Singapore to ease Covid-19 measures for non-VTL travellers

SINGAPORE — Singapore will ease Covid-19 measures for travellers outside the vaccinated travel lane (VTL) arrangement, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Friday (Dec 31).

From 11.59pm on Jan 7, 2022, non-VTL travellers from Category 2 to 4 countries will no longer need to take on-arrival coronavirus tests.

Travellers from Category 2 and 3 countries are required to serve stay-home notices at home for seven and 10 days respectively. Those from Category 4 countries need to serve 10 days at a dedicated facility.

The earlier requirement for on-arrival tests "was to pick up the Omicron cases early, as the variant was new, and we wanted to learn more about it", said MOH in a statement.

"As we have gathered more information on the Omicron variant, we have further assessed that on-arrival tests for non-VTL travellers... are no longer required," it added.

They will have to test negative on a Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at the end of their notice period, "further reducing the risk of onward transmission", said the ministry.

Travellers from Hong Kong, Macau, China and Taiwan — places under Category 1 — who are not required to serve stay-home notices must still take a PCR test on arrival.

7-DAY TESTING REGIME

VTL travellers will continue to be required to take Covid-19 tests up till day seven of their arrival. This enhanced measure will be extended by four weeks from its initial cut-off date of Jan 2, 2022.

As of Thursday, Singapore has detected 912 imported Omicron cases, 685 of whom were detected through the enhanced testing regime for VTL travellers.

"The enhancement has proved effective in detecting imported Omicron cases among VTL travellers and reducing onward transmission," said MOH. CNA

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