
Travellers must have a COVID-19 vaccination showing they have been vaccinated, at least 14 days prior to arrival, with one of the following vaccines approved by the MoH:
- CoronaVac (Sinovac Biotech Ltd.)
- AstraZeneca or Covishield (AstraZeneca & University of Oxford/SK Bioscience (Korea)/Siam BioScience/ Serum Institute of India (SII))
- Pfizer- BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine or Comirnaty (Pfizer Inc., & BioNTech)
- Janssen or Johnson & Johnson (Janssen Pharmaceuticals Companies of Johnson & Johnson)
- Moderna (ModernaTX, Inc.)
- Sinopharm or COVILO or BIBP-CorV (Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd)
- Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) (Gamaleya National Research Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology)
- Covaxin by Bharat Biotech
- Myancopharm by Ministry of Industry, Myanmar
Travellers must have a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test result issued at most 72 hours before arrival to Myanmar or a COVID-19 recovery certificate issued at most 90 days before arrival to Myanmar.
In addition, all travellers are required to purchase the Inbound Travel Accident Insurance Policy with COVID-19 coverage from Myanma Insurance.
Travellers must also submit a health declaration card to health officials at the airport upon arrival to Myanmar.
Vaccinated travellers must submit their vaccination card upon arrival.
Health officials present at the airport in Myanmar will carry out thermal screenings of all passengers.
Travellers found to be symptomatic during arrival screening, or test positive for COVID-19 during quarantine, will be immediately isolated and taken to a medical facility.
Foreign nationals shall bear the medical cost and other costs related to isolation and treatment in designated health facilities.
Travellers must carry hard copies of the relevant certificates and documents needed to enter Myanmar, which will be checked by both airlines upon departure and airport staff in Myanmar.
Tourists urged to avoid Myanmar
It is not yet known when tourist visas will become available, however, ahead of the resumption of international commercial flights, would-be tourists have been urged by travel agents and NGOs to avoid visiting Myanmar over security concerns, according to The Guardian.
Bertie Alexander Lawson, CEO of Myanmar-based boutique travel agency Sampan Travel, told the outlet that tourists signified stability, which was likely an image the authorities wanted to project.
He added that while the security risk was high, safe travel was possible “if you’re going with an operator that is taking the risk seriously.”
Jochen Meissner, founder and director of Yangon-based travel agency Uncharted Horizons Myanmar, said it was not a good idea to travel to the country. “Even here [in Yangon], every day there are bomb attacks or assassinations, [and] a lot of army on the streets.”
“I would not suggest anyone travels there,” Michael Isherwood, chair of the Burma Humanitarian Mission and program director of charity Backpack Medics said to The Guardian.
He added that opening to tourism could create an impression of normalcy when “Burma is anything but normal these days.”
According to one aid worker living in Myanmar, reopening to tourism was “an effort to promote a narrative of control and globalisation … an effort to establish the de facto authorities as being in control of the country, being legitimate.”
